HATFIELD, or Bishop’s Hatfield, a quiet, old-fashioned market-town of England, in the county of Hertford, is prettily situated on the side of a hill, 17∣ miles N.N.W. of London by railway. The church of St Etheldreda dates its foundation from Norman times, though only a small portion of the original building is now standing. Hatfield is the seat of a poor-law union embracing four parishes. The population of parish in 1871 was 3998. In the vicinity is Hatfield House, on the site of a palace of the bishops of Ely, which was erected about the beginning of the 12th century. In 1538 the manor was resigned to Henry VIII. by Bishop Goodrich, in exchange for certain lands in Cambridge, Essex, and Norfolk; and after that monarch the palace was successively the residence of Edward VI. immediately before his accession, of Queen Elizabeth during the reign of her sister Mary, and of James I. The last-named exchanged it in 1607 for Theobalds, near Cheshunt, in the same county, an estate of Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards earl of Salisbury, in whose family Hatfield House has since remained. The west wing of the present mansion, built for Cecil in 1608-11, was destroyed by fire in November 1835, the dowagermarchioness of Salisbury perishing in the flames. The grounds surrounding the house are extensive and beautifully laid out.