BEDFORDSHIRE. 



393 



Bedford- 

 shire. 



Strongly illustrates our remarks above, on premiums 

 for marriages. There are here 2221 persons employ- 

 ed in trade, manufactures, and handicraft, (g) 



BEDFORDSHIRE, is an inland county of Eng- 

 land, bounded on the S. W. and W. by Buckingham- 

 shire, on the N. W. and N. by Northamptonshire, on 

 the N. and N. E. by Huntingdonshire, on the E. by 

 Cambridgeshire, and on the S. E. and S. by Hert- 

 fordshire. It is situated between the parallels of 51 

 47' and 52 17' of north latitude, and between 17' 

 and 46' of west longitude from Greenwich. A great 

 part of its bounds are artificial, and strangely indent- 

 ed, as they are affected by the manors and proper- 

 ties at its edge, and not by rivers or summits of 

 high land, which are natural divisions. The whole of 

 this county is situated on the eastern side of the wa- 

 tershead or grand ridge of the island, and the whole 

 of its surface drains to the Ouse river, with the excep- 

 tions of a tract of chalk on the south, about Luton, 

 Sundon, Houghton- Regis, and Dunstable, which 

 drains to the sea, and a tmaller tract near Market- 

 street, Studham, and Whipsnade, which drains to the 

 Colne, both of these being branches of the Thames 

 river ; a small tract of clay in Dunton, Eyworth, and 

 Wrestlingworth, which drains to the Cam ; and a 

 tract of clay and limestone land near Puddington, 

 Farnditch, and Wimmington, at the north end of the 

 county, which drains to the Nen. 



The highest range of hills in or near to Bedford- 

 shire, is the Chiltern hills, of the upper chalk, which 

 cross a p:irt, and skirt the remainder of the southern 

 extremity of this county, from Whipsnade near Dun- 

 stable, to near Baldoek : and no other land in Bed- 

 fordshire approaches near to their height, as appears 

 from the range of freestone hills across Northampton- 

 shire from Catesby to Naseberg ; and of limestone and 

 clay from Salsey Forest near Olney, to near Higham- 

 Ferrers, being visible by telescopes from the chalk 

 hills across the whole of Bedfordshire. The next 

 most considerable range in height, is of clay, cros- 

 sing the county nearit3 northern end, which it enters 

 north-west of Harold, and proceeds by Souldrope, 

 Bletsoe-Park, between Keysoe and Colmworth, and 

 leaves the county near Staughton-Parva. The next 

 most considerable range, is of sand, and enters the 

 county near Aspley Guise, passes to Ridgemont, 

 near to Lidlington, Milbrook, and Ampthill ; and 

 of clay thence to Hawnes, and near to Old- Warden. 

 Another range of alluvial clay principally proceeds 

 from the lower chalk hills between Houghton- Regis 

 and Sundon, and proceeds by Tuddingtoi), Milton- 

 Bryant, Woburn-Park, and Riclg. mont, (crossing 

 here the sand ridge before described,) by Brog- 

 borough Park, Cranfield, across a neck of Bucking- 

 hamshire, and then near to Turvey, Carlton, and Pa- 

 vingham. From the lower chalk hills, also near Sun- 

 don, another clay ridge branches, and passes through 

 Harhngton, and near to Silsoe and Upper Graven- 

 hurst ; and another alluvial clay range, which leaves 

 the chalk hills east of Baldoek, passes near Edworth, 

 Dunton, Potton, and Cockayne-Hatley, into Cam- 

 bridgeshire, spreading there into the wide alluvial 

 range of clay about Caxton, and north-east of it, be- 

 tween the Cam and the Ouse. 



The strata of Bedfordshire were examined in the 

 VOL. III. part in. 



year 1801, under the patronage of the great Duke 

 of Bedford," in the last year of his useful life, by Mr 

 William Smith of Bath, who was at that time (and 

 still is we believe) proposing to publish, by subscrip- 

 tion, a map of England, shewing the range of all the 

 principal strata across the island, and a volume ex- 

 plaining the same : during which examination of Bed- 

 fordshire, he was accompanied by his Grace's agent, 

 Mr John Farey, and by his friend Mr Benjamin Be- 

 van, who, as pupils of Mr Smirh, the former in par- 

 ticular, have since industriously pursued the subject 

 of stratification, and others connected with it, (See 

 Philosoph. Mag. vol. xxxiii. p. 258, and vol. xxxv. p. 

 114.) and the making of mineral surveys, on princi- 

 ples which cannot fail of success, in making us ac- 

 quainted with the subterranean geography of coun- 

 tries. From what we have learnt from Mr Farey, 

 and other sources, we are enabled to present the fol- 

 lowing sketch of the Bedfordshire strata, as far as 

 they are visible or accessible, owing to the vast mass 

 of alluvial matter, ( principally the broken and slightly 

 worn ruins of the chalk audits covering strata,) ot dis- 

 tricts to the south-east of the county. See Phil. 

 Mag. vol. xxxv. p. 13.5. 



The alluvia of Bedfordshire cover at least four- 

 fifths of its whole surface, and principally consist of 

 yellow and dark-coloured clays (apparently the ruins 

 of the, great clay above the chalks on which Lon- 

 don is situated,) intermixed with flint nodules, and 

 chert nodules, in all the various degrees of break- 

 ing and rounding, also of rounded grit-stones, and 

 of small holders of the harder beds of chalk, and 

 crystallised quartz pebbles, in a highly rounded state; 

 large ludus helmanti, (such as the Roman or Parker's 

 cement is made from in Essex, Kent, &c.) and other 

 ferruginous nodules ; rounded fragments of hard grey, 

 and blue limestones of various kinds, and with nume- 

 rous shells of different sizes and species imbedded in 

 them; rhombic crystals of selenite, eckini and their 

 spines in flint and hard chalk, and the numerous 

 other fossils of the chalk strata. Several of the ranges 

 of alluvial clay hills in the above account, seem to 

 owe the greater part of their elevation to these hetero- 

 geneous clayey mixtures, which in some instances ex- 

 ceed 50, 100, or even 200 feet in thickness, before the 

 regular or undisturbed strata on which they rest can 

 be reached. A very large portion of the space, which 

 is coloured blue, in Thomas Batchelor's map of soils, 

 affixed to his agricultural survey of this county,, is 

 occupied by these alluvial clays, in which, as the 

 pebbles of quartz, chert, flint, chalk, limestone, grit- 

 stone, &c. and sand, more or less abound, clays and 

 loams of almost all degrees of tenacity and fertility 

 are produced ; they are, however, generally too wet, 

 and are difficult and very expensive to drain, owing 

 to the uncertain and irregular mixture of the sand 

 and gravelly patches, in and upon the tenacious clay,, 

 of which the mass principally consists. Besides these 

 clayey and alluvial mixtures, there are in Bedford- 

 shire great quantities of broken flints and cherts 

 (clippings or rubble, rather than rounded gravel) 

 intermixed with highly rounded quartz and hard 

 chalk, and with sand, which form clear, sharp, or 

 sandy gravels, gravelly and sandy loams, &c. most of 

 which are very productive to the husbandman. The 

 3b 



Bedfofcl- 



shire. 



