Bedfordshire takes its name from the shire town of Bedford, and lies in the southern part of the Midlands, about 50 miles north from London; it is a very small shire, of irregular shape, its greatest length being 36 ½ miles from north to south, and its greatest breadth 22 ½ miles from east to west. The number of acres is 305,059, or about half the average size of a county; there are only three smaller counties-Hunts, Middlesex and Rutland. By the addition of Kensworth (Herts), Swineshed (Hunts), and parts of Caddington and Stadham (Herts) and the transfer of Tilbrook to Hunts, and of Humbershoe or Markyate to Herts, under the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1888, an addition of 6,559 acres has been made to the county. The population in 1831 was 95,483; in 1841, 107,936; in 1851, 124,478; in 1861, 135,287; in 1871, 146,257; in 1881, 149,473 and in 1891, 160,704; viz.:-males, 75,477; females, 85,227. In 1891, the number of inhabited houses was 34,537 and uninhabited, 2,977. The county is bounded on the north-west by Northamptonshire, on the north-east by Huntingdonshire, on the east by Cambridgeshire, on the south-east by Herts, and on the west and south-west by Bucks: it belongs to the basin of the Midland Ouse, all but a small corner in the south, which is watered by the Lea, a feeder of the Thames. The chalk downs, named the Chiltern Hills, known locally as the Luton and Dunstable Downs, cross it in the south from S.W. to N.E. a range of sand hills run across the middle by Ampthill; and in the northern part is mostly flat with a few detached hills.

Bedfordshire seems to have been first held by the Britons, then by the Belgians, called Cattieuchlani, or Cassii, who at the time of Julius Caesar’s landing were under the rule of Cassibelaunus. In the time of the Emperor Claudius the Romans overcame the Belgians and occupied the county; their great roads, since named Watling Street and Ikenield, or Ikening Street, run through this county; they had stations named Durocobrivae, and Forum Dianee (Dunstable); Salenai, or Salinae, another town, is thought to have been at Sandy, 3 miles north from Biggleswade; near this place is a large camp of 30 acres, called Caesar’s Camp. On the Romans leaving, the Britons again came into power; and the country became the field of bloodshed until the English landed, defeated the Britons, and brought in their own people.

The West Saxons made the first inroad, and between 571 and 580 Cutwolf, their King, beat the Britons at Bedford and took four of their towns, of which Leighton Buzzard, under the name of Lygeanburgh, is thought to have been one. The Mid-English afterwards utterly turned out the Britons and took the country, which they brought under their kingdom. The great Offa, king of the Mid-English, was buried at Bedford, but his grave was swept away by a flood of the Ouse. The Danes did great harm to Bedford, but it was rebuilt by King Edward I. the elder son of Alfred the Great; this Edward also took Temeford, or Tempsford, from the Danes: these latter, however, over-ran the shire in 1009 and 1010, when Ethelred II. was king, and they burned Bedford and Tempsford. It is supposed that all the baronial castles in the county of any note, with the exception of that at Bedford, had been destroyed in the reign of King John; and it is perhaps owing to this that we read of so few occurrences in Bedfordshire during the Wars of the Roses.

The Great Ouse, rising in the south-west of Northamptonshire and joined in Buckinghamshire by the Little Ouse, winds through North Bedfordshire, passing by Bedford, whence boats can go down the river to the sea at Lynn; the average depth of the Ouse is considered to be about 10 feet, and it is fordable in several places. The Ivel, with its feeder the Hiz, waters the south-eastern part of the county, and falls into the Ouse, after turning many mills in a course of 30 miles: it is navigable for barges from Shefford and Biggleswade.

The river Lea rises at Leagrave and flows through Luton, thence across Hertfordshire, afterwards forming the boundary between Essex and Middlesex in its course to the Thames. The Grand Junction Canal skirts the western border, running through Bucks.

The county has good railway service.

The Midland Railway Company’s main line from st. Pancras through St. Albans enters the county south of Luton, and runs northward by Ampthill to Bedford, and then trending to the west through Sharnbrook, goes via Wellingborough to Leicester: from Bedford this company has a branch through Shefford to Hitchin, where it joins the Great Northern; it also has a branch from Bedford by Turvey to Northampton, there communicating with the North Western railway. The Great Northern main line passes through Hitchin, Biggleswade and Sandy, and from Hatfield it has a branch via Luton to Dunstable. The London and North Western railway sends of a branch from Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable, where it joins the Great Northern railway, and another from Bletchley and Fenny Stratford to Woburn and Bedford, thence continuing from Bedford to Cambridge, crossing the Great Northern at Sandy, being an extension of that from Oxford via Bletchley to Bedford, thus opening a direct communication between the two Universities and with every part of England.

