oddesdon, Hitchin, Willian, Ashwell,
Caldecote, Boxmoor, and many other places. Small bronze coins, known as
_minimi_, have been recently found at St. Albans, and are now in the
city museum. They date from after the year 345, when the earliest
specimens of this type were struck, and are conjectured to be copies of
coins issued under Constantius II. (337-61) and Julian the Apostate
(361-3). On the obverse is the "Imperial Head"; on the reverse a soldier
striking with his spear at a man on horseback. The coins, however, are
assigned by at least one numismatist to a later date. They may have
issued from a Romano-British mint at Verulamium. The famous Watling
Street entered the county at Elstree and crossed it by way of St. Albans
and Redbourn to Dunstable (Beds); the Icknield Way ran N.W. through
Ickleford, Baldock and Royston; Akeman Street passed through Watford,
Berkhampstead and Tring; Ermine Street, entering Hertfordshire at
Waltham, passed through Ware and Braughing to Royston.

4. _Saxon._--A few fragmentary remains at Berkhampstead, Bennington,
Offley and Hitchin have been thought to mark the sites of the palaces of
Mercian kings; but genuine Saxon remains are scarcely found except,
perhaps, among the foundations of a few churches, _e.g._, St. Michael's
at St. Albans, Standon and Wheathampstead.

Mention must however be made of the story, narrated in _Archaeologia_, of
the discovery of the sepulchre of St. Amphibalus at a spot near Redbourn
called the "Hills of the Banners". St. Alban himself appeared to a
layman in a vision and told him where the saint's bones were to be
found,--indeed, he is said to have himself gone thither to point out the
spot. This was during the abbacy of Symon (1167-83). We learn from Roger
of Wendover that the remains of St. Amphibalus were found lying between
those of two other men; the bones of seven others were also lying close
by. Among the relics found with the bones of the saint were two large
knives, one of which was in his skull. We know that the holy relics were
deemed worthy of solemn removal to the Abbey of St. Albans; his shrine
there is mentioned in the Gazetteer.

In the _Antiquary_ (vol. xi.) mention is made of the supposed discovery
of an Anglo-Saxon burial ground in a field near Sandridge. Many bones
and some implements were unearthed, and pronounced by local experts to
date from Saxon times. They were buried again by some ignorant person.

A bronze brooch, discovered a