Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/174

Rh 156 S A I S A I north-west of London and 5 miles west from Hatfield. The abbey or cathedral church, in some respects one of the most remarkable ecclesiastical buildings in England, is described below. St Michael's church to the west of the town, within the site of the ancient Verulamium, was originally constructed in the 10th century partly out of the ruins of the town. Considerable portions of the Norman building remain ; the church contains the tomb of Lord Chancellor Bacon. St Stephen's church, dating from the same period, contains some good examples of Norman architecture. St Peter's church has been in great part rebuilt, but the nave of Early Perpendicular remains. The (restored) clock-house in the market-place was built by one of the abbots in the reign of Henry VIII. There is an Edward VI. grammar-school. The principal modern buildings are the corn exchange, the court-house, the prison, the public baths, and the public library. There are a number of charities and benevolent institutions, in- cluding the hospital and dispensary, and the almshouses founded in 1734 by Sarah duchess of Marlborough. The principal industries are the manufacture of silk and straw- plaiting. There are also breweries and ironfoundries. The population of the municipal borough (area, 997 acres, extended in 1879) in 1881 was 10,931; the population of the same area in 1871 was estimated at 8239. Not only is the cathedral "a text-book of mediaeval architec- ture from its beginning to its ending," but it "is still in style, material, and feeling that one among our great churches which most thoroughly carries us back to Old English and even to earlier days " (Freeman). Shortly after the execution of Britain's proto- martyr, St Alban, probably in 303, a church was built on the spot. In 793 Offa of Mercia, who professed to have discovered the relics of the martyr, founded in his honour a monastery for Benedictines, which became one of the richest and most important houses of that order in the kingdom. The abbots Ealdred and Ealmer at the close of the 10th century began to break up the ruins of the old Roman city of Verulamium for materials to construct a new abbey church ; but on account of the unsettled character of the times its erection was delayed till the time of William the Conqueror, when Paul of Caen, a relative of Archbishop Lanfranc, was in 1077 appointed abbot. Canterbury as built by Lanfranc was almost a reproduction of St Stephen's, Caen ; but Paul, while adopting the same model for St Albans, built it on an immensely larger scale. The church was consecrated in 1115, but had been finished some years before. Of the original Norman church the principal portions now remaining are the eastern bays of the nave, the tower, and the transepts, but the main outlines of the building are still those planned by Paul. It is thus one of the most important specimens of Norman architecture in England, with the special characteristic that, owing to the use of the flat broad Roman tile, the Norman portions are peculiarly bare and stern. The western towers were pulled down in the 13th century. About 1155 Robert de Gorham repaired and beautified the early shrine and rebuilt the chapter- house and part of the cloister ; but nothing of his work now re- mains except part of a very beautiful doorway lately discovered. Abbot John de Cella (1195-1214) pulled down the west front and portions of the north and south aisles. He began the erection of the west front in a new and enriched form, and his work was con- tinued by his successor William de Trumpyngtone (1214-35) in a plainer manner. In 1257 the eastern portion was pulled down, and between the middle of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century a sanctuary, ante-chapel, and lady chapel were added, all remarkably fine specimens of the architecture of the period. In 1323 two great columns on the south side suddenly fell, which necessitated the rebuilding of five bays of the south aisle and the Norman cloisters. Various incongruous additions were made during the Perpendicular period, and much damage was also done during the dissolution of the abbeys to the finer work in the in- terior. The building within recent years has undergone extensive renovation, first under the direction of Sir Gilbert Scott, and latterly to a much greater extent under Sir Edmund Beckett. Its extreme length outside is 550 feet, which is exceeded by Winchester by 6 feet. The nave (284 feet) is the longest Gothic nave in the world and exceeds that of