[Illustration: PICTURESQUE GABLE, HERTFORD.]
house that says “old homestead” on the very face of it. Formerly it was a large farm-house, and it has more recently been altered internally to suit the convenience of a retired citizen. The chimneys and gables stand out with great boldness and effect. The capital town of Hertford is small, and though its records lead us back to great antiquity, even to the early days of Saxon rule, there is little of antiquity now to interest the traveller. It is, indeed, a well-built modern town, with good streets, numerous public buildings, and several churches. It was not without a little difficulty that the gable here represented was selected, though this is rather ingenious in its way. An octagonal window which rises from the ground stops under a projecting storey, and on the same line an oriel window is thrown out. This again stops at the eaves, over it is a gable with a double window. The proportions might possibly be somewhat improved, but there is much ingenuity in managing the various stops and faces. These indeed might be applied on a much more important scale.
St. Albans is situated in this county, and is in the hundred of Cashio. The ancient name was Verulam, a name taken from the small river Ver, upon whose banks it is built. The Abbey of St. Albans rose in importance before any in the kingdom, not excluding even Glastonbury, and from its walls the earliest printed books in England were issued. The curious clock tower here engraved stands at the junction of two streets, and is not, as might be supposed, some part of an old church, indeed it is said never to have had any other use than the one for which it is at present used.
The vicinity we are now in reminds us of the name of the man who probably invented the style of architecture which we call Elizabethan, that is the curiously broken classic style so peculiar to England, and now so popular. Thorpe designed Hatfield, Wollaton, Holland House, and many other well-known residences, and it is almost by an accident that his name has escaped oblivion. He left behind him a large volume of designs, which is now in the Soane museum. This volume was lent by the Earl of Warwick to Horace Walpole for his work on the _Anecdotes of English Art_, and Walpole writes of it--“By the favour of the Earl of Warwick I am enabled to bring to light a very capital artist, who designed or improved most of the principal and palatial edifices erected in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., even though his name was totally forgotten.” It is believed that his name was not known to Wren, Vanbrugh, or Gibbs, and yet he was the author of a style that has been introduced into every county in England. This folio of designs was purchased by Soane. Among other plans is one of a house fantastically designed for himself, forming the letters I T joined by a corridor, and under is the eccentric couplet--