BED 



The farms in Bedfordshire are not in general of grea' 

 extent. Some few contain from 500 to 600 acres, but the 

 average size is under 200. Leases for long terms are not 

 common, which is an obstacle to improvement. Farms 

 held from year to year may be kept in good heart, and 

 well cultivated, on the common established system, pro- 

 vided there be a just confidence in the honour of the land- 

 lord, that he will not suddenly or capriciously remove a 

 tenant ; but no great and permanent improvements can 

 be expected to be made, except by a proprietor or a lessee 

 for a considerable term. A tenant, liable to be ejected at 

 a short notice, cannot obtain credit to borrow money to lay 

 out on his farm ; and if he is prudent, will not lay out his 

 own capital on an uncertainty. Formerly there were many 

 small proprietors and yeomen occupying their own lands 

 to the amount of from twenty to fifty acres, but they are 

 mostly reduced to the state of cottagers and labourers. A 

 very few have had the good fortune to take advantage of the 

 high prices, and to sell their farms to the surrounding larger 

 proprietors ; but many, by increasing their occupations, 

 which required additional capital, have been led to mort- 

 gage their land, and have gradually been involved, till they 

 were obliged to sell their little property to pay the mortgage. 

 Thus a class in society, between the cottager and the large 

 farmer, has nearly disappeared. 



An agricultural society was established at Bedford in 

 1803, under the patronage of the Duke of Bedford, which 

 has done some good, and distributed rewards and prizes, 

 both for improvements in agriculture, and to encourage 

 industry ; but the true stimulus to improvement is profit, 

 and of late years this has been entirely wanting. The dis- 

 heartened farmer has no spirit to try experiments, which 

 require some outlay, without a rational prospect of an ade- 

 quate return : and the example of rich proprietors is seldom 

 followed, until the real profit is well ascertained, which it is 

 often very difficult to do. 



The following is a list of the fairs held in Bedfordshire : 

 Ampthill, May 4 ; Nov. 30. Bedford, First Tuesday in 

 Lent; April 21; July 5; Aug. 21; Oct. 11; Dec. 19. 

 Biggleswade, Feb. 14; Easter Saturday; Whitsun-Mon- 

 day ; Aug. 2 ; Nov. 8. Dunstable, Ash- Wednesday ; May 

 22 ; Aug. 12 ; Nov. 12. Elstow, May 15 and 16 ; Nov. 5 

 and 6. Harrold, Tuesday before Old May-day, Old 

 Midsummer-day, and Old Michaelmas-day. Ickwell, parish 

 of Northell, April 6. Leighton Buzzard, Feb. 5 : second 

 Tuesday in April ; Whitsun-Tuesday ; July 26 ; Oct. 24. 

 St. Leonard's, near Bedford, Nov. 17. Luton, April 18; 

 Oct. 18. Odell, Whitsiin-Thursday. Potton, Jan. 27; 

 last Tuesday in April; first Tuesday in July; Tuesday 

 before Oot. 29. ShefTord, Jan. 23 ; Old Ladv-day ; May 

 19; Oct. 11. Selsoe, May 13; Sept. 21. Tuddington, 

 April 25 ; first Monday in June j Sept. 4 ; Nov. 2 ; Dec. 

 16. Woburn, Jan. 1 ; March 23 ; July 13 ; Sept. 2.5. 



Jiirisions, Tntrns, <. Bedfordshire is divided into nine 

 hundreds: viz., Stodden, Willfly.and Barford in the north; 

 Biggleswade and Clifton in the east; Wixamtree in the 

 i. ire; Redboruestoke in the west; and Manshead and 

 Flitt in the south. The names of all these appear in the 

 Domesday survey, together with the following three half 

 hundreds: Stanburge, Weneslai, and Buchelai, These 

 half hundreds are now incorporated with the hundreds. The 

 town of Bedford also formed a half hundred by itself. The 

 number of parishes is given in Camden's Britannia as 1 16 ; 

 but by the population returns they appear to amount to 124, 

 beside* emu district (Chicksands) which is extra-parochial. 

 Of these 124 parishes, one extend* into Huntingdonshire, 

 one into Hertfordshire, and one into Northamptonshire. 



The number of market towns is ten : Bedford, the 

 county town, on the Ouse, is a parliamentary borough. The 

 population of its five parishes amounted, by the returns of 

 18.J1, to 6959. Luton, on the Lea, in the southern part of 

 tin; county, comes next in respect of population. The town- 

 ship of Luton contained, in 1831, 3961 inhabitants, and the 

 whole parish of Luton 5693. Leighton Buzzard, or Busard 

 (population of township, in 1831, 3330, of the whole parish 

 5 1 49), is on the Ouzel. Biggleswade is on the Ivel ; it had, 

 in 1831, 3226 inhabitants. Dunstable (population, in 1831, 

 2117), once a parliamentary borough, and still retaining 

 something of the form of a corporation, is in the south part 

 of the county, between Luton and Leighton Buzzard. 