Winchester by about 20 feet. The length of the transepts is 175 feet inside. The monastic buildings have all disappeared with the exception of the greatgateway. To the south-west of the present city of "St Albans stood the ancient Verulamium, one of the oldest towns in Britain, on Wat- lin.t,' Street. It was the chief station of Cassivellaunus at the time of Caisar's invasion, and under the Romans became a munidpium. The ancient town which grew up around St Albans church was completely destroyed by the Saxons between 500 and 560. During Wat Tyler's insurrection the monastery was besieged by the towns- people, many of whom were executed in consequence. At St All>ans the Lancastrians were defeated on 21st May 1455, their leader, the duke of Somerset, being killed, and Henry VI. taken prisoner ; there too Queen Margaret defeated the earl of Warwick on 17th February 1461. During the civil wars the town was garrisoned for the Parliament. On a printing press, one of the earliest in the king- dom, set up in the abbey the first English translation of the Bible was printed. A charter of incorporation was granted to the town by Edward VI. It returned two members to parliament until 1852, when it was disfranchised. It became a bishop's see in 1877. Nicholas Breakspear, the only English pope (Adrian IV.), was bora near St Albans, and was elected its abbot in 1137. St Albans Cathedral and its Restoration, 1885. ST ALBANS, a township and village of the United States, the capital of Franklin county, Vermont, at the junction of several divisions of the Central Vermont Railroad. The village lies on an elevated plain about 3 miles east of Lake Chaniplain, and has its principal buildings arranged round a public park. Besides being the seat of the extensive workshops of the railroad com- pany, St Albans is the great cheese and butter market of the eastern States. In the neighbourhood, which is cele- brated for the beauty of its scenery, are quarries of calico stone and variegated marble. The population of the town- ship was 1814 in 1850, 3637 in 1860, 7014 in 1870, and 7193 in 1880. Being only 14 miles distant from the Canadian frontier, the village has more than once been the scene of political disturbances. In 1866 a band of 1200 Fenians, on their return from a fruitless invasion of Canada, were disarmed there by the United States troops. ST AMAND-LES-EAUX, a town of France, in the department of Nord, at the junction of the Elnon with the Scarpe (a left-hand tributary of the Scheldt), 7| miles by rail north-west of Valenciennes and 22 south-east of Lille. It has numerous industrial establishments, but is better known from the mineral waters in the vicinity. Though from Roman coins found in the mud it is evi- dent that these must have been frequented during the Roman period, it is only two centuries since they began to be again turned to account. There are four distinct springs ; the water (75 Fahr.) contains sulphates of lime and sulphur, and deposits white gelatinous threads with- out smell or taste. The black mud, which constantly gives out sulphuretted hydrogen, is composed of three strata (1) a clayey peat, (2) clay, and (3) a composition of silica, carbonate of lime, oxide of iron, and aluminium. Numerous small sulphurous springs ooze through the lowest stratum and, soaking those above, form a slough in which patients suffering from rheumatism, gout, and certain affections of liver and skin remain for hours at a time. The population in 1881 was 7881 (commune, 11,184). St Amand owes its name to St Amand, bishop of Tongres, who founded a monastery here in the reign of Dagobert. The abbey was laid waste by the Normans in 882 and by the count of Hainault in 1340. The town was captured by Mary of Burgundy in 1447, by the count of Ligne, Charles V.'s lieutenant, in 1521, and finally in 1667 by the French. The abbey has been destroyed, with the exception of the gateway flanked by two octagonal pavilions, now occupied by municipal offices ; and of the abbey church there re- mains only the 17th-century facade. SAINT-AMANT, MAKC ANTOINE GERAED, SIEUE DE (1594-1661), the most eminent of a curious bacchanalian school of poets in France during the 17th century, was born at Rouen in the year 1594. Very little is known of his family except that it was of some position at Rouen, and the mysterious description which all his French bio- graphers give of his father that he was a sailor "qui commanda pendant 22 ans un escadre de la reine Eliza- beth" does not greatly assist an English imagination. It appears that Saint-Amant himself haunted taverns and