i; \v 



36G 



BEY 



a luge carpet manufactory, and tome warehouses by the 

 river side, which afford employment to the inhabitants of 

 Bewdley.' 



In its original state, as U the case with most old towns in 

 this port of the kingdom, the buildings of Bewdley were of 

 timber ; but the principal street is now as well built and 

 paved as any other in provincial towns of similar rank. 

 There are three principal streets ; that is, a street leads in a 

 direct line from the bridge and then diverges to the right 

 and left, so that the three together give a ground form, ap- 

 proximating to that of the letter Y, with its foot extending 

 to the river. The chapel of ease was, like the rest of the 

 town, of timber, when Leland was there ; it was replaced 

 in 1748 by the present structure, a neat stone building 

 erected by subscription, and capable of containing 1200 

 persons. A large proportion of the inhabitants are Dis- 

 senters, for whom there are various places of worship. 

 Bewdley being in the parish of Ribbesford, it has only a 

 chapel of ease for the accommodation of the inhabitants. 

 The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Hereford, 

 of which the rector of Ribbesford is patron. The last re- 

 turns state the annual income at HID/, per annum. 



The town-hall of Bewdley is a very commodious modern 

 building of stone standing on three arches, which are fur- 

 nished with handsome iron gates. The front is decorated 

 with six square pilasters, which support a pediment. The 

 arches underneath afford admittance to the market-place, 

 which consists of two rows of stalls under arcades, with an 

 open area in the centre, having altogether a very neat ap- 

 pearance. The stone bridge of three arches over the Se- 

 vern, is a very handsome modern structure, guarded with 

 balustrades. 



A free grammar school was established at Bewdley under 

 the charter granted to the town by King James. Some 

 endowments had previously been made for the purpose, 

 particularly by William Monnox, who gave 6/. per annum 

 secured upon lands ; and John, George, and Thomas 

 Ballard gave the site of the school. The charter declared 

 the object of the school to be, ' for the better education and 

 instruction of young children and youths within the borough, 

 liberties, and precincts, in good arts, learning, virtue, and m- 

 struction," and that it should be called ' The Free Grammar 

 School of King James of England in Bewdley.' The 

 charge of its revenues was entrusted to the borough corpo- 

 ration, under the stipulation that they should apply them 

 to no other use than to the benefit of the school ; they were 

 also to make written statutes for the government of the 

 school, and to appoint the master and under-master, who 

 were to enjoy their offices during the ' well liking of the 

 said governors.' Numerous small additions have since been 

 made to the endowments of the school, the revenues of 

 which arise from a rent-charge on land at Shepperdine in 

 Gloucestershire, chief rents, rents of houses in Bewdley, and 

 the tolls of the market. The amount is uncertain. The 

 master has a salary of 30/. and a house free of rent, taxes, 

 and repairs. There is no under-master. ' The school' 

 (remarks Carlisle in 1818) ' is open as a free grammar 

 tchool to the children of all the inhabitants, but there are 

 none at present upon the foundation. The master has 

 about 30 boarders.' He adds, that no copy of the statutes 

 is now extant The master has charge of a collection of 

 books given by the Rev. Thomas Wigan for the use of the 

 clergy and laity of the neighbourhood. There is also in 

 the town a school, supported by the corporation and in- 

 habitants, which affords a plain education, with clothing, to 

 thirty boys and as many girls. 



The advantageous situation of Bewdley on the Severn 

 formerly rendered it an intermediate station for the com- 

 merce between the ports of the Severn and the inland 

 townx, and gave it a most flourishing carrying trade. 

 Goods were then sent on the river from Bristol, Chepstow, 

 and Newnham to this place, whence they were sent not 

 only to the neighbouring towns, but to Manchester, Sheffield, 

 and Kendal, by regularly established waggons, which re- 

 turned laden with inland manufactures for exportation. A 

 considerable carrying trade still exists ; and the Boundary 

 Report observes, 'The town of Bewdley can hardly be said 

 to be in a state of decay, although the changes in the in- 

 ternal navigation of the country have deprived it of its former 

 commercial importance. Its market, its retail trade with 

 the surrounding country, its situation on the Severn, and 

 none small manufactures, afford employment to its popu- 

 lation, in which may be reckoned a considerable number of 



respectable inhabitants.' (Leland's Itinerary; Nash'* 

 Collections for the Hittory of Worcestershire ; Btavtirt of 

 England and Wales, vol. xv. ; Boundary Reports, vol. iii. 

 pt. 2. ; Carlisle's Endowed Grammar School*, $~c.) 



