ruled the great monastery from 1097 to 1119, and in whose day the whole
manor (including Chipping or High Barnet) belonged to the Abbey of St.
Albans. The structure is Early Norman, with a western tower of brick,
through the lower portion of which the church is entered. The N. wall
is probably the most ancient church wall in this part of the county.
There is a lich-gate at the N. entrance to the churchyard. A son of
Bishop Burnet, the historian, was once rector here, and is buried in the
church. Tradition states that Thomson the poet was tutor to the son of
Lord Binning when that nobleman lived at the old Manor House, the site
of which is now a part of the rectory garden. Near the church, too,
stood once a house in which Lady Arabella Stuart was confined. _Belmont
House_ (C. A. Hanbury, Esq., D.L., J.P.) marks the site where stood
Mount Pleasant, once the property of the Belted Will Howard, Warden of
the Western Marches, referred to in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel".
_Little Grove_, a house on Cat Hill (Mrs. Stern), stands where stood
formerly the house of the widow of Sir Richard Fanshawe, Bart.,
Ambassador to Spain in the reign of Charles I. The whole neighbourhood
is varied and undulating; the eastern extremity of the parish touched
the confines of Enfield Chace until late in the eighteenth century.

BARNET, HIGH (formerly "Chipping Barnet" from the market granted by
Henry II. to the Abbots of St. Albans, which was held every Monday),
stands on the hill-top about 11 miles N.W. from London, and 9 miles S.E.
from St. Albans. As stated above, the manor belonged to the Abbots of
St. Albans, and Chauncy tells a story in this connection which is worth
repeating: "Anno 18, Edw. I., the Abbot of St. Albans (Roger de Norton,
24th Abbot) impleaded several Persons for prostrating his Ditch and
burning his Hedges and Fences in the Night at _Bernet_; Richard
Tykering, one of the Defendants, said, that because the Abbot enclosed
his Pasture with Hedge and Ditch, so that he and the Tenants there,