The Youth Of Solomon.

BASILICA ANGLIC-ANA—III . ST . ALBANS . MIDWAY between Watford and Berkhampstead , on the line of the North Western Bail way , are situated the city and ancient abbey church of St . Albans , placed on arisiug ground , and overlooking a wide landscape truly English in its

character , being interspersed with small woods and copses , abundant shining streams and watercourses , which " Slow winding through the level plain Of spacious nicails with cattle spriuklcd o ' er , Conduct the eye along their sinuous course Delighted ; while there lies a spacious map Of hill and valley interposed between . "

St . Albans is tho centre of a locality rich in historical reminiscences . Within a few miles is King ' s Langley , where Henry tho Third had a palace in which he frequently resided , and to which he added a priory in which Biers Gavcston , the favourite of Henry the Second was buried , and wherein also nxq entombed the remains of the unfortunate Richard

the Second . At Berkhampstead the Conqueror met the Abbot of St . Alban ' s with a crowd of Saxon chiefs aud prelates who had prepared to oppose his progress ; William , however , falling upon his knees in the " holy presence , " swore " to rule according to tho ancient laws and customs of the country . " He had scarcely drawn breath after so

profound a perjury , when he bestowed the castle of Berkhampstead and the surrounding lands upon his half brother , Robert Morcton , whom ho had previously created Earl of Cornwall .

At the edge ol the landscaric is the little town of Ivmghoc , where , in a largo cruciform church , the work of his own hands , is the tomb of Henry de Blois , that great church building Bishop of Winchester , and brother of King Stephen , who having rebuilt the old cathedral of Winchester , founded tho monastery aud hospital of St . Cross , of which , according to cotemporary testimony , tho revenues have become fabulous .

St . Albans was one of the principal towns of the ancient Britons , and in that character was one of tho first which invited the thirst for conquest of the invading Romans , who besieged and took it , and twenty years afterwards raised it to the rank of " city , " under the title Verulam or Vcrulaminium . They invested it with a wall of Itoman tilework , a

portion of which remains to this day , and is called Gorhambury Block . But according to Tacitus , they made but indifferent use of their conquest . Cratus , a lieutenant of Suetonius , excited the Briton population to an uncontrollable pitch of fury ; their territory was taken away from their chiefs , and their households plundered . It was at St . Albans that Boudicea , the queen of the Iccni , writhing under unheard of wrongs , assembled round her the remains of her

people , and falling upon the Roman legionaries quartered in the city of St . Albans , cut them to pieces , and put the execrable Cratus to flight , calling the proconsul from his successes in tho north avid west . Her triumph was but shortlived , and an exterminating massacre followed upon the return of the main body of the Roman army from the Isle of Anglesea . Againhowever , she gathered round her the

, rcuinaiib of her people , and led them to the attack , reminding them of their and her own wrongs . Dion the historian , has described her draped in a many coloured robe , with a massive chain , of gold around her nock , her yellow hair descending to her feet , her form majestic , aud her countenance stern , and imperious . She is represented as appealing from her two

injured daughters to the populace , and exciting to a last energetic effort , in which however she was defeated , and ended her career by poison , A . D . 61 . Her body is supposed 1 > y some ( but the evidence is far from satisfactory ) to rest in St . Albans . It was in reference to this campaign that Tacitus used the celebrated words— " They ( the Britons ) are easy to rule , but under injury their temper is quick , sudden , and impetuous . They may be made obedient , but they can never be reduced to slavery . "

Tho name St . Albans is one of purely Christian origin and tradition . In the Romish martyrology we are told that Albau was born a Briton , but became a soldier in the Roman legions , and was afterwards converted to Christianity , for which he suffered martyrdom under Diocletian , in A . D . 293 , or according to others , 304 . He was then the first native of these islands that suffered for bis faithand the inscrition

, p under the spot above which his shrine used to be -placed , reads , " Albanus Verolamensis , Anyloruni Protomarlyrus , . D . 293 . " Of the ancient abbey of St . Albans there remain only the abbey church and gateway which were purchased of Edward the Sixth by the corporation and inhabitantsand

appropri-, ated to parochial purposes . The old edifice , however , is one of great antiquity , dating from a time long before the conquest . Indeed it was cotemporary with tho first St . Paul's above Ludgate , and St . Peter ' s in Thorney Island . It boasts of originating in nearly the same manner , namely , from kingly penitence . Offa , King of Mercia , the same of whom mention

has been made in previous papers , resolved , stricken with remorse for the murder oflDthelbert King of the East Angles , to erect a shrine to St . Alban at Holmehurst , in the year 795 . This establishment he largely endowed and enriched with costly presents . It flourished for nearly seven centuries , and grew so wealthy that the kings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were entertained by its abbots in a princely fashion

which they themselves could not excel . The Roman tiles with which the city was originally built , were employed at various periods to repair and reconstruct this great monastery of the Benedictines . That portion of it which at present remains , is composed of various styles of architecture , indeed so remarkable is this that we find the circular and pointed

arch in different sides , and the rudest specimens of Saxon architecture placed beside the more refined form and workmanship of the Norman era . Of the orig inal dimensions some idea may be formed from tho present proportions of the existing church . It is like other ancient English churches , cruciformand measures six hundred feet at the intersection ,

, of the transepts ; each transept measures one hundred and eighty foot . The height of the tower is one hundred and forty-four feet , and the nave is two hundred and seventeen feet wide . The revenues of tho abbey of St . Albans wore computed in the thirteenth century at £ 2 , 500 per annum , at that time an enormous sum . The number of illustrious

personages interested in this ancien t church is very great . In one of the side walls are niches of seventeen kings who were patrons of the abbey ; most conspicuous is the monument of Humphry , Duke of Gloucester , who , to distinguish him from Richard , afterwards the third of that name , King of England , was called the " good " Duke of Gloucester . But there is another church , St . Michael ' s , which derives a melancholy interest from the circumstance of its being the last resting place of Francis Lord Bacon and Verulam .

"That wisest , greatest , meanest of mankind . " In that church is the monument of the great philosopher and statesman . Here he was carried from his residence at Gorhambury , where he retired after his impeachment by the peers . There is a sad interest attaching to his last ajmeal to the king , in which ho says , " I sec my approaching ruin .

There is no mercy in a multitude . Those who now strike at your chancellor will strike at your crown . I am the first , I hope I may not be the last sacrifice . " This was penned in 1 G 2 G . Twenty-three years later , Charles I . was brought to the block . And later , the degraded chancellor exclaimed , in the despair of a broken heart , " It is my own act , my lords , be merciful to a broken reed . " How applicable arc the beautiful lines of Byron : —

" And the soft quiet hamlet where he dwelt Is one of that complexion which is made Tor those who their mortality have felt ; A home and refuge from their hopes decayed ,