found wild in a
forest in Hanover in 1725 and brought to England at the desire of Queen
Caroline. He lived at a farm at Broadway (_q.v._) and died in 1785.
There is also a curious sentence about this church in Chauncy: "Henry
Axtil, a rich Man starved himself, and was buried here April 12, 1625, 1
Car. I." The church was entirely restored in 1883, when the present N.
aisle was added.

_Northfield_, a small hamlet, is a little S. from Ivinghoe (Bucks).

NORTON, near the tiny river Ivel and the Roman Icknield Way, is 1 mile
W. from Baldock. The large building on the hill-top close by is the
Three Counties Asylum. The manor belonged to the Abbot of St. Albans at
the time of the Conquest; and in the year 1260 Roger de Norton, who took
his name from this village, became the twenty-fourth abbot of that
monastery. The church, E.E., is of great antiquity, some parts of it
having been little altered; it is of flint, and stands at the N.E. end
of the village. It contains two or three old memorials, but none of
historic interest. A pretty walk from the church leads through Norton
Bury and beside the Ivel to Radwell Mill.

_Norton Green_, between Knebworth Park and Stevenage, is 1/2 mile W. from
the Great North Road. It is a small hamlet.

_Nup End_ (11/2 mile W. from Knebworth Station, G.N.R.) is almost one with
Knebworth Green. Codicote church is 1 mile S.W.

_Nuthampstead_ (about 5 miles N.E. from Buntingford Station, G.E.R.) is
a large hamlet on the Essex border. The parish churches of Barkway (W.),
Anstey (S.W.), and Meesdon (S.E.) may all be reached within a short
walk.

OFFLEY or OFFLEY ST. LEGER (3 miles S.W. from Hitchin) is a village at
the meeting of the ways from Hitchin, Temple Dinsley, and Lilley. It
owes its name to Offa, King of the Mercians, who had a palace here, as
we learn from his life by Matthew Paris, and its adjunct to the St.
Legiers, who became Lords of the Manor soon after the Conquest. Miss
Hester Salusbury, who became Mrs. Thrale, and afterwards Mrs. Piozzi,
used as a child to visit at _Offley Place_, in the park close to the
church. The old mansion was built by Sir Richard Spencer in 1600, and in
part rebuilt early last century, when its style was changed from
Jacobean to a form of Gothic.

The church (restored Perp.) stands in the park, close to the road. Note
(1) monument in chancel to Sir H. Penrice, Kt. (d. 1752); a figure of
Truth standing on a sarcophagus of black marble, the whole finel