The soils are chalk, chalk marl and green sand, with Oxford clay, cornbrash, limestone and oolite clay. The air is mild and dry; the soil generally good, fruitful and well tilled. The produce is coarse limestone, lime, fullers’ earth from Woburn, coprolites, brick clay and bricks, coppice and brushwood, wheat, barley, oats, beans, hay, fruit, fat oxen, sheep, poultry, game, rabbits and eels; market gardening is of considerable importance in this county, and pickle-farming is successfully prosecuted; Biggleswade, in particular is the centre of the industry; thorough cultivation and generous treatment of the land are indispensable for the growth of the various crops needful for this industry. Many of the inhabitants are employed in the manufacture of lace, straw plait, straw bonnets and hats, bonnet blocks, bricks and tiles, pottery and agricultural implements, and there are important coprolite diggings at Sandy, Shillington, Sutton and Ampthill.

The shire has nine hundreds:-Stodden, Willey and Barford, in the north; the liberty, half hundred, or borough of Bedford, in the north midland; Redbornestoke (Ampthill), in the west; Wixamtree, in the east midland; Biggleswade and Clifton (Shefford), in the east; Manshead (Woburn) and Flitt (Luton), in the south.

Bedfordshire contains 140 civil parishes, with parts of two others, and is in the diocese of Ely, and archdeaconry of Bedford, which is sub-divided into the rural deaneries of Ampthill, Bedford, Biggleswade, Dunstable, Eaton, Felmersham, Fleete, Haynes, Luton, Riseley and Shefford. The county is in the Midland circuit and has one court of quarter sessions and is divided into seven petty sessional divisions. Bedford is the shire town and seat of the assizes and quarter sessions. The municipal boroughs are Bedford, population in 1891, 28,023 Dunstable, 4,513, and Luton, 30,006. The chief towns are Bedford, on the Ouse, in the north midland, having celebrated public schools and extensive works for the manufacture of agricultural implements; Luton and Lea, in the south, with very extensive manufacture for agricultural instruments hats and bonnets; Leighton Buzzard, on the Ouse station, 6,704; Biggleswade, on the Ivel, 4,943; and Dunstable in the south, a chief seat of the straw bonnet trade; all these towns are engaged in the corn trade, the shire ground wheat. Other market towns are Woburn, population 1,129 at which is Woburn Abbey, the seat of the Duke of Bedford; Potton, 1,907; Ampthill, 2,294; Harrold on the Ouse and Shefford, on the Ivel, 990. The county is most remarkable for its tillage.

The Three Counties’ Lunatic Asylum (Beds, Hunts and Herts), in the parish of Stotfold, occupies an area of 253 acres, of which 230 are cultivated; the building was extended and a chapel built in 1879, and is now capable of accommodating over 1,000 inmates. Edward Swain L.R.C.P. Edin. medical superintendent; Samuel Ernest De Lisle L.R.C.P. Irel. senior assistant medical officer; David Thomas Evans M.R.C.S. Eng. junior assistant medical officer; Rev. John Downes Hawksley B.A. chaplain; Francis George Butler, of St. Neots, clerk to committee of visitors; Thomas Lester, clerk to the Asylum; Miss Louisa H. Tweddel, matron.

H.M. Prison, at Bedford, was rebuilt in 1849, at a cost of about £23,000, on the separate or silent system; there are 184 cells for males; houses for the Governor and chief warder are attached. Adolphus George Western, governor; Rev. William Francis Lindesay M.A. chaplain; Robert Henry Kinsey M.R.C.S. Eng. surgeon.

The Bedfordshire Reformatory, in the parish of Turvey, was founded in 1857 by the exertions of the late Thomas Charles Higgins esq. of Turvey House, the then chairman of quarter sessions for the county, and was certified on April 9th in that year; it is now, with Government aid, self-supporting; the land belonging to the school farm is about 125 acres; the boys are employed on the farm and are taught all kinds of agricultural work: they are admitted from Buckinghamshire, Lancashire, Wakefield, Boston, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire, Middlesex, Lincolnshire and the borough of Leicester, by agreement; and the managers do not object, upon proper application, to take in boys from other counties or towns; the institution is under the management of a committee of visitors; chairman, Major W, F, Higgins, Chauntry House; there are now (1898) 45 boys, who are maintained and instructed in agricultural pursuits; Morris Fisher Cock L.R.C.P. Lond. medical officer; Rev. William Henry Denison M.A. hon. sec.; John Jones, superintendent; Mrs. Jones, matron; John Gardner, schoolmaster.

