BED 



141 



BED 



near the centre of the county, rather nearer to the N. and 

 W. boundaries. It is 46 miles, measured in a direct line 

 from London (i. e. from St. Paul's), from which it lies N. by 

 W., or N.N.W. ; but by the road through Barnet, Hatfield, 

 Hitchin, and Shefford, it is 50 miles. The area of the county is 

 463 square statute miles, or 296,320 acres ; or, taking the sum 

 of the areas assigned to the different parishes, 297,632 acres. 

 tt is the smallest county in England, except Huntingdon, 

 Middlesex, and Rutland. The population in 1831 was 

 95,483. (Population Returns, 1831; Enumeration Ab- 

 i tract.) 



Surface, Hydrography, Communications. Bedfordshire 

 has no high lands of any great extent. The range of the 

 Chiltern hills (under the name of the Dunstable and 

 Luton Downs) crosses it in a N.E. direction, near Dun- 

 stable, separating the basin of the Thames from that of 

 the Ouse. Another ridge, having the same general direc- 

 tion, extends from Ampthill to near the Junction of the 

 Ivel with the Ouse. Some hills, between which the Ouse 

 winds its course, and in which some of its feeders take their 

 rise, occupy the north-west parts of the county. Between 

 these hills and the Ampthill ridge is the vale of Bedford, 

 a corn district of considerable extent. The woodlands are 

 chieHy of modern origin, having been planted during the 

 latter part of the last century : they consist chiefly of oak, 

 Scotch fir, larch, and underwood of various kinds. 



The chief river is the Ouse, which, approaching the 

 county from Buckinghamshire, and forming for a short dis- 

 tance the boundary of the two counties, crosses Bedfordshire 

 with so winding a course, that although the distance from 

 the point where it first enters the county, to the point 

 where it leaves, is, in a direct line, not quite 17 miles, the 

 length of the river itself, between the same points, is pro- 

 bably not less than 45 miles. The average depth of the 

 Ouse is considered to be about ten feet, and it is fordable in 

 several places. It is subject to sudden and destructive inun- 

 dations at all seasons. In its course through Bedfordshire 

 it is increased by many streams, which How into it on each 

 bank, but none of these are of any size or importance ex- 

 cept the Ivel. The Ivel is commonly considered to have its 

 source near Baldock, in Hertfordshire, but the principal 

 branch of it rises on the N.W. slope of the Chiltern hills, 

 a little to the N.E. of Dunstuble. and (lowing to the N.E., 

 unites with the Ouse at the village of Tempsford, after a 

 course of about 30 miles. The streams which form another 

 considerable feeder of the Ouse cross the county in its 

 northern part. The river Lea, which falls into the Thames 

 just below London, rises on the opposite slope of the same 

 range of hills as the Ivel, and not far from the springs 

 of that river ; but only a small part of its course is in Bed- 

 fordshire. The Ouzel, a tributary of the Ouse, separates 

 Bedfordshire from Buckinghamshire, but is to be considered 

 as properly belonging to the latter county. The fish of 

 the Ouse are pike, perch, tench, bream, chub, bleak, cray- 

 fi>h, fine eels, dace, roach and gudgeon. Bleak abound 

 particularly about Bedford bridge. Eels are found in the 

 greatest abundance and of the largest size at Stoke mill, 

 near Melchbourne. The fish of the Ivel are, for the most 

 part, the same as those of the Ouse : it is particularly 

 famous for gudgeon. 



The navigation of the Ouse commences at Bedford, and 

 that of the Ivel at Shcfford : by means of these rivers the 

 county communicates with Huntingdonshire, Cambridge- 

 shire, and Norfolk ; and, more remotely, with other coun- 

 ties. There are no canals in Bedfordshire, but the Grand 

 Junction Canal approaches close to its western border at 

 Leighton Buzzard. The great road to Manchester, Leeds, 

 Carlisle, and Glasgow, passes through it on the S.W. side, 

 and the high north road, through York and Edinburgh, on 

 the eastern side. 



Geological character. The range of the Chiltern hills 

 consists of chalk, which occupies the south-eastern part of 

 the county ; and is skirted along its N.W. boundary by 

 a belt of indurated chalk-marl, much covered by the debris 

 of the chalk hills. This chalk-marl is known in the county 

 by the name of clunch, and is extensively quarried at Tot- 

 ternhoc near Dunstable. It affords, by burning, a good 

 lime. The chalk-marl is blended with a blue marl, which 

 may perhaps be identical with the weald-clay of Kent, Surrey 

 and Sussex, or with what has been denominated the Folk- 

 stone clay. Iron-sand, the lowest of the formations which 

 intervene between the chalk and the oolites, stretches 

 across the county in the same direction as the other forma- 



tions, viz., from S.W. to N.E. Beds of fullers' earth, which 

 occur in it, have been extensively worked, and in Fuller's 

 time this mineral was known by the name of Woburne 

 earth. The same formation contains also a considerable 

 quantity of fossil wood. This iron-sand rises into a well- 

 defined range of hills. 



