In a piece of ground called the BURY FIELD, at the south-west corner of Ware, in February and March, 1802, at about the depth of three feet, were found four Stone Coffins, each of them formed of one mass of stone, and hewn with tolerable squareness; each lid was also of one piece. Three of them were lying within twelve inches of each other, but the fourth was at the distance of twenty feet. The bodies that had been interred in them, appeared to have been embedded in lime: the bones were mostly in regular order, and either of a yellow or deep red-brown color. In one of the coffins, the impression of the winding-sheet appeared in the lime, which adhered to the side; and the skull found in the same coffin had some remains of short and tufty hair on it, at the back, and about the ears. The length of the coffins varied from seven feet three, to six feet seven; the general thickness of the sides was about three and four inches. The stone of which they were made had a yellowish hue, and was full of fossil shells. "In the mould was found one small copper coin of the Lower Empire, Constantine the Great, or Constantius; head laureate. Reverse, two Victories supporting a shield, on which was the usual inscription, VOTA PR, or VOT. x."

WARE PARK, the seat of Thomas Hope Byde, Esq. is very pleasantly situated on an eminence, commanding the rich meadows which extend between Ware and Hertford. The ancient ManorHouse, which had been the retirement of the Fanshaws, and the occasional residence of their predecessors in the possession of the manor, was pulled down by Thomas Byde, Esq. with the Chapel and long gallery; and a new mansion, in the modern style, was erected by the same gentleman on the acclivity of a hill. This is elegantly fitted up, and forms the present residence of the family. The Park and grounds are well diversified, and are rendered extremely pleasant by the contiguity of the rivers Lea and Rib. During the time the manor was possessed by Sir Henry Fanshaw, the flower

* See account of this discovery, with drawings, and admeasurements of the coffins, communicated by Mr. Gough to the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1802.

flower-garden appears to have beeu an object of his peculiar atten tion; and Sir Henry Wotton styles it, in his Essay on the Elements of Architecture, published in the Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, "a delicate, and diligent curiosity, surely without parallel among foreign nations,"

SIR RICHARD FANSHAW, the tenth child of the above Sir Henry, was born in the ancient Manor-House at Ware, in the year 1607. He received his education at Cambridge; and having increased his address and acquirements by travelling into foreign states, was appointed Ambassador to the Court of Spain, by Charles the First, in 1635. Here he continued till the commencement of the Civil War, when returning to England, he took a very active part in the Royal cause; and, in 1644, had the degree of LL. D. conferred on him by the University of Oxford. About the same time, also, he was appointed Secretary to the Prince of Wales. At the battle of Worcester, in 1651, he was taken by the Parliament's army, and being closely imprisoned in London, the rigors of his captivity brought on a severe illness, on which he was permitted to retire into the country, after engaging not to extend his walks beyond the circuit of five miles. During this retirement, he spent some time at Ware Park, and employed his leisure hours in translating Guarini's Pastor Fido, or Faithful Shepherd; and the Lusiad of Camoens: he also made various translations from the Latin Poets, &c. In 1659, he went to the exiled King at Breda, and received the honor of Knighthood. After the Restoration, he was appointed Envoy-Extraordinary to the Court of Portugal, where he negociated the match between the King and the Infanta, Catherina of Braganza. In 1664, he was sent Ambassador to Madrid, where, after conducting the affairs of his mission with great ability and credit, he died in June, 1666. His body was afterwards brought to England by his widow, and buried in Ware Church, where a monument has been erected to his memory, and inscribed with a long epitaph in Latin, stating various particulars of his family and life.”

In

This epitaph is to the following import. In a vault near this mo nument lies the body of the noble Sir Richard Fanshaw, Knt. and Bart.

of

In the meadows opposite to Ware Park, on the south-east, are the springs of CHADWELL, the proper source of the New River. These are concentrated in a small pool, or bason, surrounded by a light railing, from which the stream slowly issues in its course towards London, and is swelled at a little distance by a cut from the river Lea. This circumstance is thus poetically noticed in Scott's poem of 'Amwell:'

Old Lea meanwhile,

Beneath his mossy grot, o'erhung with boughs
Of poplar quiv'ring in the breeze, surveys
With eye indignant, his diminish'd tide,
That laves yon ancient Priory's wall, and shows

In its clear mirror Ware's inverted roofs.

HERTFORD

Is a town of considerable antiquity, but of uncertain origin; though it is known to have attained importance very early in the Saxon times; and a Synod is recorded to have been held here as early as the year 670, or 673. Its situation on the Ermin-Street,

and

of the ancient family of the Fanshaws, of Ware Park, Hertfordshire, and tenth child of Sir Henry Fanshaw. He married Anne, eldest daugh❤ ter of Sir John Harrisson, Knt. of Balls, in the same county, and by her had six sons, and eight daughters; of whom Richard, Catherine, Margaret, Anne, and Elizabeth, survived him.-A man most excellent for the gentleness of his manners, the brightness of his learning, and his constant loyalty. In time past, a joyful exile, he boldly shared the calamities of his most serene king, Charles the Second; and was made by him Secretary at War. After the happy restoration of the monarchy, he was constituted Master of the Requests, Latin Secretary, and a Privy Councellor both for England and Ireland; and was elected a Burgess for the University of Cambridge. He was also appointed his Majesty's Ambassador to the courts of Portugal and Spain; at which last, having executed his commission with great spirit, he changed a most splendid life for a lamented death. This monument, and the vault, were built by his most sorrowful wife, who also brought over his body by land from Madrid. He died on the sixteenth of June, 1666, aged fifty-nine.

The more particular history of the New River is reserved for the article New River Head, in the description of Middlesex.

and on a ford of the river Lea, is supposed, by Salmon and others, to have occasioned its present name, which is thought to be a corruption from Here-Ford; that is, the Army's Ford; an etymology that receives support from the name of the town being frequently written Hereford by the Saxon authors, and in charters to monasteries. The conjecture that the appellation Hertford, or Hartford, was derived from Heort-ford, or the Ford of Harts, seems much too fanciful to be admitted, though strengthened by the arms of the town, a Hart couchant at a Ford; which arms, it should be remembered, were not assumed till many centuries after the Saxon writers had recorded this place by the name of Hereford, and Hertford.

Dr. Heylin supposes Hertford to have been a principal residence of the East Saxon Kings; but, however this may be, it was certainly of sufficient consequence to give name to the shire, on the division made about the time of the Great Alfred; and it has ever since continued to be the county town. After the Danes were driven from this neighbourhood, which they had very early infested, through the facility which the river Lea afforded to their shipping, a CASTLE was built here by Edward the Elder, about the year 909. Edvardus Rex,' says Henry of Huntingdon, 'anno nono Regni sui, construxit Herefordiam Castrum non immensum inter Beneficam, et Mimeram, et Luye flumina non profunda, sed clarissima.' The same King is also recorded to have built and fortified the town, which had probably been wholly despoiled and ruined by the Danes. 'Hoc anno,' are the words of the Saxon Chronicle, under the year 913, circa Martini Festum jussit Eadweardus Rex axædificari aquilonarem urbem apud Heorotfordam inter Mimeran, Benefican, et Lygean:-interim aliqua pars copiarum erexit urbem apud Heorotfordam ab australi parte Lygea:'from which it appears, that the north part of the town was that first built by Edward, and the southern part the last.

At the time of the Domesday Survey, Hertford contained 146 Burgesses, and had two Churches: the lands and houses were then divided

* Salmon's Herts, p. 29.

+ Lib. V. p. 353.