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and it is likely that it might have assumed his name because 

 it was built by his advice and assistance out of the ruins of 

 Alchester and Chesterton, or because a church was built 

 and endowed by him. Alchester, probably a contraction of 

 Aid (old) chester, was a city of a square form, divided by 

 four streets, and appears to have been one of the garrisoned 

 places constructed by Plautius to secure the newly-acquired 

 country after his early triumphs over the Britons. The 

 name ' Alchester' is still retained for the site on which it 

 stood, and some faint traces of it may be discovered about a 

 mile and a half to the south-west ofTJicester ; for, although 

 the soil has long been under cultivation, Roman coins and 

 fragments of building have occasionally been discovered in 

 excavating. 



The parish of Bicester is divided into two districts" or 

 townships, called King's End and Market End. The old 

 town of Birincester, which is believed to have been destroyed 

 by the Danes, stood on the west part or King's End ; 

 the other portion was formerly called Bury End, but re- 

 ceived its present name from the weekly market which was 

 granted in the )9th of Henry VI. This replaced or super- 

 seded a weekly market and an annual fair, which had been 

 granted at a previous period (1 Rich. II.) to the village 

 of Bigenhall, which then occupied the site of the present 

 King's End of the town. In the reign of Henry II. (1182), 

 Gilbert Basset, baron of Hedingdon, founded at Bicester a 

 religious house for a prior and eleven canons of the order of 

 St. Augustine. Jt was dedicated to St. Eadburg; and was 

 valued at the Dissolution at 1471. 2s. lOrf., according to 

 Dugdale. The name of the saint to whom it was dedicated 

 is still preserved in St. Edburg's Well in the vicinity. This 

 well was reputed holy until the Reformation, after which it 

 became choked up through long neglect; but in the dry 

 summer of 1G66, the head of the spring was opened and 

 cleansed, when a sudden and great supply of water gushed 

 furtli. There was a neat and much-frequented walk leading 

 to it from the priory and town. This was called, in a record 

 of Edward I., ' Seynt Edburg, hes grene way,' and Via 

 Stinctce Edburge, and is now denominated St. Edburg's 

 Balk. There were at least seven English saints of this 

 name ; this one was St. Edburg of Aylesbury. 



The author of the History of Allchester, near'Burchester, 

 which was written ia 1622, and forms an appendix to Bishop 

 Kennel's book, speaks thus of Bicester as it was then : 



' It is at this day a very good market for all manner of 

 cattle, and well supplied with all kinds of trades. . . . Yet 

 in Bister I can observe nothing memorable but a fair church 

 for the setting forth of God's glory, and the ruins of an old 

 abbey, now the house of Sir Richard Blunt.' This ' fair 

 church ' is a neat and commodious building, erected about 

 the year 1400 on the site of a former structure. It has a 

 lofty square tower, contains several fine monuments and old 

 sculptures, and has accommodation for 1200 persons. The 

 living is a discharged vicarage in the diocese of Oxford, of 

 the annual value of 23 \l. The town itself is neatly built, 

 consisting chiefly of houses of medium size and appearance. 

 It contained 2868 inhabitants in 1831, of whom 1477 were 

 females. The town is noted for its excellent ale. Females 

 find occupation in making bone lace. It also derives con- 

 siderable benefit from the proximity of the Oxford canal ; 

 but its prosperity now, as formerly, chiefly arises from its 

 well-attended markets and cattle-fairs. The market day is 

 on Friday ; and the fairs are held on Easter-Friday, first 

 Friday in June, August 5th, Friday after Old Michaelmas, 

 and two following Fridays, and the third Friday in De- 

 cember. 



There is a charity-school, in which thirty poor hoys are 

 clothed and educated. It is supported by subscriptions, as- 

 ! by the dividends on 1000/. stock, given in 1811 by Mr. 

 Walk?r in pursuance of his father's intention ; out of this, 

 liuax'ver, 14/. is annually given to assist Sunday schools. A 

 school for girls has just been founded (1835), which is sup- 

 ported by subscriptions. The school-room, built on pur- 

 p ise, it, capable of containing sixty girls, the number in- 

 tended to be educated therein. 



(Bishop Kennet's Parochial Antiquities, attempted in 

 the History of Amltrosden, Burcester, and other adjacent 

 1-nrta; Plot's Natural History of Oxfordshire ; Gough's 

 Camden's Britannia; Beauties of England and Wales, 

 &c.) . 



