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ADVERTISEMENT.

THE Subscribers to this Work are respectfully informed, that

the ardent desire of the Editors to render the INTRODUCTION as complete as possible, and the time and extensive reading necessary to the full investigation and arrangement of the numerous and complex subjects it involves, have induced them to protract its publication till a more distant period. This delay, the expediency of which cannot be questioned even by those who consider the nature and extent of their design with but partial attention, will afford leisure for that review of British, Roman, and Saxon History, which the Editors imagine will not only prove interesting from the variety of objects it includes, but will also elucidate the origin of many of the important national regulations, which have stamped a character on this Island, given stability to its laws, and extension to its commerce.

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"The contemplation of a magnificent building, and of an extensive work," it was observed by a late eminent writer, objects pleasing to the imagination; but the construction in both cases, may be embarrassed with unforeseen contingencies, or impeded by unexpected occurrences." The general truth of this remark has been forcibly experienced by the Editors of this Publication; but it has neither retarded their exertions to render it worthy of encouragement, nor impaired their resolution to deserve success. The first Volume of their Work is now before the Public, whose decision is awaited with confidence intermingled with fear. The former is the offspring of the unceasing solicitude bestowed on this specimen of their assiduity; the latter, of the inaccuracies which, even with the most undivided attention, seem hardly possible to be avoided in a performance of this description.

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Through the advice of several judicious literary friends, the Editors have been induced to suspend the publication of the names of the numerous correspondents who have favored them with information till the conclusion of the Work, when they will be incorporated with those of the gentlemen who contributed to its embellishment, by the gift of either drawings or engravings.

The List of Topographical Writings, &c. at the end of each Volume, will only include the principal and particular works that are illustrative of the counties described in it. The publications of a general nature, such as Camden's Britannia, and Grose's Antiquities, can be introduced with greater propriety in the introductory observations.

The counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire, complete the present Volume, which the Subscribers are recommended to have done up in Boards, with the Engravings placed at the beginning, and silver paper between each. When the Work is finished, proper directions will be given for the arrangement of the Plates in the respective counties they are intended to embellish.

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BEAUTIES

OF

England and Wales.

BEDFORDSE

BEDFORDSHIRE.

EDFORDSHIRE, with the adjoining counties of BUCKINGHAM and HERTFORD, was inhabited at the time of the Roman invasion, by the people named Catticuchlani, or Cassii; whose chief, CASSIVELLAUNUS, was chosen by the unanimous consent of the Britons to lead their armies against the arrogant CÆSAR.* Why the inhabitants of these parts were thus denominated, is not easy to determine; neither, in fact, is the exact reading of the term known to us, a variation being observable both in the copies of Dio and Ptolemy. To attempt explaining its meaning, therefore, would seem like a desire to amuse by visionary conjectures, rather than to instruct by warrantable deductions. Camden supposes, they obtained the name Cassii from Gessi, which, in the language of ancient Gaul, signified Brave or Warlike. That they had the reputation of good soldiers, he adds, is plain from their having reduced part of the Dobuni.

When the Emperor Constantine, in the year 310, divided Britain into Roman provinces, this county was included in the third division, called FLAVIA CESARIENSIS. At the establishment of the kingdom of Mercia, it was attached to that government, and so VOL. I. continued

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* Veni, Vidi, Vici, (I came, I saw, I conquered,) was the laconic and proud boast of this ambitious chieftain when he sent an account of his adventures in Britain to the Roman senate: but Veni, Vidi, FUGI, (I came, I saw, I fled,) would have been a sentence more agreeable to truth. He, himself, informs us, that he set sail on the midnight of the very day when his victories had forced the Britons to sue for peace. Why did he do this if he had remained a conqueror? Lucan expressly terms his embarkation a flight.

continued till the year 827, when, with the other divisions of the island, it became subject to the West-Saxons, under Egbert.

On the more accurate division of the kingdom into shires, &c. by the great ALFRED, this county was called Bedfordshire: probably from the name of its chief town, which the Britons are said to have named Lettidur; in English, Bedford. Lettuy, signifying Public Inns; and Dur, a Ford; and by an easy transition, Beds on a Ford. Such is the ridiculous etymology which some writers have given us of this name. In our account of Bedford, the reader will find one more rational.

This county is bounded on the north by the shires of Northampton and Huntingdon; on the east, by the latter, and that of Cambridge; on the south, and south-east, by Hertfordshire; and on the west, and south-west, by Buckinghamshire. In the accounts of its size there is a considerable difference; some authors estimating its length at 26 miles, and its breadth at 18: others at 32 by 22. In AIKIN'S England Delineated, its greatest length is computed at 35 miles, and its utmost breadth at 20: and these dimensions appear as near to the truth, as an acquaintance with the best maps and surveys will enable us to determine. Its circumference may be between 90 and a 100 miles. It contains about 260,000 acres, 9 hundreds, 10 market towns, 124 parishes, 58 vicarages, 550 villages, 12 or 13,000 houses, and nearly 70,000 inhabitants.

The limits of the county are very irregular: its only natural ones are, the Ouse for a short distance on the east and west sides, and a rivulet on the south-west border. The face of the county is pleasingly varied, being broken into small hills and vallies. Southwards a range of chalk eminences rises to a considerable height, and sometimes projects into the lower grounds in a bold and abrupt manner. Beneath these hills is an extensive tract of hard, steril land, appearing cold, dreary, and uncomfortable. Some very rich dairy ground, terminated on the north by sandy hills, extends in a line from the middle of the county to the south-east corner. The western side is mostly flat, and sandy; yet, being well managed, it produces great quantities of beans. On the north and north-east, the soil is a deep loam, famous, from the goodness of its cultivation,

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for growing large crops of corn, particularly barley. A great proportion of the land is in open or common fields, that unconquerable impediment to the progress of agricultural knowledge. number of fine woods are interspersed throughout the county; the timber of which is occasionally felled, and most part of it sent by the Ouse to the sea-coast.

This county partakes as little of the advantages and disadvan tages of manufactures and trade as any in the kingdom. The chief employment of the poor is agriculture and lace-making. The manufacture of straw hats has considerably increased of late years, but this business extends very little beyond the town and neighbourhood of Dunstable. Its produce is principally corn and butter: much of the former is sent down the Ouse to Lynn, in Norfolk; most of the latter is conveyed by land-carriage to LONDON.

Dependant, huge METROPOLIS!

Thou, like a whirlpool, drain'st the country round,
Till London market, London price, resound
Through every town, round every passing load;
And dairy produce throngs the eastern road:
Delicious veal and butter, every hour
From Essex lowlands, and the banks of Stour;
And further, far, where numerous herds repose,
From Orwell's brink, from Weveny, or Oule.

FARMER'S BOY.

Some of the parishes produce large quantities of vegetables, with which the surrounding country is supplied to a considerable extent.

The principal rivers are the Ouse and the Ivel: the former enters the county on the west, between the little villages of Bradfield and Turvey, and, after a very devious course through a number of fine meadows, to which its waters give beauty and fertility, passes the town of Bedford, where it becomes navigable, and then flowing to the east, leaves the county at St. Neot's on the confines of Huntingdonshire. This river is remarkable for the slowness of its motion, and for the many windings which it makes in so short a distance. From Turvey to St. Neot's is hardly 19 miles; yet the meanderings of the Ouse are supposed to extend to the length of SEVENTY,

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