15 E D 



13G 



BED 



who bequeathed them a shilling each weekly, payable out of 

 the great tithes of St. 1'uul a. The county posee a spacious 

 hiualic asylum in St. Mary's parish, capable of arrommo- 

 daiini! - \:v -;\ patients. It wa* opened in 1612, being the 

 first county institution of the kind erected under the act of 

 parliament to that effect. Private patients pay from one to 

 three guinea* per week ; and paupers from nine to twelve 

 shilling, the deficiency being made up from the funds of 

 the county treasury. An unusual degree of liberty is al- 

 lowed to the unfortunate inmates through the good manage- 

 ment of the superintendent. 



The general infirmary is also a noble building, situated, 

 like the former, at a convenient distance from the town. It 

 wat erected in 1 803, chietly from funds bequeathed by Sa- 

 muel Whitbread, Esq. It was originally intended for fifty 

 patients, but has since been enlarged, and continues to be 

 supported by subscription. The Marquess of Tavistock, 

 after a contested election for the county, in which he refused 

 to expend a shilling, pave towards enlarging the infirmary, 

 the sum (2000/.) which would probably have been expended 

 in treating the electors. In cases of need, the surrounding 

 counties are allowed to participate in the benefits of this in- 

 stitution. A charity school for twenty children of the 

 parishes of St. Paul and St. Cuthbert, was founded before 

 1 737, by the Rev. Mr. Leith and others. Bedford is, how- 

 ever, chietly indebted for its charities to Sir William Harpur, 

 alderman of London, who, in the reign of Edward VI., 

 founded a free-school for the instruction of the children 

 of the town, in grammar and good manners. The donor 

 conveyed to the corporation thirteen acres ofland in the 

 parish of St. Andrew, Holbom (London), for the support 

 of this school, and for portioning poor maidens of the town ; 

 the overplus, if any, to be given in alms to the poor. The 

 land having been let on building leases. Lamb's Conduit 

 Street, Harpur Street, Theobald's Road, Bedford Street, 

 Bedford Row, New North Street, East Street, Green Street, 

 and some smaller streets, were built upon it ; and thus 

 the property has gradually risen in value from below ISO/, 

 n year to upwards of 13,500/. which was its amount in 1833. 

 A property thus greatly increased in value has several 

 times required the interposition of Parliament to regulate 

 its distribution. It at present supports a grammar-school, 

 containing about eighty boys on the foundation, nnd as 

 many private boarders; a commercial school, containing 

 1 00 to 1 50 boys : and a national-school, containing 350 boys : 

 in the latter I 70 girls are received on half-holidays ; a re- 

 gular girls' school, and an infant school are about to be added. 

 Besides which, the girls in the hospital for poor children, 

 another branch of the charity, are taught household duties, 

 needle-work, reading and writing, by the mistress. In these 

 schools provision is made for the gratuitous instruction of the 

 children of all resident parishioners of the five parishes of 

 the town of Bedford. Books, &c., are gratuitously sup- 

 plied. About twenty -five boys in the national-school are 

 clothed from a fund left by Alderman Newton, of Leicester. 

 A new building, for the English and national schools, con- 

 taining large school-rooms, a blue-coat hospital, for the board 

 and education of boys and girls, and a committee-room, 

 clerk's house, &r., have lately been erected in the Tudor style 

 of architecture, by the trustees of Sir \V. Harpur's charity. 

 Part of the income from Sir W. Harpur's charity is also 

 appropriated to the support of alms-houses, to the portioning 

 young women in marriage, and to other benevolent objects. 

 The proportions in which the income is distributed will be 

 l>cttcr understood by reference to the following extract from 

 the account given of the expenditure for the year, from 

 October 1 833, to October 1 834 : 



By Schools, viz. t. d. 



Grammar . . . 1581 IS 5 



English . . . 673 7 1 



Preparatory, commercial . 105 1-1 11 



National . 269 9 10 



Brought forward . 

 Almshouses 



Distributed to the poor . 



Salaries .... 