BICETRE, an extensive building, close to the Tillage of 

 Gentilly, in the vicinity of Paris, now answering the purpose 

 of a prison, an hospital, and a poor-house. It is on an 



eminence, about a mile from the Barriere d'ltalie, en the 

 south side of Paris, and a little to the west of the main road 

 from Paris to Fontainebleau. 



The site of this edifice was, in the Beginning o f the 

 thirteenth century (about 1204) the property of John, 

 Bishop of Winchester, in England, who built there a castle 

 or residence (chateau), which bore from him the name of 

 Winchester, from which by corruption have been derived 

 the designations of Vichestre and Bicestre, or as it is now 

 written Bicetre. In 1294, Philippe IV. (Le Bel) King of 

 France, confiscated the castle, and it remained for some time 

 in the hands of the kings, his successors. In the troubles 

 which agitated France during the reign of the imbecile 

 Charles VI., the Due de Berri, the king's uncle, was possessor 

 of this castle, and retired here with the Due D'Orleans in 

 order to concert measures in opposition to the Due de Bour- 

 gogne (Burgundy). Here was negociated a treaty called 

 the Treaty of Winchester ; and this being violated, the vio- 

 lation was called the Treason of Winchester. In the disturb- 

 ances of this period, the castle was nearly destroyed, and 

 remained, as it appears, some time in a very dilapidated 

 state ; the Chapter of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in 

 Paris, to whom the Due de Berri had, in 1416, given it 

 with all its appendages, not undertaking any repairs. 



In 1632 Louis XIII, to whom the site of the castle had 

 come, erected upon the spot which that building had occu- 

 pied a chapel dedicated to St. John, and some buildings for 

 the reception of invalid officers and soldiers ; but when his 

 successor, Louis XIV., erected the Hotel des Invalides, the 

 Bicetre being no longer required as a military invalid esta- 

 blishment, was converted into a branch of the Hopital 

 General (otherwise called La Salpetriere). It served for 

 the reception of the poor, of widowers, of boys whether sick 

 or well, and of young men who had enfeebled their consti- 

 tution or become diseased through debauchery. The treat- 

 ment of these last was very barbarous; there were only 

 twenty or twenty-five beds for more than two hundred 

 patients, and consequently from eight in the evening till 

 one in the morning part of them lay stretched out on the 

 ground, and then turning out those who had occupied the 

 bed for the early part of the night took their place. Besides 

 which, they were, by the order of the managers, cudgelled 

 (fustiges) before and after they passed under the treatment 

 of the medical attendants. Is it to be wondered at if two- 

 thirds of the patients died under this treatment ? This dis- 

 graceful system of beating continued into the eighteenth 

 century. 



The BiceStre served for a short time for the reception of 

 foundlings. These were placed here in 1648, but from the 

 number of deaths which occurred among them they were 

 soon removed, as the air was considered unfavourable to 

 them. 



Up to the time of the Revolution the hospital was very 

 ill-managed, and indeed continued to be so till the year 

 1801, when the general board of management for the 

 hospitals (f administration ge.nerale des hospices) was 

 founded. At that time patients of all classes were crowded 

 without arrangement, or regularity, or distinction of age, 

 sex, or disease; though the abuses of former years, espe- 

 cially the shameful disproportion of beds to patients, had 

 been somewhat diminished. 



Since the year 1803 many improvements have been in- 

 troduced into the management of this poor-house and 

 hospital. Much has been done for the improvement of the 

 hospital itself, by building, repairing, enlarging, and planting 

 the grounds of it. Cleanliness, both in the wards and the 

 persons of the patients and other inmates, has been more 

 attended to ; and improvements, both in the quantity and 

 the quality of the food allowed, have somewhat ameliorated 

 the condition of the inmates. Those who are able are set to 

 work ; there are shoemakers or menders, tailors, button- 

 makers, straw-hat-makers, wool-combers or spinners, &c. 

 The sick are classified ; each class of diseases has its ward 

 or wards; each patient his bed. In 1812 a new building 

 was erected for the insane, who are classified into the in- 

 curable, the quiet, the curable: each class has a floor or 

 other part of the building assigned to it. Insane females 

 have another building appropriated to them. There is 

 accommodation for about 800 mad patients. Those who are 

 furious are not chained. 



The average number of persons admitted to the hospital 

 in ten years (1804-1814) was, on the average, 1947 per 

 annum; the average number of thosa who left, was 1495, 