To the iron-sand succeeds a tenaceous adhesive clay, of a 

 dark blue colour, becoming brown on exposure, and known 

 by the name of Oxford clay. This stratum forms the vale 

 of Bedford, and affords a strong clay soil, occupied chiefly in 

 pasturage. It supplies several brick-kilns in the immediate 

 vicinity of the town, in one of which part of a new species 

 of Plesiosaurus was discovered in 1833. Many vertebra of 

 fossil Sauri have been found at Nemenham Mill, near Gol- 

 diagton : and an entire Plesiosaurus, of large dimensions, 

 was discovered in 1833, in a brick-field about two miles 

 north-west of Bedford, near the Ouse. The appearance of 

 coal gave rise to some attempts to find that mineral, at 

 Elstow near Bedford, which ended in disappointment. In 

 the N.W. part of the county, the Cornbrash limestone ap- 

 pears, and is quarried in several places. The Oxford clay 

 and the Cornbrash limestone are parts of the oolitic series. 

 (Conybeare and Phillips's Outlines of the Geology of 

 England and Wales ; Smith's Map and Delineation of the 

 Strata of England and Wales.) 



Several springs in the county are impregnated with dif- 

 ferent minerals, but none of them are of any note. Dray ton, 

 in his Poly-Olbion (22nd song), as quoted by Fuller, speaks 

 of a brook at Apsley Guise, near Woburn, the earth on the 

 banks of which had a petrifying qualit/: but this account 

 has been ascertained to be incorrect. Drayton's lines are as 

 follows : 



' The brook which on her bank doth boast that earth alone. 

 Which, noted oCttrs isle, convertcth wood to stone. 

 That little Aefieley's earth we antieutly instill 

 'Mongst sundry other things, a wonder of the isle.' 



Late compilers, borrowing probably from Drayton and 

 Fuller, speak of a petrifying spring near Woburn. 



Climate, Agriculture. The climate of this county, par- 

 taking of that of the interior of England, is not so wet as the 

 western coast, nor so much exposed to cold winds as the 

 eastern maritime counties. The air in general is mild and 

 healthy, somewhat keen on the chalky hills, and moister on 

 the cold, wet clays. The surface of the county is much 

 varied; but none of the hills rise high or abruptly, with the 

 exception of the chalky ridge, which is a continuation of the 

 Chiltern hills, and which appears high only by comparison 

 with more gentle undulations. Many of the slopes of the 

 hills are skirted with woods and coppice, which add much to- 

 the general appearance of the country when viewed from ail 

 eminence. The soil varies greatly. On entering the county 

 from the south the soil is composed of chalk, covered with a 

 very thin layer of earth, which is consequently nearly in a 

 state of nature, and only fit for sheep-walks. On descending 

 the hills there occurs a mixture of chalk and clay, known by 

 the name of ' white land,' which is stiff, but tolerably fertile- 

 Various kinds of loam, chiefly clay, succeed, till you arrive 

 at a sandy belt which stretches obliquely across the county 

 from Leighton Buzzard to Biggleswade and Potton on the: 

 Borders of Cambridgeshire. Along this belt runs the river 

 [vel, which falls into the Ouse at Tempsford. Between the- 

 course of the Ivel and the valley of the Ouse near Bedford! 

 ies a tract of stiff soil of various texture and quality, but. 

 quite different from the light soils found in the belt. Along; 

 the course of the Ouse, especially near Bedford, a gravelly soil 

 irevails, covered in some places with a layer of rich, brown 

 sarth, well adapted for every kind of agricultural produce;. 

 Proceeding north of Bedford the general character of the- 

 soil is stiff, wet, and poor, with very few exceptions. The 

 most fertile spots in the county are in the brown earth. 

 Before-mentioned in the valley of the Ouse near Bedford, 

 and in the sandy belt, where the soil washed down from the 

 nils has accumulated, in particular basins, on a porous sub- 

 stratum. These soils, composed of rich loam and of great 

 depth, are admirably adapted for market-gardens, for which 

 .he county has long been noted. The parish of Sandy in 

 lartii'ular, not far from Biggleswade, and some others, pro- 

 luce an abundance of vegetables, not only for the supply of 

 the neighbourhood, but also for distant markets. At the 

 same time there are spots, both in the chalky hills and in 

 :he sandy eminences, which are as barren and unproduc- 

 tive as any in England ; especially where a grey, loose sand 

 abounds, on which nothing but ling or heath will grow. 