BEX, a small but pleasant town, of the canton of Vaud 

 in Switzerland, situated near the rinht bank of the Rhone, 

 twelve miles above its entrance into thr 1.. in- n lake, and 

 about two miles north of St. Maurice in the Valais. It lies 

 in a fine and fertile valley, at the foot of the high moun: 

 called La Dent de Morcles, and Les Diublercts, whirl. 

 to nearly 9000 feet above the sea. Bex is on the hiuh 

 from Bern and Lausanne to the Valais, which i 

 at St. Maurice the great road from Geneva to Italy by the 

 Simplon. Bex is much frequented by travellers in the sum 

 mer months, and has one of the best inns in Switzerland. 

 The country about Bex is one of the most interesting in 

 Switzerland for the botanist, the mineralogist, anil the geo- 

 logist. At a short distance from Bex, and near the village 

 of Lavey, a hot mineral spring was discovered in 1 832, on the 

 banks of the river Rhone, having, it is said, the same JH 

 ties as the celebrated waters of Loesch in the Y alais. Tempo- 

 rary baths have been erected at the expense of the govern- 

 ment of Vaud, which are much frequented by invalids during 

 summer. (Walsh, Voyage en Suisse.) Bex derives much 

 of its importance from the deposit of salt in its neighbour- 

 hood, and is the only place where it is wrrked in Switzer- 

 land. Various salt springs issuing from a ncighbourim; 

 mountain first indicated the existence of the salt, ami the 

 government of Bern, to which Bex then belonged, under- 

 took to work it. Several galleries were excavated in the 

 mountain in order to reach the deposit of salt, but the At- 

 tempt was not successful, and the principal way in which salt 

 is still extracted is by boiling the water. (See Cox's Letters 

 on Switzerland, where he gives an account of the pro 

 One of the galleries is 4000 feet long, eight feet high, and 

 six wide. The water of the springs is carried by ]>:; 

 Bevieux, where are the filters, boilers, and other apparatus 

 for extracting the salt. In 1824 a part of the mountain vtus 

 discovered which is strongly impregnated with salt, in con- 

 sequence of which the quantity of salt extracted yearly has 

 been increasing, and is now double what it was formerly. 

 Still the salt collected at Bex does not supply more than 1 - 2 9 1 h 

 of the population of Switzerland. In 1 825 the net revenue re- 

 sulting to the state of Vaud from the salt-works amounted 

 to 52,000 Swiss francs, equal to 78,000 French francs. 

 (Franscini, Statistica della Svizzera.) The establishment 

 of these salt-works is conducted with the greatest order 

 and economy. Salt exists also in the canton of Aargau, 

 in that of Appenzell, and in the Orisons at Schuol in the 

 Lower Engadina, but it is not worked. 



BEY. [See BEG.] 



BEY'RA, or BEI'RA a province of Portugal, situated 

 between 39 28' and 41"2*/ N. lat., and 6 52' and 846'W. 

 long. It is bounded on the north by the provinces of Entre- 

 Douro-c-Minho and Tras-os-Montes, from which it is sepa- 

 rated by the river Douro ; on the south and south-west by 

 Alentejo and Portuguese Estremadura, the Tagus and the 

 Serra de Louzao forming its natural boundaries ; on the 

 east by Leon and Spanish Estremadura, from which it is 

 separated by the rivers Turones and Elgas and the Sierra ile 

 Gata; on the west it is bounded by the ocean. The length 

 of its sea-coast is about eighty miles. The pr.nii . 

 divided into three parts. That portion comprised betwem 

 the river Douro and the Serra de Estrella is called ll.L'h 

 Beyra ; from this mountain-range to the banks of the Tagus, 

 Low Beyra; and the western part of the province, between 

 the ocean and the Serra de Alcoba, is denominated Beyra 

 Mar or Maritime Bcira. 



Two chains of mountains running nearly parallel to one 

 another cross the province from north-east to south-wi >i. 

 The principal and most eastern is the Serra de Estivli;i, 

 Mons Hcrminius of the antients, which, according to some 

 geographers, is the western branch of the chain denomi- 

 nated Cor pe to- Vettonic, or Corpetano-Vettonique, extending 

 along the right bank of the Tagus from its source to its 

 entrance into the sea. The Serra de Estrella, which in 

 some parts is 7524 feet above the level of the ocean, and 

 is covered with snow in some points during the greatest part 

 of the year, crosses the province from north-east to south- 

 west, enters Estremadura, where it takes the names of 

 Serra-de-Louiao and Serra-de-Junto, and terminates on 

 the ocean near Torres Vedras. On the highest part of 

 this Serra is a plain nine miles long and three wide, covered 



