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LIST OF TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS, &c.

In Carter's Antiquities are some etchings of the architectural ornaments, &c. of Dunstable Priory.

Jefferey's published an actual survey of this county, in 8 sheets, on a scale of two inches to a mile. Many errors in this map are corrected, and several additions made, in a New Map of the county, divided into hundreds, and published in Smith's " New English Atlas," January 1801.

Views of the Priories of Bedford, Dunstable, and Chicksand, of Harewood Nunnery, and Warden Monastery, have been engraved by Messrs. Bucks; the remains of the tower at Luton by Rooker, from a drawing by P. Sandby, published in the Virtuoso's Museum; a plan of Wrest House, Gardens, &c, by G. Rocque, 1735; and a view of Bedford Bridge, drawn by J. Walker, and engraved by Medland, in the Copper-plate Magazine, Vol. II.

THE COUNTY OF BEDFORD,

THE

BOUNDARIES, SITUATION, AND EXTENT. HE county of Bedford is bounded on the north and north-east by Northamptonshire; on the east by Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire, and on the west by Buckinghamshire, and part of Northamptonshire.

In its greatest length it is about 32 miles, and in breadth 22; and according to the author of the general view of the agriculture of this county, its circumference 145 miles, inclosing an area of 307

acres.

ANCIENT HISTORY.

Bedfordshire and the adjoining counties of Buckingham and Hertford, were anciently inhabited by the Cattruchlani, or Casii, whose chief Cassivellaunus, or Cassibelin, was unanimously chosen by the Britons to lead their armies against Julius Cæsar, upon his invasion of their country.

During the government of the Romans this county formed part of Britannia Superior, afterwards of Britannia Prima, and upon the last division of the island, it was included in the division called Flavia Caesariensis.

It was many years after the Romans had abandoned Britain before the inhabitants of this county submitted to the Saxons; but in a great battle fought near Bedford in the year 571 they were subdued by the brother of Clawlen, king of the West Saxons; and their county was afterwards made part of the kingdom of Mercia. About 200 years after the Saxons had been in possession the Danes began to invade this island, and in the reign of Edward the Elder (son of King Alfred), this county frequently became the scene of action in the wars between that victorious monarch and the invaders.

In the year 919 this monarch came to Bedford, and staid there four weeks, receiving the submission of all the neighbouring country. In 921 the Danes seized Temesford now Tempsford, and stationed themselves there. In an excursion from this place they attacked the town of Bedford, but were repulsed with great slaughter. Their fortress at Tempsford was, however, destroyed during the same summer by King Edward, who put their king, and a great number of his nobles, to death. In 1010 the Danish army burnt Bedford and Tempsford. The next year this county submitted to the dominion of the Anglo-Saxon king Ethelred.

During the civil wars in the reign of Charles I. Bedfordshire was one of the first counties that declared for the parliament, being within that district known by the name of the Eastern Associates. It is observed by Lord Clarendon that Bedfordshire was one of the counties in which the king had no visible party, nor one fixed quarter.

The same author informs us that in October 1643, Prince Rupert was sent by the king into Bedfordshire, at the head of a strong party of horse and foot. With this force the prince surprised and took Bedford, which was occupied as a strong post by the enemy. This expedition was principally designed to countenance Sir Lewis Dyves, whilst he fortified himself at Newport Pagnell, where he hoped to fix a garrison; none of the subsequent military transactions appear to have been in any way connected with this county.

CLIMATE.

The air of this county is mild and salubrious. The face of the country is agreeably diversified by hill and dale, and the scenery much enlivened by the steeples of churches.

RIVERS.

The principal rivers in this county are the Ouse and the Ivel. The former enters this county on the

west

west side of it, running out of Buckinghamshire, between the villages of Brayfield and Turville; from whence it passes between Carlton and Harold, between Odel and Chillington, near Felmersham, Sharnbrook, Bletsoe, Milton-Ernest, and Oakley, and after a devious course through a number of fine meadows, to which its waters give beauty and fertility, passes through Bedford, where it becomes navigable; from thence it takes an eastward direction near Goldington, Willington, Barford, Tempsford, Roxton, Little Barford, and Eaton-Socon, and at length quits the county, at St. Neot's, on the confines of Huntingdonshire. The principal bridges over the Ouse are Carlton, Radwell, Stafford-bridge near Oakley, Bromham, Bedford, Barford, and Tempsford. The great road from London to Glasgow passes over the last mentioned bridge.

The river Ouse is remarkable for the slowness of its motion, and for the many windings it makes in its short course of about 45 miles. It divides the county in two parts, and in a wet season is liable to sudden and great inundations. In the year 1256 the town of Bedford suffered great injury from the overflowing of this river, and again in 1570. The Cambridgeshire proverb, of "the bailiff of Bedford is coming," mentioned by Fuller, alludes to the inundations of the Ouse, a most rapacious distrainer of hay and cattle.

The river Ouse abounds with a variety of freshwater fish, as pike, perch, bream, chub, bleak, crayfish, fine eels, dace, roach, and gudgeon.

The river Ivil rises near Baldock, in Hertfordshire, and enters this county near Stotfold, not far from Arlesay, after receiving a small stream called Hiz, it passes, near Henlow, to Langford, it is there joined by another small river. At Biggleswade the Ivil becomes navigable, and passing from thence near Sandy and Blunham, it falls into the Ouse a little above Tempsford.

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The

The principal bridges over the Ivil, are at Girtford (a hamlet of Sandy), and at Biggleswade.

The Ivel produces the same variety of fish as the Ouse, and of the same description; it is particularly famous for gudgeons.

NAVIGABLE CANALS.

No navigable canal passes through this county, but the Grand Junction Canal passes close to its borders, in the neighbourhood of Leighton Buzard, and comes up to that town. It is in contemplation to make a canal from Leighton to join the Ouse at Bedford.

AGRICULTURE.

Soil.

The author of the General View of the Agriculture of this county, published by the Board of Agriculture, calculates that Bedfordshire contains 307, 200 acres; of these he computes 217,200 to be in open fields, common meadows, commons, and waste; 68,100 in inclosed meadows, pasture, and arable; and 21,900 of woodland.

Fuller gives a pretty correct general description of the soil of this county, by saying that it is deep clay, with a belt or girdle of sand about, or rather athwart, the body of it from Woburn to Potton. According to the author of the agricultural survey, there is every kind of soil and every mixture of soil in this county. He describes the prevailing soil of the north and west parts to be clay and strong loam, that of the south and east parts light loam, sand, gravel, and chalk. The chalk hills extend across the county from Hertfordshire to Buckinghamshire. From Dunstable to Woburn, the soil is various, chalk, clay, loan, and sand. At Houghton it is chalk on the high grounds, and black clay in the low lands. From Woburn to Newport Pagnell there is a great variety of soil; for some miles it is quite a light sand, and then a gravel with some

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light