OUR COLUMNS. 



March 21, 1891. 



^[ntcotiuctorp. 



By J. S. Phillpotts, M.A., B.C.L. (Ex- President). 



i 



— ^HE Motto of the Library is or should be — 



ENQUIRE WITHIN UPON EVERYTHING. 



Without a supply of books this educational centre would only create a thirst with nothing 

 to slake it. As it is, anyone with any interest in a specific subject can find the informa- 

 tion he wants. 



If we are of antiquarian or geographical turn of mind, we can see in the map of 

 " Africe, described, the manners of their Habits, and buildinge : newly done into English 

 by L S. (John Speed) and published at the charges of G. Humble Ano 1626," that 

 even then it was known that the sources of the two Niles were in two lakes just 

 south of the Equator, — a discovery which we believed was reserved for our times. 



If the reader is speculative, he may notice exactly where in this map the words 

 occur " here is gold digged up in great quantity " ; and if enamoured of the cause' 

 of the emancipation of woman, he can note " Casates, here the Amazons are said to 

 inhabit." If of a j^olitical turn, he can also note where the Portuguese names occur, 

 — and can also see in Europe the then limits of Servia and Bulgaria and Romania 

 (apparently Roumelia), a question which may yet convulse Europe. 



Turning homewards, in the map of Bedfordshire (since reprinted) he can see the 

 lime kiln owing to which Queen's Head Lane was re-christened Lime Street. He 

 can see " The Scheie," occupying about the same spot as the present Grammar School ; 

 while the Shire or Moot Hall, then the " Moute Hall," was nearly on the site of 

 Brown's fish shop, and Horne Lane appears to be called " Gait's Lane." No doubt 

 many archssologists will explain this in the next number of Our Columns. We are 

 glad to learn of Bedford that " the Ayre is temperate and the Soile bountious," and 

 that it is " pleasantly seated, having the Ouse running thorow the Towne in the 

 middest, and a faire Stone Bridge built over the same whereon are his gates to locke 

 and impeach the Passage, as occasion shall serve." We may also read how Offa's 

 " Tombe of Lead (as it were some phantasticall thing) appeared often to them that 

 seeke it not, but to them that seeke it (saith Rosse) it is invisible." We can also 

 justify the rustics who know not Odell, but ask if you mean " Wuddle," by the old 

 spelling, Wood Hill. We may still hold that this County is " Champion " in another 

 sense from that of Champaign. We can see the dangers of wandering into other 

 counties by the fact that Edward L. Russell, Earle of Bedford, had to forfeit a 



horse-shoe at Oakham in Rutland, as homage to the Earl of Huntingdon 



In Camden we find Bedford is still " eminent for the pleasantaess of its situation." 

 "In this town, anno 1561, was built and endowed a Free School by Sir William 

 Harper [note the spelling] a native hereof, bred a Merchant Taylor in the city of 

 London and afterwards Lord Mayor." We learn also how Offa, that Prince of the 

 Mercians, made choice of this place for his burial, and how the town was repaired 

 by Edward the Elder after it had been destroyed by Danish wars ; " which King did 

 likewise add a little town on the south side of the river, called by that age Mikes- 

 gate." The thrilling account of the Siege of Bedford Castle must be read to be 



