Hertford

Hertford, market town and capital of Hertfordshire, on the Lea, nineteen miles north of London, and on the Great Northern and Eastern Counties railway systems. It consists of three principal streets meeting in a central square. It possesses a free library, shire hall, corn exchange, free grammar school, county and borough police offices, and infirmary, and there are several almshouses and other charities. The chief industries are malting and brewing, trade in corn, coal, and timber, and there are oil and flour mills, some of the latter being on the Lea. Hertford is a place of some antiquarian interest, a national ecclesiastical council having met there in 673, and a Saxon king having built there a castle, afterwards inhabited by John of Gaunt, the queens of Henry IV., V., VI., and Elizabeth. Here, too, John of France and David of Scotland were imprisoned.