BED 



147 



BED 



violence (housebreaking) ; 86 offences against property with- 

 out violence; 68 of the offences in this class are described 

 as simple larceny ; 7 were malicious offences against pro- 

 perty (killing and maiming cattle, and arson) ; of the re- 

 maining 44 charges, 12 were offences against the game 

 laws, and 32 were for trifling breaches of the peace. The 

 total number of convictions was 130, only 5 of which were 

 for capital offences, and the sentences upon these 5 convicts 

 having been commuted for transportation, 4 for life and 1 

 for fourteen years; no execution took place within the 

 county during the year. Of the 1 64 persons charged 1 58 

 were males, and only 6 females ; their ages respectively Were 

 as follows : 



Females. 



158 6 



The proportion of offenders to the population was 1 in 

 582 ; the proportion for the whole of England and Wales 

 was 1 in 6 1 9. The centesimal proportion of offences com- 

 mitted with violence was 16'47, the proportion for England 

 and Wales being 1 7'44. Offences against property in this 

 county 52'44, in all England 73'97. Malicious offences 

 4'27 in Bedfordshire, and 0'72 in all England. Other 

 offences (game laws and breaches of the peace), centesimal 

 proportion in Bedfordshire 26'82, in all England and Wales 

 5'95. There was not any charge in this county in 1834, 

 for forgery and offences against the currency : the centesi- 

 mal proportion of this class of crimes for the whole of Eng- 

 land and Wales was 1'92. 



There are three savings' banks in the county, at Bed- 

 ford, Ampthill, and Biggleswade : the total number of de- 

 positors on 3 Oth November, 1833, was 1858, and the amount 

 deposited 63,333/. More than half tho accounts were for 

 sums under 2(ll. : the whole may be classed thus : 



948 depositors under 20 7,u70 deposited. 

 502 30 15,331 



250 100 17,868 ,. 



85 ' 150 10,138 



56 800 9,402 



17 above 200 4,124 ,, 



Total 1858 depositors, entitled tu 63,333 savings depos. 



Education. The following abstract of the establishments 

 for education, and the number of scholars attending the 

 same, in the county of Bedford, is taken from returns pre- 

 sented by command of his Majesty to the House of Com- 

 mons, during the present Session. (1835.) We have kept 

 it distinct from the other part, as the returns are made on a 

 different principle, 



Maintenance of Schools. 



Schools established ( Infant Schools . . 

 by Dissenters ia- < Daily Schools . . . 

 eluded ia the above. I Sunday Schools . . 



Schls. Scholars. 



. 69 



6?43 



Of the infant schools, one at Silsoe, containing 77 chil- 

 dren, is supported by Earl de Grey. 



Daily scholars being usually admitted at boarding schools 

 (of which 1 6 appear in the returns to be established in Bed- 

 fordshire), and the hoarders being in fact (according to tho 

 words of the returns) daily scholars, such boarding-schools 

 are included in the foregoing abstract. Lace and straw-plat 

 schools, which are numerous in this county, are not included 

 in the abstract, although at many of them the children are 

 taught to read. 



Of the Sunday-schools 57 are kept at places where no 

 other school exists, and the children instructed in them, 

 3,1 10 in number, cannot therefore attend any other school. 

 At other places part of the children taught in Sunday- 

 schools attend other schools also, but the proportion of these 

 ig not given in the returns. 



The increase of schools since the year 1818 has been as 

 follows : 



Infant and other daily schools 108 containing 2643 scholars. 

 Sunday-schools 121 11180 



229 13823 



There are lending libraries of books attached to 17 schools 

 in Bedfordshire. 



BEDIS, for prayers, according to Jamieson, is still used 

 in Scotland. He says ' In familiar language it is common 

 to speak of counting one's beads ' when one goes to prayer.' 

 He adds' There is here an allusion to the Popish custom 

 of running over a string of beads, and at the same time re- 

 peating Paternosters and Ave-Marias over them, according 

 to a fixed rule, as the particular beads are meant, by their 

 colour, form, or place, to represent to the mind this or that 

 mystery, benefit, or duty.' (Ktymolog. Diet. vol. i.) 



BEDLAM, a corruption of Bethlehem, the name of a re- 

 ligious house in London, which, subsequently to the disso- 

 lution of monasteries, was converted into an hospital for 

 lunatics, but still retained its former appellation. 



Shakspeare, in the second part of ' Henry VI.,' act v. 

 scene i., speuks of ' a bedlam and ambitious humour.' Dr. 

 Grey, however, in commenting upon this passage, justly 

 remarks that the word bedlam was not used in the reign of 

 Henry VI. Malone says that Shakspeare was led into this 

 anachronism by the author of an earlier historical play upon 

 the same subject ! while Ritson, upon a misconception of 

 what Stowe says in his ' Survey of London' (4to. 1598, 

 p. 127), declares it to be no anachronism, and leaves tho 

 reader to suppose that the Hospital of St. Mary Bethlehem 

 without London, the religious house alluded to, had been a 

 receptacle for distracted people from its earliest foundation. 



The Hospital of St. Mary Bethlehem, vulgarly called 

 Bedlttm, owed its name and original establishment to the 

 piety of a citizen of London, In the year 1 247, in the thirty- 

 ninth of Henry III., Simon Fitz Mary, who had been she- 

 riff, influenced by the prevailing religious feeling of the age, 

 was desirous to found a religious house. Accordingly, he 

 appropriated by a deed of gift, which is still extant, all his 

 lands in the parish of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate, being 

 th spot afterwards known by the name of Old Bethlem, 

 now called Liverpool-street, a few yards north of Bishops- 

 gate Church, to the foundation oi' a priory. The prior, 

 canons, brethren, and sisters, for whose maintenance he 

 provided, were to be distinguished by a star Upon their 

 mantles, and were especially directed to receive and enter- 

 tain the bishop of St. Mary of Bethlehem, and the canons, 

 brothers, and messengers of that their mother church as 

 often as they might come to England. Such Was the ori- 

 ginal design of this foundation. 



In the year 1403, says Tanner (Notit. Monasl. edit. 1787, 

 Midd. viii. 30), most of the houses belonging to this hos- 

 pital were alienated, and therein were no brethren or sisters, 



