Note 794 — Chapter VII · THE TOWNS.

This was left for later and more civilized times; witness St. Alban’s massive abbey, one of the largest buildings in England, constructed almost entirely of bond-tiles from ancient Verulam. Caen stone would probably have been easier got and cheaper: but labour-rents must never be suffered to fall in arrear. It is the only rent which cannot be fetched up. Old Verulam was first dismantled because Ealdred, a Saxon abbot, in the tenth century found its cellars and ruined houses offered an asylum to bad characters of either sex: so runs the story.