Tring, Hertfordshire

Description
Tring, a small market-town and a parish in Herts. The town stands on Icknield Street, 1 1/2 mile W of the L. & N.W.R., on which it has a station, and 4 1/4 miles NW of Berkhampstead. Acreage of the civil parish, 7770 of land and 221 of water; population, 5426; of the ecclesiastical, 4986. Tring has an urban district council consisting of twelve members. The hamlets of Wilstone and Long Marston have a parish council consisting of five members. Tring is an ancient place, was known at Domesday as Treung, and belonged then to R. D'Eu. It now consists chiefly of two well-built streets, has a weekly market for corn and straw-plait on Friday, and fairs on Easter Monday and Old Michaelmas Day. The industries include the manufacture of straw-plait, the weaving of canvas, and brewing. It has a head post office. The Victoria Hall, erected in 1886, is a building of red brick and stone in the Italian Renaissance style, containing a reading-room, library, and a large assembly room. There is also a mechanics' institute. The special glory of Tring, however, is Mr Walter Rothschild's museum, a plain building of red brick opened in 1892. It is wholly zoological, and contains a magnificent collection of stuffed birds, mammals, reptiles, and fishes, a large number of specimens preserved in alcohol, a fine collection of shells, corals, and sponges, and some hundreds of thousands of insects. The museum is divided into public galleries and a students' department, and is being continually enriched with new specimens, collected and forwarded by Mr Walter Rothschild's agents from all parts of the world. The manor of Tring belongs to Lord Rothschild. Tring Park, one of the seats of Lord Rothschild, is a fine mansion pleasantly situated amidst very beautiful scenery. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Wilstone, in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £170 with residence. The church is an ancient edifice of stone and flint in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and a massive embattled western tower. There are a Primitive Methodist and four Baptist chapels, and charities worth about £320 a year. Little Tring, Tring Grove, and Welstone are adjacent hamlets. There are a church and a Baptist chapel at Wilstone.