TRTNG, a market-town and parish in the hundred
of DACORUM, county of HERTFORD, 30 miles (W. by N.)
from Hertford, and 31 (N.Wby W.) from London, containing,
with the hamlets of Long Marstone and Wilstone,
according to the last census, 3286 inhabitants,
now about 4000. The origin of this town is of remote
antiquity: at the time of the division of the county by
Alfred, it was considered of sufficient importance to
give name to the hundred in which it was situated, being
then called Treung. Antiquaries have attributed the
derivation of its name to the supposed original form
of the town, being triangular. The opinion that it is
of Roman origin receives confirmation from the fact,
that the Iknield way from Dorchester to Colchester
passed in its vicinity; part of it constitutes a portion
of the Chiltern hundreds. The town consists of two
principal streets, the larger being crossed at the top
by the other, both containing good houses, generally of
modern style. Contiguous to it is the elegant mansion
of Tring Park (built by Charles II., for his favourite
mistress, Eleanor Gwynn, and since modernised), with
the hills rising in the back ground, clothed with fine
beech trees. The general appearance is exceedingly
neat, the atmosphere very salubrious, and the inhabitants
are amply supplied with water. A silk-mil],
worked partly by water and partly by steam, gives employment
to upwards of three hundred persons, and is
in progress of great improvement: the manufacture of
canvas and straw-plat is also carried on. The Grand
Junction canal passes about a mile of the town; and
within the parish are four large reservoirs, to supply
any loss of water to that navigation. At Wilstone,
also within the parish, is one of the sources of the river
Thames. The market, granted by charter of Charles II;
to Henry Guy, Esq., in 1681 (to whom that monarch
had, the year before, granted the manor), is on Friday,
for straw-plat, corn, meat, and pedlary; and cattle fairs
are held on Easter-Monday and Old Michaelmas-day.
The market-house, the property of the lord of the manor,
is situated on the north side of the principal street.
The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
of Huntingdon, and diocese of Lincoln, endowed with
£1200 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and
£2000 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of
the Dean and Canons of Christ Church, Oxford. The
church, which is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul,
situated near the market-house, is a handsome embattled
structure in the ancient English style, with a
large tower at the west end, surmounted with a low
spire; in the interior is an enriched font in the later
style of English architecture. There are places of worship
for Baptists and Independents. A free school was
established, in 1829, by Mr. John Hull; it is conducted
on the Lancasterian system, and supported by voluntary
contributions; nearly one hundred boys are instructed.
A Roman helmet was found in digging the Grand Junction
canal, near Northcote hill, between this town and
Berkhampstead, of which a drawing was published by
the Society of Antiquaries of London, in 1819. Robert
Hill, a remarkable self-taught linguist, was born here,
in 1699; he died in 1777.