Ailsbury street, 1. By Jermyn street. 2. St. John’s street, Clerkenwell green.
Ainger street, York street.†
Air street, 1. Piccadilly.† 2. By Mary la bone.† 3. Leather lane.†
Akersley yard, Great St. Anne’s street.†
Alam yard, Crutched Friars.
St. Alban’s, a large and very ancient town in Hertfordshire, 21 miles from London, was so called from St. Alban, who suffered in the persecution under Dioclesian, and being afterwards canonized, and interred on a hill in the neighbourhood of this town, a monastery was erected and dedicated to him by King Offa. King Edward I. erected a magnificent cross in memory of Queen Eleanor; and King Edward VI. incorporated this town by a charter, granting the inhabitants a Mayor, a Steward, a Chamberlain, and ten Burgesses: but the Mayor and Steward are here the only Justices of peace. Here are three churches, besides the ancient cathedral called St. Alban’s, belonging to the monastery, which is now a parish church.
In this ancient edifice is a funeral monument and effigies of King Offa, its founder, who is represented seated on his throne; and underneath is the following inscription:
Fundator Ecclesiæ circa annum 793.
Quem male depictum, et residentem cernitis alte
Sublimem solio, Mercius Offa fuit.