 Repairs, fittings, and furniture for 



new hospital 



New schools and other buildings 

 Books, stationery, printing, & stamps 

 Taxes, insurance, and miscellaneous 

 Law expense! . . 

 Letting estates, &c. . 



16.363 12 11 



The grammar-school now contains 76 town boys, and has 

 been brought to a high degree of excellence, through the 

 exertions of the present head-master, the Rev. Dr. Brercton, 

 whose salary is 250/. per annum, with a house tax free, 

 coals and candles, together with five guineas from each 

 town boy (paid out of the school fund), and the privili 

 taking boarders, at present (1835) amounting to 7. The 

 second master has a salary of l-lll/., and four guineas with 

 every town txiy on the foundation, with a house. &c., as 

 above. A third master has this year been added, with a 

 salary of ISO/, per annum. The mathematical muster has 

 a salary of 100/., and three guineas with every towr 

 learning mathematics. The salary of the writing master is 

 SO/, per annum. The warden and fellows of New College, 

 Oxford, are visitors of the school, and appoint the n 

 and second master. The exhibitions are eight in number, 

 of the value of SO/, per annum each; and are designed for 

 boys educated in the school to assist them in completing 

 their education at Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin. S 

 the exhibitions are holdcn exclusively by town boys: but 

 the examiners from New College are at liberty, as they 

 see fit, to bestow the other two on the most deserving of 

 boarders. 



(Cough's Camden's Britannia ; Lysons's Magna Britan- 

 nia ; Grose's Antiquities : Brayley and Britton's Beavties 

 of England nnd Wales; Rickman's K*say nn Gothic. 

 Architecture: Itnundtiry Reports ; Accounts of the /W- 

 ford Charity for \W\; Reports on Charities; Communica- 

 tions from Hertford, <X-c.) 



BEDFORD, DUKE OF, Regent of France. .Urn 

 Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, was the third son of Henry 

 IV. and Mary Bohun, daughter of the Earl of Hereford. 

 He was knighted at the coronation of his father, October 

 1399, 'by bathing and other sacred ceremonies,' being at 

 the time not quite ten years old. He was created Duke nf 

 Bedford in the second year of the reign of his brother. 

 Henry V., 'at the request of the Ixmls and C'omi 

 (Rolls of Parliament, quoted in Hallam's Middle Ages. vol. 

 iii. p. 193.) During the lifetime of his father he 

 governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and warden of the Scot- 

 tish Marshes; and during his brother's absence in France, 

 he was governor and Commander-in-chief of the for. 

 England. 



Henry V. died after a short illness, in 1-12-2, at the early 

 age of thirty-six years, leaving an infant successor only 

 nine months old, with the disputed honour of king of 

 France as a portion of his inheritance. On his death-lied 

 he expressed his earnest desire, that Bedford should ' take up 

 the administration of the affairs of France ' during the mi- 

 nority of the young king. leaving the less difficult admi- 

 nistration of affairs at home to the conduct of his younger 

 brother Gloucester, under the title of Protector. In love 

 of martial glory, and in military talents, the Duke of Bed- 

 ford was little, if at all, inferior to the deceased hero. II.- 

 was, after the death of Henry, considered, says Hapin. in a 

 portrait, which though highly coloured, has been implicitly 

 adopted by Hume, to be the 'most accomplished prince in 

 Europe. Wise, judicious, of great valour, solidity, and pe- 

 netration, master of his passions, and of a genius superior 

 to all employed by him ; he seemed born for a throne, 

 though Providence had ranked him among subjects. To all 

 thrsr qualities be added a majestic statclmr-s, which be- 

 came his birth and high rank in France and England. But 

 this he never carried beyond what was necessary to com- 

 mand a due respect and regard for his person and authority. 

 To sum up his character in a word, he was perfectly like 

 the late king his brother, and in all his actions tooU him 

 for his pattern.' No greater proof, indeed, of tlie high esti- 

 mation in which he was held by his contemporaries need 

 be given, than the circumstance that the Lords and Com- 