 These are the only towns which have more than 2000 inha- 

 bitants. [Seo BEDFORD, BIGGLKSWADK, DUNSTABLE, 

 LKIOHTO.V BUZZAHO, and LUTON.] The others, with their 



BED 



population in 1831, are as follows. Woburn (population 

 1827), a short distance north by east of Leighton Buzzard, 

 and on the high road to Manchester and Liverpool ; Potton 

 (population 1768), in the east part of the county, on the 

 border towards Cambridgeshire ; Ampthill (population 1688), 

 on the road between Dunstable and Bedford ; Harrold (po- 

 pulation 995), on the river Ouse, in the north-west part 

 of the county, on the border of Northamptonshire; and 

 Shefford on the stream described as the principal branch of 

 the Ivel (population 763). The market of Toddington 

 (population 1926), between Dunstable and Ampthill, has 

 been discontinued of late years. Of these smaller places 

 we subjoin a few other particulars. 



Woburn, 41 or 42 miles from London, is a well built and 

 well paved town, with broad and handsome streets. It owes 

 much of its appearance to the circumstance of its having 

 been almost entirely rebuilt since 1724, when it was de- 

 stroyed by fire. It has a good market-house, built by the 

 Bedford family after the great fire just noticed, and much 

 improved by the present duke, from picturesque designs of 

 Mr. Blore. The parish church and school-house have also 

 been enlarged at his Grace's expense, by the same eminent 

 architect ; and a beautiful lantern and pinnacles have been 

 added to the church tower. It has a parish church (the 

 living is a perpetual curacy, with a commodious glebe house, 

 in the gift of the Duke of Bedford), two dissenting meeting- 

 houses (Independent and Methodist), some alms-houses, 

 and a large free-school, conducted on the Lanoasterian sys- 

 tem. The chief employments of the poor are straw-hat and 

 lace-making. There are four fairs in the year ; and the 

 market is held weekly on Friday. A divisional or petty 

 session is held in the market-house every fortnight. 



There was an abbey of Cistercian monks at Woburn, 

 founded by Hugh do Bolebeo, A.D. 1145. It was valued at 

 the dissolution at 43 dl. \3s. \\d. gross income, or 39 \l. \8s.8rt. 

 clear yearly value. (Tanner's Not. Man.) The lust abbot, 

 Robert Hobs, was executed for denying the king's supre- 

 macy ; and the site of the abbey was granted to John, Lord 

 Russell, afterwards Earl of Bedford. Part of the old abbey 

 remains, but has been converted into the Duke of Bedford's 

 magnificent mansion which still retains the name. The 

 present abbey was partly put into its present form about 

 :he middle, and partly towards the end, of the last cen- 

 ury, and occupies four sides of a quadrangle, presenting 

 "our fronts of above 2UO feet. The west or principal front is 

 of the Ionic order, with a rustic basement. The offices are 

 at a short distance from the mansion ; and the park is finely 

 liversified with wood and water. The tree on which Abbot 

 Hobs was hung is still standing, and is carefully preserved. 

 The abbey is adorned with some interesting portraits, includ- 

 ng those of Queens Mary and Elizabeth ; another of Mary 

 with her husband, Philip of Spain; Lady Jane Seymour, 

 wife of Henry VIII., and mother of Edward VI.; Anne of 

 Denmark, wife of James I. ; Sir Philip Sidney ; William 

 Lord Russell, beheaded in 1683 ; Rachel Wriothesley, his 

 admirable wife; General Monk ; Cecil, Lord Burleigh ; and 

 many others. In the dining-room is a fine collection of 

 wrtraits by Vandyke ; and in the breakfast-room a nume- 

 ous series of views in Venice, by Conaletti, painted ori- 

 nnally for Bedford House. In the sculpture gallery are the 

 mtique vase known as the Lanti vase, brought over to Eng- 

 "and by Lord Cawdor, and a very lar.ge marble antient sar- 

 :ophagus (brought from Ephesus), on the four sides of which 

 ire sculptured the sad story of Achilles dragging Hector's 

 jody, Priam's ransoming it at its weight in gold, and other 

 Mst-Homeric traditions of the woes of Andromache and 

 Astyanax. In the park is a farm-yard on the most exten- 

 sive scale, and furnished with every convenience. It ori- 

 ginated with Francis, brother and predecessor of the present 

 Duke of Bedford. 



Potton, 50 miles from London, and 6 or 7 from Biggles- 

 wade, has a good corn market, though not equal to what it 

 was formerly ; the decline is attributed by some to a fire 

 which, in 1 783, destroyed above fifty houses, and did damage 

 :o the amount of more than 25,000^. The living is a vicarage 

 n the gift of the crown. It was once held by the celebrated 

 Stillingfleet, who wrote here his Origines Sacrec, a work 

 esteemed one of the best defences of revealed religion. 



Ampthill, 45 miles from London, and 8 from Bedford, has 

 an inconsiderable market, and one annual fair. It has a 

 good market-house; and near the middle of the town stands 

 an obelisk of Portland stone, in which is a pump. Near the 

 town is Ampthill House, the seat of Lord Holland. Ampt- 



