y, and for the most part his work was bad: he did almost as much to
injure the Abbey as the nineteenth-century restorers who swept away much
of his work have done. He rebuilt all the upper part of the west front,
and inserted Perpendicular windows at each end of the transept; he
turned the high-pitched roofs of nave and transepts into flat ones, and
lowered the slope of the roofs of the aisles. His object in doing this
was to be able to use the old beams again whose ends were decayed, and
which were shortened by cutting off the unsound parts. The result of
this was that the Norman triforium arches on the north side were thrown
open to the sky; these he filled with Perpendicular tracery, converting
them into windows. The tracery still remains, although the new roof has
the same slope as the original one, and the triforium is now again
inclosed beneath it. He also pulled down the wooden octagon on the
central tower. His chantry on the south side of the high altar was
probably erected soon after his death.

Abbot William of Wallingford (1476-1484) built the high altar screen,
carrying out a plan which John of Wheathampstead had not been able to
accomplish. The only addition made after this to the Abbey is the
chantry of Thomas Ramryge, who became Abbot in 1492. The exact date of
its construction is not known, all records of the Abbey during Ramryge's
rule having perished; but from its style it is generally supposed to
have been built about the year 1520. During the reign of Henry VIII. all
the monasteries were dissolved; first the smaller, then the more
important ones, among them that of St. Albans. The fortieth and last
Abbot of St. Albans, Richard Boreman of Stevenage, surrendered the Abbey
on December 5th, 1539, he and the monks receiving pensions as
compensation.

[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF LADY CHAPEL WHEN USED AS THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL
BEFORE 1874. (From the Official Guide to the Great Northern Railway.)]

In February of the following year the King granted to Sir Richard Lee
all the monastic buildings, but not the Abbey Church or the adjoining
Chapel of St. Andrew, with all the land lying round the Abbey Church.
Lee promptly proceeded to destroy all the domestic buildings. The church
remained in the possession of the Crown till 1553, when the town
obtained a charter from Edward VI. This, among other provisions,
empowered it to erect a grammar school within the church or in some
other convenient place. The town authorit