of carved flowers and fruits with which this chapel is embellished.

From Grose's _Antiquities_ (vol. viii.) I quote the following:--

"Mr. Robert Shrimpton, grandfather, by the mother's side, to Mrs.
Shrimpton of St. Albans, was four times mayor of that town; he died
about sixty years since, being then about 103 years of age. He lived
when the Abbey of St. Alban flourished before the Dissolution and
remembered most things relating to the buildings of the Abbey, the
regimen of the house, the ceremonies of the church ... all of which he
would often discourse in his life-time. Among other things, that in the
Great Hall there was an ascent of fifteen steps to the abbot's table, to
which the monks brought up the service in plate, and staying at every
fifth step, which was a resting-place, at every of which they sung a
short hymn. The abbot usually sat alone in the middle of the table; and
when any nobleman or ambassador or stranger of eminent quality came
thither they sat at his table towards the end thereof. When the monks
had waited a while on the abbot, they sat down at two other tables,
placed on the sides of the hall and had their service brought in by
novices, who, when the monks had dined, sat down to their own dinner."

_First Battle of St. Albans._--On _May 23rd_, 1455, the forces of King
Henry VI. assembled in the neighbourhood of St. Peter's Street, and were
attacked by those of the Duke of York and Warwick the Kingmaker.
Advancing from the fields E. of the town, Warwick's men appear to have
approached from Key Fields and Sopwell Lane, and, finally, having fought
their way into Holywell Hill, to have united with those of the Duke of
York, who had forced the town barriers farther N. The battle was
desperately contested; the bowmen, as usual in those times, playing a
conspicuous part; Henry VI. was wounded in the neck, Humphrey Earl of
Stafford in the right hand, Lord Sudley and the Duke of Buckingham in
the face--all with arrows. The wounded king took refuge in the cottage
of a tanner; here he was made prisoner and conducted by the Duke of York
to the Abbey. The town was at the mercy of the Yorkist soldiers during
the latter part of the day; many houses were looted and the Abbey was
probably spared only because the royal prisoner had been conducted
thither. Several illustrious persons slain in this battle were buried in
the Lady-chapel: (1) Henry Percy, second Earl of Northumberland; (2)
Edmund Beaufort, first