BEDFORD. 



391 



Bedford, the notes to his life, in the Biographia Britannica, or 

 * v ' in the Appenu.x to the 4th volume of Dr Henry's 

 History of Britain ; but a complete list of all his 

 writings, drawn up by his own hand, is inserted in 

 Muratori Anliq. Italic. Medii JEvi, torn. iii. p. 825. 

 See Biog. Britan. General Biog. Diet. Henry's 

 Hipt. of Britain, vol. iv. Cave's Hist. Liter, vol. i. 

 Warton's Hist, of Poetry, vol. i. p. 104. ; and Mo- 

 sheim's Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 247, 251. (q) 



BEDFORD, a very ancient town in the central 

 part of England, and the capital and only borough 

 town in the county of the same name, ( See Bed- 

 fordshire,) is situated on both sides, but principally 

 on the north side of the Ouse river, which is naviga- 

 ble from the Eastern Sea, or German Ocean, by way 

 of Lynn, Downham, Ely, St Ives, Huntingdon, and 

 St Neot$, to this town. Bedford is situated rather 

 north of the centre of the county, and at the northern 

 skirt of a very wide vale, of strong but good clay 

 land, called the vale of Bedford : in the immediate 

 site of the town, several strata of grey compact lime- 

 stone, abounding with gryphites and other species of 

 fossil shells, usually denominated anomia, having very 

 dark blue or black beds of clay between them, ap- 

 pear from under the thick strata of clay which com- 

 pose the vale of Bedford, and the hills north of it. 

 This limestone, which is dug and burnt on the west 

 side of the town, and of which the churches, the 

 bridge, and most of the ancient buildings are con- 

 structed, has hence been denominated the " Bedford 

 limestone," in the enumerations of the British strata 

 by Mr William Smith and his pupils. Sec the Phi- 

 losophical Magazine, vol. xxxvi. p. 105. 



This town, was called by the Saxons, Bedan Ford, 

 Signifying the fortress on the ford, alluding to an im- 

 mense tumulus, or mound of earth, which, perhaps 

 prior to this, was raised by immense labour from a 

 ditch surrounding it, on the north bank of the river, 

 opposite to the ancient ford, and site perhaps of a 

 bridge in more modern times, about 200 yards east 

 of the present bridge, which is itself a work of con- 

 siderable antiquity. Offa, king of the Mercians, is 

 said to have been buried in a small chapel, seated on 

 or near to the Ouse, in this town, of which no ves- 

 tige now remains. A desperate battle was fought 

 near this town, in 572, between Cuthwolf the Saxon 

 king, and the Britons, which terminated disastrously 

 to the natives ; and the inhabitants of Bedford in 

 consequence were a prey to their merciless invaders : 

 who frequently renewed their marauding visits, until 

 the year 911, when they were defeated and driven 

 from this part of the country. The third baron of 

 Bedford, Baron de Beauchamp, built a very strfcng 

 and spacious castle, on and around the site of the an. 

 cient fort, surrounding the whole by a very deep 

 ditch, vestiges of which still remain on the east and 

 v part of the north sides : the site of the castle being 

 now occupied by the gardens and paddock belong- 

 ing to the New Swan Inn ; and the spacious top of 

 the keep and tumulus above mentioned, by a pleasant 

 bowling-green, which is surrounded by tall elm trees, 

 that grow on the steep sides of what still bears the 

 name of the Castle-hill. 



The late Duke of Bedford, justly stiled the " Great 



Duke of Bedford," purchased the site of this castle, 

 and a miserable inn which stood at the corner of the 

 bridge, from one of the inhabitants, and, at the ex- 

 pense of j9000, erected here a magnificent inn, for 

 the general accommodation of the inhabitants and 

 travellers, but more especially for the meetings of the 

 justices, grand jury, &c. at the times of the assises 

 and quarter sessions, and the inhabitants at county 

 meetings, and on other public occasions. The south 

 and west fronts of this building are faced with the 

 beautiful white free-stone from the lower beds of the 

 chalk strata, brought from Totternhoe, near Dunsta- 

 ble : all the other parts are of limestone, raised from 

 the fosse of the Castle-hill just bye. 



The great strength of the castle of Bedford ren- 

 dered it a place of contention in most of the civil 

 wars which rent the kingdom, in the ages which suc- 

 ceeded its erection. King Stephen besieged this 

 castle, and reduced it. The refractory barons, in the 

 reign of King John, possessed themselves of Bedford 

 castle, until expelled by Fulco de Brent, a general in 

 the king's army, who, in reward for his services, re- 

 ceived a grant of this castle, which he held until, in 

 the succeeding reign, he in his turn rebelled, and was 

 taken and sent prisoner to London, after a vigorous 

 siege of 60 days, by Henry the Third, who, after 

 hanging 25 of the rebellious knights found in this 

 castle, demolished it ; since which period, the mason 

 and the lime-burner have long removed and used 

 every stone which formed the massive walls of this 

 once formidable castle- 

 Bedford contains five different parishes, viz. St 

 Paul, St Peter, and St Cuthbert, on the north side 

 of the river, and St Mary and St John on its south 

 side. St Paul's church, which was collegiate before 

 the conquest, is the largest church, and is ornamented 

 with a tall octagonal spire, the latitude of which, ac- 

 cording to the government trigonometrical survey, is 

 52 8' 8".8 N. and its longitude 27' 43".3 W. of 

 Greenwich observatory, or 1' 50''.9 in time. The 

 government of the town is vested in a mayor, recor- 

 der, deputy-recorder, an indefinite number of alder- 

 men, (who have served the office of mayor,) two 

 bailiffs, and thirteen common councilmen. Until 

 about the year 1798, the corporation of Bedford had 

 for a long time numbered in its body but few of the 

 largest merchants, traders, or opulent persons of the 

 place, and continual jealousies and civil broils were 

 the consequence of these distinctions, which the ge- 

 nius and conciliatory talents of the late Duke of Bed- 

 ford, their recorder, enabled them to remove, and 

 many beneficial measures for the improvement of the 

 town were and since have been the consequences. 

 The bailiffs are lords of the manors, and have right 

 of fishing in the Ouse river for nine miles each way 

 from Bedford. 



Henry III. granted the borough to the burgesses 

 for j40 yearly; but they having omitted to pay the 

 crown rent, it was seized by Edward I. In the reign 

 of James II., the town having neglected to return two 

 burgesses to serve in parliament, the mayor and alder- 

 men were expelled their offices by the king, and his 

 ministers nominated two members of parliament for 

 the town. Their charter was, however, restored by 



Bedford. 



