It was afterwards confirmed in 1242, but has long been disused. There is still an annual fair held here on the Thursday and Friday in Whitsun-week. This village was the seat or barony belonging at the time of the Norman survey to Walter Flandrensis, whose descendants were called De Wahul. The manor is now the property of Thomas Alston, Esq. who has a seat in the parish. Odell Castle is described by Leland, who visited this county in the reign of Henry VIII. as "strange ruins belonging to the lord Bray." It stands on an eminence, which commands a beautiful view of the river Ouse, and the surrounding country. Very little remains of the old building, the present house is chiefly modern. The south front was added by Lady Wolstenholme, relict of Sir Rowland Alston, who died in the year 1698. The parish Church is a handsome Gothic building, and contains several monuments to the memory of the family of Alston. The chantry roli for Bedfordshire, mentions that there was before the Reformation, an endowment for the maintenance of a lamp in this church, and for a drinking, or church ale. About a mile from Odell, is HAROLD, a small market town, situated on the Ouse, about nine miles from Bedford. The market is held on Thursday, but is very inconsiderable. According to the returns under the population act in 1801, this parish then contained 155 houses, and 763 inhabitants. There was a priory at Harold, founded by Samson Le Fort, in the year 1150, in honour of St. Peter, for canons and nuns of the order of St. Nicholas of Arrouasia, but it was afterwards occupied by a prioress and a few nuns of the order of St. Austin's. At its suppression its revenues were valued at 401. 18s. 2d. clear yearly value. The site was granted in C 2 1544 1544 to William Lord Parr, and afterwards in 1555, to Jolin Cheney and William Duncombe. It is at present a farm-house, the property of Lady Lucas. The only part of the conventual building which remains, is the refectory, now a barn, and known by the name of the Hall Barn. The parish Church is a handsome Gothic structure, with a fine spire, containing several monuments in memory of the families of Boteler and Alston, one to the memory of Mrs. Joliffe, daughter of Lord Curve, and another in memory of Mrs. Mead, the widow of Dr. Mead, the celebrated physician, who resided at a large house near the Church, at present the seat of Robert Garstin, Esq. There is a bridge over the Ouse at Harold, with a long causeway. BLETSOE, a small village on the left of our road, about six miles before we reach Bedford, was with the manor, part of the large possessions of Hugh de Beauchamp, at the time of the Norman survey. It afterwards came to the family of Patshul. It at present belongs to Henry Beauchamp, Lord St. John. The greater part of the mansion-house was pulled down many years since, and the remaining part has been converted into a farm-house. It appears to have formed one side of a quadrangular building. Some remains of the ancient castellated mansion are plainly discernible near the house There is a monument in the north aisle of the parish Church (which is the burial place of the noble family of St. John), with the effigies of a knight_in armour, and his lady, intended for Sir John St. John, father of Oliver, the first Lord St. John, whom he lived to see created a peer. Upon this monument is the following Latin inscription: "Infans, vir, Senior semper clarissimus Heros : Principibus puerum primis eduxit ab annis, Richmundæ Comitissæ, sui matertera alumni, Inde vir effectus, Regis pervenit ad aulam Mota sub Edwardo pendit Norfolcia Sexto, There is a monument in the same aisle to the memory of Frances, countess of Bolingbroke, daugh ter of William, duke of Newcastle. In the parish of THURLEY, or Thurleigh, about a mile east from Bletsoe, there are the remains of an ancient mansion, now a farm-house, called Blackburn Hall, alias Blackbull Hall, within a moated site; it is at present the property of the Rev. Hugh Wade Grey. Near the church is a circular mount, with an entrenchment, called Bury Hill, which was most probably the site of an ancient mansion, belonging to the lords of the manor of Thurleigh. About five miles from Bedford is MILTON ERNEST, a small village, in the hundred of Stodden, and deanery of Clopham. In the parish Church are several monuments in memory of the families of Turner and Rolt, formerly lords of the manor. Edmund Turner, Esq. of Panton in Lincolnshire, is at present the patron of the vicarage, which was munificently endowed in the year 1693, by his ancestor, Sir Edmund Turner, with the great tithes and a parsonage house. An alms-house was founded in this village by the above-mentioned Sir Edmund Turner, in 1695, for six poor persons, which he endowed with lands in c 3 Milton, Milton, Clopham, and Oakley, now let for 341. per annum. At RADWELL, a hamlet in the parish of Felmarsham, about a mile on the right of our road, six miles north-east from Bedford, there is a bridge over the Ouse. The manor-house is a very ancient building, and has in the window of an old hall, the arms of the Radwells, the former lords of the manor, impaling sable, a chevron between three lion's heads, erased argent, crowned, or. (Beauchamp.) The west end of Felmarsham Church affords a curious specimen of the earliest Gothic architecture. There is a very ancient and richly ornamented wooden skreen, between the nave and the chancel in this church. The church of CHILLINGTON, the adjoining parish, is situated, at a distance from the village, upon a hill, from whence there is a fine view of Odell Castle, Harold, and the river Ouse. In the parish Church of CARLTON, a village, about a mile west of Chillington, on the bordersof Buckinghamshire, there is an epitaph which records a remarkable instance of long incumbency. It is to the following effect: To the memory of Mr. Thomas Wills, who lived parson of Carlton and Chillington about threescore and ten years. He died the second of August 1642, aged above a hundred." There is a bridge over the Ouse in the parish of PAVINGHAM, on the right of our road, six miles north west from Bedford, called Stafford Bridge, with a causey of 36 arches, passable for carriages, but without a fence. The road over this bridge leads through OAKLEY, a small village, four miles northwest from Bedford, where the Duke of Bedford has a villa, at which he resided before he succeeded to the title. In the parish Church, which is an ancient Gothic structure, structure, there is an altar-tomb upon which is the effigies of one of the family of Reynes, in robes, with his arms and two otlier coats, under an ogie arch in the south wall. About a mile and a half west from Oakley, is STEVENTON, where there was formerly a castle built by Baldwin Wake in 1281; of this structure which was the residence of several noble families, there are at present no remains. The manor is now the property of Thomas Alston, Esq. Seven acres of land were given before the Reformation to the church of Steventon, for a drinking or church ale. There is an ancient cross in the centre of the village, consisting of a tall shaft, with a capital, placed on an ascent of several steps. The village of CLAPHAM, upon our road, about two miles before we reach Bedford, was formerly a chapelry to Oakley above-mentioned, and it is remarkable that although it has long been a distinct parish, the inhabitants still bury their dead there. The manor belongs to the Earl of Ashburnham; but the old mansion house has been for many years occupied as a farm-house. BEDFORD, The county town, and the most considerable both with respect to size and population, is situated on the river Ouse, which divides it in two parts, crossing in the direction of east and west. Bedford is a place of great antiquity, and is supposed by some writers to have been the Lactidorum of Antoninus; but Camden objects to this on the ground that the town is not situated on any Roman road, neither have any Roman coins ever been found here. In the time of the Saxons it was called Bedanford, or rather, according to Dr. Salmon, Bedicanford, words signifying the fortress on the ford. In these times it was undoubtedly a place of considerable consequence, |