a market-town of England, county of Hertford, and hundred of Broadwater, 37 miles N. of London. It is pleasantly situated in a valley on the Great North Road, and is well paved and lighted. Its principal street has several handsome buildings. The church is a spacious edifice, with a spire, three chancels, a curious font, and some monuments of its founders the Templars. There are also places of worship belonging to the Methodists, Independents, and Quakers; and several schools, almshouses, and other charities. Manufactures, beer, malt, and straw-plait. Pop. (1851) 1920.

Ralph de, bishop of London in the reigns of Edward I. and II., was educated at Merton College, Oxford, became dean of St Paul's, was afterwards promoted to the see of London, and at last was made lord high chancellor of England. He wrote Historia Anglicae, or a History of the British Affairs down to his own time; and A Collection of the Statutes and Constitutions of the Church of St Paul. The former, though it was seen by Leland, is not now extant; the latter is preserved in the library of that cathedral. He died at Stepney, July 24, 1313.