HITCHIN  , a

market town in the Hitchin parliamentary division of Hertfordshire, England, on the small river Hiz, 32 m . N. from London by the Great Northern railway . Pop. of urban district (1901) 10,072 . It is the junction of the main line with the Cambridge branch, and with a branch of the Midland railway to Bedford: The church of St Mary is Perpendicular, with a fine porch, a painting of the Adoration of the Magi, attributed to Rubens, a small crypt said to have been used by Cromwell as a prison for the Royalists, and many interesting monuments . Hitchin Priory is a mansion on the site of a Carmelite foundation of the early 14th century . A Gilbertine nunnery, founded later in the same century, stood adjacent to the church, and portions of the buildings appear in an existing block of almshouses . The grammar school (1632) was reconstituted in 1889 for boys and girls . Straw-plaiting, malting, brewing, and the cultivation and distillation of lavender and peppermint are carried on .