[43] The Scriptorium had been founded by Abbot Paul, circa 1077. Owing to the ignorance of his own monks he was compelled to fill it with hired scribes. Towards the end of the twelfth century a ‘historiographer’ was appointed, and from that time the systematic compilation of annals may be taken to date. From the peculiar character of the St. Albans script Sir T. Duffus Hardy concluded that Matthew Paris learnt the art of writing from a foreign schoolmaster. See Catalogue: Materials for History of Great Britain and Ireland III, xxv, xxxiv, cxxiii.
[44] The same epoch left its impress upon the Abbey fabric. Much of it was rebuilt by Abbot Thomas, though unfortunately lapse of time and the restoration by Lord Grimthorpe’s munificence have left little except the great Abbey gateway. Some stained glass, wall-paintings and a rood screen of this date still remain, and in Abbot Whethamstede’s chapel there is a beautiful brass of De la Mare.
[45] Chaucer: Prologue, &c. (Morris), lines 165–206.
[46] Cf. p. 12 ante.
[47] Viz. Essex, Hertford, Bedford, Bucks, Cambridge, Kent, Middlesex, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Northampton, Berks, Lincoln, and in London.
[48] Gesta Abbatum II, pp. 157–8.
[49] Another small outbreak in 1356 has escaped the notice of writers on St. Albans municipal history. See Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1354–1358, p. 493. It was perhaps as a consequence of this that the Convent secured a licence (1357) to crenellate the dwelling-place of the Abbey. Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1354–1358, p. 574.
[50] Whethamstede II, p. 324–5; for such services the villein commonly received besides his food a small wage.
[51] Gesta Abbatum I, p. 453–455.
[52] An unusually severe regulation.