Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

156 S A I-
north-west of London and 5 miles west from Hatfield.
The abbey or cathedral church, in some respects one of
the most remarkable ecclesiastical buildings in England,
is described below. St Michael’s church to the west of
the town, within the site of the ancient Yerulamium, was
originally constructed in the 1 Oth century partly out of the
ruins of the town. Considerable portions of the Norman
building remain; the church contains the tomb of Lord
Chancellor Bacon. St Stephen’s church, dating from the
same period, contains some good examples of Norman
architecture. St Peter’s church has been in great part
rebuilt, but the nave of Early Perpendicular remains.
The (restored) clock-house in the market-place was built
by one of the abbots in the reign of Henry VIII. There is
an Edward VI. grammar-school. The principal modern
buildings are the corn exchange, the court-house, the
prison, °the public baths, and the public library. _ There
are a number of charities and benevolent institutions, in¬
cluding the hospital and dispensary, and the almshouses
founded in 1734 by Sarah duchess of Marlborough. The
principal industries are the manufacture of silk and straw-
plaiting. There are also breweries and ironfoundries.
The population of the municipal borough (area, 997 acres,
extended in 1879) in 1881 was 10,931; the population of
the same area in 1871 was estimated at 8239.
Kot only is the cathedral “a text-hook of mediaeval architec¬
ture from its beginning to its ending,” but it “is still in style,
material, and feeling that one among our great churches which most
thoroughly carries us back to Old English and even to earlier
days ” (Freeman). Shortly after the execution of Britain s proto-
martyr, St Alban, probably in 303, a church was built on the spot.
In 793 Offa of Mercia, who professed to have discovered the relics
of the martyr, founded in his honour a monastery for Benedictines,
which became one of the richest and most important houses of that
order in the kingdom. The abbots Ealdred and Ealmer at the
close of the 10th century began to break up the ruins of the old
Koman city of Verulamium for materials to construct a new abbey
church ; but on account of the unsettled character of the times its
erection was delayed till the time of William the Conqueror, when
Paul of Caen, a relative of Archbishop Lanfranc, was in 1077
appointed abbot. Canterbury as built by Lanfranc was almost a
reproduction of St Stephen’s, Caen ; but Paul, while adopting the
same model for St Albans, built it on an immensely larger scale.
The church was consecrated in 1115, but had been finished some
years before. Of the original Norman church the principal portions
now remaining are the eastern bays of the nave, the tower, and the
transepts, but the main outlines of the building are still those
planned by Paul. It is thus one of the most important specimens
of Norman architecture in England, with the special characteristic
that, owing to the use of the flat broad Roman tile, the Norman
portions are peculiarly bare and stern. The western towers were
pulled down in the 13th century. About 1155 Robert de Gorham
repaired and beautified the early shrine and rebuilt the chapter-
house and part of the cloister; but nothing of his work now re¬
mains except part of a very beautiful doorway lately discovered.
Abbot John de Celia (1195-1214) pulled down the west front and
portions of the north and south aisles. He began the erection of
the west front in a new and enriched form, and his work was con¬
tinued by his successor William de Trumpyngtone (1214-35) in a
plainer manner. In 1257 the eastern portion was pulled down,
and between the middle of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th
century a sanctuary, ante-chapel, and lady chapel were added, all
remarkably fine specimens of the architecture of the period. In
1323 two great columns on the south side suddenly fell, which
necessitated the rebuilding of five bays of the south aisle and the
Norman cloisters. Various incongruous additions were made
during the Perpendicular period, and much damage was also done
during the dissolution of the abbeys to the finer work in the in¬
terior. The building within recent years has undergone extensive
renovation, first under the direction of Sir Gilbert Scott, and
latterly to a much greater extent under Si,r Edmund Beckett. Its
extreme length outside is 550 feet, which is exceeded by Winchester
by 6 feet. The nave (284 feet) is the longest Gothic nave in the
world and exceeds that of Winchester by about 20 feet. The length
of the transepts is 175 feet inside. The monastic buildings have
all disappeared with the exception of the great gateway.
To the south-west of the present city of St Albans stood the
ancient Verulamium, one of the oldest towns in Britain, on Wat-
ling Street. It was the chief station of Cassivellaunus at the time
of Caesar’s invasion, and under the Romans became a municipium.
