_St._ ALBAN’S, a large and very ancient town in Hertfordshire, 21 miles from London, was so called from St. Alban, who suffered in the persecution under Dioclesian, and being afterwards canonized, and interred on a hill in the neighbourhood of this town, a monastery was erected and dedicated to him by King Offa. King Edward I. erected a magnificent cross in memory of Queen Eleanor; and King Edward VI. incorporated this town by a charter, granting the inhabitants a Mayor, a Steward, a Chamberlain, and ten Burgesses: but the Mayor and Steward are here the only Justices of peace. Here are three churches, besides the ancient cathedral called St. Alban’s, belonging to the monastery, which is now a parish church. In this ancient edifice is a funeral monument and effigies of King Offa, its founder, who is represented seated on his throne; and underneath is the following inscription: Fundator Ecclesiæ circa annum 793. Quem male depictum, et residentem cernitis alte Sublimem solio, MERCIUS OFFA fuit. That is, _The founder of the church, about the year 793. Whom you behold ill-painted on his throne Sublime, was once for_ MERCIAN OFFA _known._ On the east side stood the shrine of St. Alban, where the following short inscription is still to be seen; S. ALBANUS VEROLAMENSIS, ANGLORUM PROTOMARTYR, 17 Junii 293. In the south isle near the above shrine is the monument of Humphry, brother to King Henry V. commonly distinguished by the title of the Good Duke of Gloucester. It is adorned with a ducal coronet, and the arms of France and England quartered. In niches on one side are seventeen Kings; but in the niches on the other side there are no statues remaining. The inscription, which alludes to the pretended miraculous cure of a blind man detected by the Duke, is as follows: Piæ Memoriæ V. Opt. Sacrum. Hic jacet HUMPHREDUS, Dux ille Glocestrius olim, HENRICI Sexti protector, fraudis ineptæ Detector, dum ficta notat miracula cœci. Lumen erat patriæ, columen venerabile regni, Pacis amans, Musisque favens melioribus; unde Gratum opus Oxonio, quæ nunc schola sacra refulget. Invida sed mulier regno, regi, sibi nequam, Abstulit hunc, humili vix hoc dignata sepulcro. Invidia rumpente tamen, post funera vivit. Which has been thus translated: