



ASHOVER. 



upper icliool 43, and in the lower <>r Kngliah school 120 scholars. 

 There are also Illue-coat Khool, founded in 1699 by Mr. Edward 

 Dewson, for educating and clothing 26 boys; a Oreon-euat school, 

 founded by A Merman Newton in 1709, for educating and clothing 25 

 boy*; Langley*! school for 18 girls; National and lufiint schools; 

 and a savings bank. Several religious and charitable inxtitutioua are 

 in the town. The Union workhouse has accommodation for 300 



The railway from Leicester to Burton-upon-Trent passes by Ashby- 

 de-U Touch, where is a handsome and commodious station. A tram- 

 road of about two miles in length connects the town with the Ashby 

 canal. The canal is 30 miles long from the Willesby basin to its 

 junction with the Coventry canal ; it has no locks in its course. The 

 canal and the railway are of great service for the conveyance of coal 

 and ironstone, which are worked in the neighbourhood of the town. 

 The townsmen are chiefly employed in trade ; the few manufactures 

 carried on are on a small scale. The market is held on Saturday. 

 There are fairs for cattle and horses on the day before Shrove Tuesday, 

 Easter Tuesday, Whit Tuesday, and November 10th. There is also a 

 statute fair for hiring servants, on the Tuesday following September 

 21st 



In 1 805 a saline spring was discovered in a coal-field, two or three 

 miles from the town. The water is impregnated with muriate of 

 soda to a greater degree than sea-water, and with a certain portion of 

 bromine. In 1820 the Marquis of Hastings, who is lord of Ashby 

 manor, erected the Ivanhoe Baths, an extensive and commodious 

 building, having a frontage of above 200 feet, with a colonnade and 

 portico of the Ionic order ; a large hotel ; and a number of handsome 

 lodging-houses, at a cost in all of upwards of 20,000/. For some time 

 the baths were much frequented, and the town derived great advan- 

 tage from the influx of visitors ; but the bath and houses are now 

 almost deserted. 



The parish is the largest in the county, and includes the hamlets of 

 Blackfordby and Boothorpe. Kilwardby and the Calais, which now 

 form parts of the town, were once distinct hamlets. Ashby was the 

 native town of the eminent Bishop Halt In the civil war in the time 

 of Charles I., Ashby was garrisoned for the king, but it was evacuated 

 and dismantled by capitulation. In an open pasture on the south side 

 of the town, on a gentle eminence, stand the picturesque ruins of the 

 castle of Ashby. This castle seems to have been of vast extent and 

 very lofty. The great hall, the kitchen, various chambers of state, the 

 chapel, &c. are yet traceable, and in them are found, in good pre- 

 servation, rich doorways, chimney-pieces, arms, devices, and other 

 ornamental accompaniments. Within the last few years the more 

 threatening dilapidations have been repaired and the ruins cleared 

 out Aahby Castle is of different dates ; it was enlarged and almost 

 rebuilt by Lord Hastings, a nobleman of great power in the time of 

 Edward IV., who was beheaded by order of the Duke of Gloucester 

 (afterwards Richard III.), shortly after Edward's death. It was one 

 <>f tli<- places in which Mary Queen of Scots was confined. 



(Nichols's J/itlory of Leicatcrthirc ; Guide to AMy-de-la-Zouch ; 

 CorrrtponJenl at Aihbg-dt-la-Zouch.) 



ASHDOD (the Azotos of the Greeks, now Esdud), situated on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, in Palestine, in 31 45' N. Ink, 34 37' 

 K long., is distant about 11 miles N.K. from Ascalon. The mention 

 of this place occurs frequently in the Old Testament; it wan one of 

 the fire rhilintinc cities, and at the division of the promised land it 

 fell to the lut of the tribe of Judah (Joshua, xv.), who however appear 

 not to have obtained possession ; for we find (1 Samuel, v.) that 300 

 years subsequently the Philistines in their wars with the Jews having 

 captured the ark of the covenant, brought it to Ashdod, and placed it 

 in the temple of their god Dagon, which Ml to the earth before it. 

 iMvid probably got possession of Ashdod when ho "took Oath mid 

 it* towns out of the hands of the Philistines" (1 Chron. xviii. 1). 

 About 200 years later, Uuiah, king of Juilali, " warred against the 

 I'hilintines, and brake down the wall of Oath, and the wall of Jabnen. 

 and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdwl and among 

 the Philistines " (2 Chron. xxrL 6). Asbdod was taken by the 

 Assyrians about B.C. 714, but afterwards fell into the hands of the 

 Egyptians (about B.C. 620), after sustaining, according to Herodotus, 

 a siege and blockade of 29 rears in the reign of Psammetichus, during 

 which it must have suffered greatl v .h call* it " the remnant 



of Ashdod." One of the greatest difficulties with l,i. 1. N.-hemiah 

 (about B.C. 440) had to contend was the rclation.hip formed between 

 the people of Ashdod and the Jews, several of whom had " married 

 wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moah : J.: Th 



temple of Dagon was destroyed by Jonathan Maccabeus, and the 

 town burnt during the wars between Alexander Balas and Deme- 

 trius It seems never to have recovered ite former splendour, though 

 A. Oabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, ordered it to be rebuilt. By 

 the Romans it was called Aiotus, and it is also noticed by this name 

 .ho and the Act* of the Apostles. Esdud is now a small village, 

 with a population .,( about 300. The principal object is a large 

 Turki.h khan for traveller*, which appears to occupy the site of some 

 ancient building- probably one of the primitive Christian churohes, 

 as an alter and cross are still standing, and there is an inscription 

 over the door in some Eastern lamnuce. 



ASHDOWX FOREST. * 



AMIKoK, iiuu-kel -u>wa ..I the parin .laud 



hundred of Chart and Lougliriilgc, stands on an eminence near the 

 conflue branches of the river Stour, in 51 9' N. 



lat, 52' E. long., distant in mil.* S.K. fi.'iu Maidstoue, 63 miles 

 S.K. fi by road, and '.'"! milcn by the South Kastern rail- 



way : the imputation nf the town in 1N~>1 was 4092. The juris, i 

 is in the county magistrates, the court-led of the manor having become 

 almost obsolete. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry of 

 Maidstone and diocese of Canterbury. Ashford gives its name to two 

 Poor-Law Unions. East Aahfonl I'nion (the seat of which is at \Vil- 

 lesborough) contains 25 parishes and townships, with an area of 

 54,504 acres, and a population in 1S51 of 11,945. West Ashfor.1 

 (the aeat of which is at Weetwell) contains 12 parishes, including that 

 of Ashford, with on area of 37,821 acres, and a population in 1851 of 

 13,313. 



In Domesday Book the town is called Esteford ; and in subsequent 

 documents it occurs as Eshetysford ; the name is il.-r....l from there 

 having been a ford here over the Eshet, as the west branch of the 

 upper Stour was formerly called. The town is pleasantly situated, and 

 is lighted with gas ; it consists chiefly of an open street, nearly :i mile 

 long, with good residences and shops on each side. The church is a 

 cruciform structure of perpendicular style, with a central tower, which 

 is surmounted with four pinnacles. The tower is of somewhat later 

 date than the body of the church. It is of remarkably elegant pro- 

 portions. In the church is the monument of Sir John Fagge, who 

 erected the tower, and also left an endowment for the repairs of the 

 church, which with subsequent bequests amounts to nearly 2001. per 

 annum. Sir John also founded a college for a master, two chaplains, 

 and two lay clerks, but it was suppressed at the dissolution. In the 

 church ore three sumptuous monuments to the Smyth family ; and its 

 present representative, Viscount Strongford, has recently added a 

 stained glass window emblazoning the family quarterings. There is a 

 very curious old brass dated 1374. In the town are places of worship 

 for Wesleyan Methodists, Baptists, the Countess of Huntingdon's Con- 

 nexion, and Quakers. A Grammar-school near the church, founded 

 in 1623 l.y Sir Norton Knatehbull, in whose descendants the appoint- 

 ment of the master still remains, has an income of about 30/. a year, 

 and had 12 day pupils and 37 boarders in 1851. There are also 

 National and British schools. In the centre of the town in the 

 assembly-room and court-house, which, besides the purposes implied 

 in its name, serves as a commodious corn-market. A mechanics 

 tute is in the town, and another in the recently formed Railway 

 i. There is a savings bonk. A bridge of one arch has been lately 

 constructed over the Stour in place of a former one of four arches. 



The only manufacture at Ashford is of dmlr A corn-market is 

 held every Tuesday. On the first and third Tuesdays in each month 

 a market for fat-stock is held, which from its vicinity to the well- 

 known grazing district, Romney Marsh, ranks first in the county, and 

 is largely attended by the London and country dealers. The three 

 annual cattle fairs in Hay, September, and October, are now of little 

 tmportaaoB, 



A large increase in the population of Ashford has taken place, 

 mainly owing to Ashford having been made a first-class station for the 

 South-Eastern railway, and the place of junction with the branch 

 lines to Hastings and Ramsgate. Owing to its convenient position, 

 the railway company have erected near the station a new village, 

 comprising a factory for the repair of their locomotive engines, and 

 extensive buildings for making and storing their carriages, together 

 with about two hundred dwellings for their workmen. The railway, 

 with its connected works, gives considerably increased importance to 

 Ashford and its neighbourhood. 



C'tmmunicatimufrom Asltfunl.) 



ASIItiVKR, Derbyshire, a town in the parish of Ashover and 

 hundred of Scarsdale, is pleasantly situated in a deep narrow valley, 

 watered by the river Aml r. in .Vt" !' N. lat, 1 28' \V. long., distant 

 80 mflM N. from I'erl.y. l.'i? mile VW. from London byroad, and 

 1)4 milcx from the Strati ( the Midland railway, which is 



149 j miles from London. The living is a rectory in the archdeaconry 

 of I >ei by :i:i,| ilioecxc of Lichficld : the population of the entire 

 |rish in 1851 wax 



The town is well watered by a number of clear -]>nn^ winch issue 

 from beneath the gritstone rocks ; these swell the little river Amber, 

 win. h ri-.-.i in the parixh ami flown through it. The church was 

 originally erected in 121!<; it ha* a handsome *pi n tains 



several monuments of the Babiugton and other families. In it is a 

 singular ancient leaden font, hexagonal in the lower part, but in the 

 upper ; i , and ornamented with rudely executed figures in 



bas-relief. There is an endowed school, with a school-house built in 

 1703; also a school for girls, built by the rector (the Rev. Joseph 

 Nodder) in 1846, and given by him to the minister and churchw:. 

 for ever. There are meeting-houses for Wcsleyan and Primitive 

 sfetbodltta, 



were in the parish considerable lead-mines, but they 

 have long ceased to be worked. Limestone is quarried to some 

 extent Medicinal herbs ore cultivated in considerable quair 

 There is a twisting mill for the Nottingham lace manufacture. 

 Stocking-weaving, once an important branch of industry, is on the 

 decline, and tambour-working has ceased. In fact, owing to the cessa- 