The ancient town which grew up around St Albans church was
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completely destroyed by the Saxons between 500 and 560. During
Wat Tyler’s insurrection the monastery was besieged by the towns¬
people, many of whom were executed in consequence. At St Albans
the Lancastrians were defeated on 21st May 1455, their leader, the
duke of Somerset, being killed, and Henry VI. taken prisoner; there
too Queen Margaret defeated the earl of Warwick on 17th February
1461. During the civil wars the town was garrisoned for the
Parliament. On a printing press, one of the earliest in the king¬
dom, set up in the abbey the first English translation of the Bible
was printed. A charter of incorporation was granted to the town
by Edward VI. It returned two members to parliament until
1852, when it was disfranchised. It became a bishop’s see in 1877.
Nicholas Breakspear, the only English pope (Adrian IV.), was
born near St Albans, and was elected its abbot in 1137.
See Matthew Paris, Historia Major; H. T. Riley, Chronicle of the Monastery ot
St Albans, 11 vols., 1863-73 ; Nicholson, History of St Albans ; Buckler, Norman
Church of St Albans ; Neale, Abbey Church of St Albans, 1879 ; Sir E. Beckett,
St Albans Cathedral and its Restoration, 1885.
ST ALBANS, a township and village of the United
States, the capital of Franklin county, Vermont, at the
junction of several divisions of the Central Vermont
Railroad. The village lies on an elevated plain about 3
miles east of Lake Champlain, and has its principal
buildings arranged round a public park. Besides being
the seat of the extensive workshops of the railroad com¬
pany, St Albans is the great cheese and butter market of
the eastern States. In the neighbourhood, which is cele¬
brated for the beauty of its scenery, are quarries of calico
stone and variegated marble. The population of the town¬
ship was 1814 in 1850, 3637 in 1860, 7014 in 1870, and
7193 in 1880. Being only 14 miles distant from the
Canadian frontier, the village has more than once been
the scene of political disturbances. In 1866 a band of
1200 Fenians, on their return from a fruitless invasion of
Canada, were disarmed there by the United States troops.
ST AMAND-LES-EAUX, a town of France, in the
department of Nord, at the junction of the Elnon with
the Scarpe (a left-hand tributary of the Scheldt), 71 miles
by rail north-west of Valenciennes and 22 south-east
of Lille. It has numerous industrial establishments, but
is better known from the mineral waters in the vicinity.
Though from Roman coins found in the mud it is evi¬
dent that these must have been frequented during the
Roman period, it is only two centuries since they began
to be again turned to account. There are four distinct
springs; the water (75° Fahr.) contains sulphates of lime
and sulphur, and deposits white gelatinous threads with¬
out smell or taste. The black mud, which constantly
gives out sulphuretted hydrogen, is composed of three
strata—(1) a clayey peat, (2) clay, and (3) a composition
of silica, carbonate of lime, oxide of iron, and aluminium.
Numerous small sulphurous springs ooze through the lowest
stratum and, soaking those above, form a slough in which
patients suffering from rheumatism, gout, and certain
affections of liver and skin remain for hours at a time.
The population in 1881 was 7881 (commune, 11,184).
St Amand owes its name to St Amand, bishop of Tongres, who
founded a monastery here in the reign of Dagohert. The abbey
was laid waste by the Normans in 882 and by the count of Hainault
in 1340. The town was captured by Mary of Burgundy in 1447,
by the count of Ligne, Charles V.’s lieutenant, in 1521, and finally
in 1667 by the French. The abbey has been destroyed, with the
exception of the gate-way flanked by two octagonal pavilions, now
occupied by municipal offices ; and of the abbey church there re¬
mains only the 17th-century fiuyide.
SAINT-AMANT, Marc Antoine Gerard, Siettr de
(1594-1661), the most eminent of a curious bacchanalian
school of poets in France during the 17 th century, was
born at Rouen in the year 1594. Very little is known of
his family except that it was of some position at Rouen,
and the mysterious description which all his French bio¬
graphers give of his father—that he was a sailor “ qui
commanda pendant 22 ans un escadre de la reine Eliza¬
beth”—does not greatly assist an English imagination.
It appears that Saint-Amant himself haunted taverns and