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-- These two letters I and T, Joined together as you see, Make a dwelling-house for me. JOHN THORPE. But I remember seeing a notice of this able man and his eccentricity in an old book, where he wrote a rhyming epitaph upon himself. Some of his friends were asked by him in his last illness to compose one that should rhyme, and be very short, and he fairly eclipsed all their productions by his own, “Thorpe’s corpse.” This architect seems to have resided in Paris for some little time, and been employed in designing alterations for the Luxembourg, in the Faubourg St. Germain. This volume in the Soane Museum contains a number of plans, some of which have been reproduced by Richardson and others.[4] The Tudor sovereigns especially favoured Hertfordshire. The children of Henry VIII. lived at Hunsdon; and at Hatfield Palace, now the residence of the Marquis of Salisbury, resided Edward VI. and Elizabeth. Cardinal Wolsey had an estate at Cheshunt, near Waltham. [Illustration: AYLESBURY, BUCKS.]