~ fame principle. 
— HEREFORD, 
fame difeafes brought on, when certain exciting canfes are 
‘applied, is as neceflarily conveyed from our progenitors, as 
the family likenefs ; and the fact is to be explained upon the 
inci By an hereditary difeafe, therefore, is not 
meant the tran{miilion of any morbid juices, or’ peccant 
humours, or any materies morbi, from e parent to the 
child ; but merely that the child, partaking of the conititu- 
‘tion of his parent, will be liable to imikat difeafes. See 
TEMPERAMENT. 
HEREFORD, in Geography, a city and principal town 
of Herefordfhire, England, ftands on the banks of the 
river Wye. At an early period this place is noted in the 
Anglo-Saxon annals. In the year 676 and 680, fynods 
were held here, after Peada, king of Mercia, had embraced 
the Chriftian religion: and itwas then decreed that a new 
fee fhould be formed in this kingdom: Putta was chofen 
the fir bifhop. It is hence inferred, that Hereferd had 
then become populous, and was a place of the firit confe- 
quence in that part of the country; and it is fairly con- 
ee 
jectured, that it owes its origin and early eftablifhment to 
defertion from, and depopulation of Magna Caftra, or Ken- 
chefter, a Roman flation in the vicinity. On the fubdivifion 
? 
came the capital of the Mercian kingdom, and had a large 
church conftruéted in it as early as the reign of Offa. In- 
deed this monarch founded a cathedral here, in expiation-of 
the murder of Ethelbert, king of the Eaft-Angles. This 
‘church, and the holy tomb within it, attraéted numerous 
pilgrims and Catholic devotees, many of whom beftowed 
1 e gifts and: bequefts on the foundation. In the 
time of king Athelftan the city was fortified by walls, rem- 
nants of which flill temain. The extent of the city may 
be afcertained by the circumference of this fortified enclo- 
ure, which meafured 1800 yar Befides this there was 
many of the contefts between thofe nations. 
in 
Athelitan bound the Britons, in the year 939, to pay atri- th 
of finties, flaughter, and havoc. 'The cathedral and feve- 
rat tes were confi by fire. is favage occurrence 
8 particularly deferibed in Powell’s Chronicle of Wales. 
tarold, fon of earl Godwin, colleéted an army and 
:.. the Welfh, whom he compelled 
cn ars 
the. 
rected a cattle, on the eatt fide of the cathedra , 
ks of ‘the-river coh 
- 
ss 
me 
to have been only 103 inthe time of Edward the Confeffor. 
The whole town pad to the Conqueror Go/. in filver coin,’ 
which, together with the emoluments arifine from eightecn 
the Norman fubjugation 7 
Henry III., one of the fir acts 
at Hereford in 1262, where the hifhop, Peter de Agqua-: 
5, 
commanded him to repair forthwith to his church, on pain 
two of his affociates were imprifoned, and afterwards hanged 
in this city. e great council of the realm, which de. 
pofed Edward II. was affembled in Hereford and here his’ 
favourite, the younger Spencer, was executed on a gallows 
50 feet high, by the-queen’s order. The earl of Arundel, 
and three others of Spencer's friends, were alfo put to death 
in this city. Nothing of hiftorical importance is recorded 
in the annals of Hereford afterwards, till the commence. - 
ment of holtilies betweeen Charles I. and his parliament, 
when this city is deferibed by lord Clarendon, as “a town 
very well affected, and reafonably well fortified, having a 
ftrong ftone wall about it, and fome cannon; and’ theré 
being in it fome foldiers of good reputation, many gentle 
men of honour and quality, and three or four hundred fol- 
diers, befides the inhabitants well armed.” ‘Yet with all 
‘thefe advantages, it was furrendered to fir William Waller 
without the lofs of a man ‘on either fide. It was foon after- 
‘wards re-occupied by the ou hari and in 1645, fuftained 
a clofe but ineffectual fiege 
or a month from the 
auxiliaries under the earl of Leven 
cathedral {in the conftruétion ‘of gifts were ‘ : 
this fabric appears to have fallen in rains, and bifhop Athel-: 
ftan, or Ethelftan, rebuilt it during his prelacy, which con. 
tinued from FoI2 to £ SS. This buildin Was again de! 
{troyed by fire, and continued in ruins till the 
year 109Gy) 
when Robert de Lozinga, who was appointed Op by 
king William T., commenced a new edifice, "This' wap’ 
fee in 1107. Int r 0) § tis 
d to be: _ Abouta 
ter the deceafe y the great central tower 
d built by bifhop Bruce, wh om 1200 to 1216.» 
