ship, which once covered
the grave before the high altar in which Abbot Thomas de la Mare was
buried. He is represented in full vestments carrying a pastoral staff
and wearing a mitre, according to the Pope's grant, although he was not
a bishop but only a mitred abbot, and therefore could not perform the
rite of ordination, which could be administered only by the Bishop of
Lincoln; the Abbey Church, though independent of him in all other
matters, was for this purpose in his diocese. The rebus of Abbot John
was three ears of wheat, and his motto "Valles habundabunt," an allusion
to the fertile lowland of Wheathampstead, whence he came. This rebus may
be found in various places where the work was due to him. Opposite to
this chantry is the far more magnificent one of Abbot Thomas Ramryge.
His rebus is a ram wearing a collar with the letters R.Y.G.E. inscribed
on it. This chantry was at one time, after the dissolution, appropriated
as a burial-place for the Ffaringdons, a Lancashire family, but the
original slab with Abbot Thomas's figure and inscription has been
restored to its place. Within the altar rails are four memorial stone
tablets covering the graves of four fourteenth-century Abbots--Thomas de
la Mare, Hugh of Eversden, Richard of Wallingford, and Michael of
Mentmore. Four other Abbots are known to have been buried beneath the
presbytery floor outside the altar rails--John de Marinis, John of
Berkhampstead, Roger of Norton, and John Stokes--as well as other monks
and laymen. It will be noticed that the presbytery is divided from the
aisles by solid walls, pierced only for the two chantries above
described, and for two doorways, one on each side, further west. Over
each of these doorways is a tabernacle; that on the south was put
together of fragments by Sir Gilbert Scott, and that on the north made
to match it. The clerestory windows are Lord Grimthorpe's; the painted
wooden vaulting which extends beyond the screen and over the Saints'
Chapel is John of Wheathampstead's. It will be noticed that this springs
from vaulting shafts, and it is by some considered that a stone roof was
contemplated. The triforium here is an arcade without any passage. The
pulpit, which stands close by the north pier of the eastern tower arch,
was designed by Mr. J.O. Scott and given by the Freemasons of England,
who regard St. Alban as their patron saint.

[Illustration: RAMRYGE CHANTRY.]

We will now turn to the south and pass eastwar