HertfordshireTompkins, Herbert W. (Herbert Winckworth)
History
Hertfordshire
Tompkins, Herbert W. (Herbert Winckworth)
Hertfordshire (England) -- Guidebooks
KING'S WALDEN (about 5 miles S.W. from Hitchin) has an ancient church,
carefully restored in 1868. It stands in the park of _The Bury_, a large
mansion, Elizabethan in style. The embattled tower has masonry probably
older than fourteenth century, and much of the nave arcade is Norman.
Note the sculptured capitals of pillars, curiously similar to those at
Old Shoreham. The chancel arch is E. Perp.; probably substituting its
E.E. predecessor on very close lines; the corbels bear busts thought to
resemble Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou. In the chancel are a double
piscina, and two E.E. lancet windows. The chancel screen is a really
wonderful piece of work, in excellent preservation. In the N. aisle is
an ambry, and in the S. aisle a sedile and two piscinae, and on the N.
side another ambry. The font stands at the E. end of S. aisle, formerly
the Chapel of the Virgin Mary.
_Kinsbourne Green_ is on the Bedfordshire border, 2 miles N.E. from
Harpenden. The Kennels of the Hertfordshire Hunt are here. The hamlet is
close to Luton Hoo Park.
_Kitter's Green_ is a hamlet 1 mile S.E. from King's Langley Station
(L.&N.W.R.). Abbot's Langley old church (_q.v._) is 1/2 mile N.
[Illustration: KNEBWORTH PARK]
KNEBWORTH, famous as the home of Bulwer Lytton, lies on high ground 1
mile W. from the station (G.N.R.). The village is small, and in itself
of little interest; it was formerly called Chenepeworde, and
Knebbeworth. It is, however, ancient, and was valued in _Domesday Book_.
Sir Thomas Bouchier, K.G., who fought for the Earl of Richmond at
Bosworth Field, sold the manor of Knebbeworth to Robert Lytton, Esq.,
Keeper of the Wardrobe to Henry VII., whose son William was buried in
this parish. This Sir Robert began to erect a huge Tudor mansion on the
site of a fortress which had stood since the days of the Conquest; it
took several generations to complete it. The present house is the result
of the work of demolition and reconstruction in the days of the
novelist's mother, and of the enlarging of 1883, when the S. wing and
entrance were added; it is pseudo-Gothic. The castellated parapet,
cupola-topped turrets, griffins upon pinnacles and many mullioned
windows are noticeable features from the grounds. Within, the finest
sight is the grand old banqueting hall, with its gallery for minstrels,
its Elizabethan oak-screen, and wainscots by Inigo Jones. Around, on all
sides, are suits of armour, some dating from the days of Henry VII. The
room is associated with memories of Elizabeth, who was sometimes
entertained at Knebworth by Sir Rowland Lytton, whom she knighted; he
was buried in the chancel of the little church in the park (see below)
in 1582. The room in which Elizabeth slept on these occasions is still
shown as "Queen Elizabeth's Chamber," and contains a finely carved
over-mantel (oak) and an oaken bedstead of colossal proportions. Among
the distinguished guests so often entertained here by Bulwer Lytton were
Dickens, Forster and Jerrold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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