Parliamentary Representation of Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire has hitherto returned two members for the undivided county, but under the provisions of the “Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885,” it is now divided into two divisions, with one member for each:

No. 1. The Northern or Biggleswade division comprises the sessional divisions of Bedford, Biggleswade & Sharnbrook, & the parishes of Ampthill, Clophill, Cranfield, Hawnes, Houghton Conquest, Lidlington, Marston Moretarne, Maulden & Milbrook in Ampthill sessional division, & the municipal borough of Bedford.

No. 2. The Southern or Luton division comprises the sessional division of Leighton Buzzard, Luton & Woburn, & so much of the sessional division of Ampthill as is not comprised in Division No. 1, & the municipal boroughs of Dunstable and Luton.

Under the provisions of the above-named Act the borough of Bedford lost one member.

Military

The troops stationed in this county are under the Eastern District command; head quarters, Colchester; Major-General C. J. Burnett C.B. commanding Bedford is the depot Regimental District No. 16 the.

Bedfordshire Regiment, comprising the 1st & 2nd Battalions (16th Foot), 3rd Battalion (Bedford Mllitia) & 4th Battalion (Hertford Militia); the head quarters of the 3rd are at Bedford & of the 4th at Hertford.

Fairs & Markets

Ampthill, May 4th, Nov. 30 & a statute fair, Sept. 29; market day, thurs.

Bedford, April 21 & 22 &; Oct. 12, principally for cattle but also for pleasure; first tues, in July for wool; market day, Sat. for corn, cattle & general produce.

Biggleswade, Feb. 14, Sat. in Easter week, Whit Monday, Sept. 27 & Nov. 8 for live stock & horses; market day, Wed. for corn.

Dunstable, Ash Wednesday, the second Wed. in May, Aug. & Nov. & the fourth Mon. in Sept.; market day, Wed. for corn, straw plait, cattle & garden produce.

Elstow, May 15 & Nov. 5 for cattle.

Leighton Buzzard, Feb. 5, second tues, in April, Whit Tuesday, July 26, Oct. 24, & the tues, following Dec. 10 for horses & cattle; first Fri. in July for wool, & statute fair first tues, after Oct. 11; market days, tues, for corn, cattle, provisions & other merchandise & Sat. for meat, fish & vegetables.

Luton, third Mon. in April & third Mon. in Oct. for cattle; market days, Mon. for cattle, corn & straw plait & Sat. for provisions.

Potton, last Mon. in Jan. or first tues, in Feb. mainly for the sale of horses & on Easter Monday & Tuesday, also a statute fair for hiring servants about three weeks previous, to Old Michaelmas day, Oct. 11; market day, sat.

Shefford, Oct. 11; market day, fri.

Silsoe, May 13 for cattle.

Toddington, April 25, first Mon. in June, Nov. 2 & Dec. 6, & a statute fair the Wed. before Old Michaelmas day; market day, sat.

Woburn, Jan. 1, Mar. 23, July 13 & Oct. 6; market day, fri.

Bedford County Council

Local Government Act, 1888, 51 & 52 Vic. c. 41.

Under the above Act, the county of Bedford, after the 1st April, 1889, became, for the purposes of that Act, an administrative county (sec. 46), governed by a County Council, consisting of chairman, aldermen and councillors elected in a manner prescribed by the Act (sec. 2).

The chairman, by virtue of his office, is a justice of the peace for the county, without qualification (sec. 46).

The police for the county are under the control of a standing joint committee of the Quarter Sessions and the County Council, appointed as therein mentioned (sec. 9).

The coroners for the county are elected by the County Council, and the clerk of the peace is also appointed by such joint committee, and may be removed by them (sec. 83—2).

The clerk of the peace for the County is clerk of the County Council (sec. 83—1).

The administrative business of the County (which would, if this Act had not been passed, have been transacted by the justices) is transacted by the County Council.

Meet at the Shire Hall, Bedford, quarterly at 11.30 a.m.

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BOUNDARIES, SITUATION, AND EXTENT

The county of Bedford is bounded on the north and north-east by Northamptonshire; on the east by Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire, and on the west by Buckinghamshire, and part of Northamptonshire.

In its greatest length it is about 32 miles, and in breadth 22; and according to the author of the general view of the agriculture of this county, its circumference 145 miles, inclosing an area of 307 acres.

ANCIENT HISTORY

Bedfordshire and the adjoining counties of Buckingham and Hertford, were anciently inhabited by the Cattruchlani, or Casii, whose chief Cassivellaunus, or Cassibelin, was unanimously chosen by the Britons to lead their armies against Julius Cæsar, upon his invasion of their country.

During the government of the Romans this county formed part of Britannia Superior, afterwards of Britannia Prima, and upon the last division of the island, it was included in the division called Flavia Caesariensis.

It was many years after the Romans had abandoned Britain before the inhabitants of this county submitted to the Saxons; but in a great battle fought near Bedford in the year 571 they were subdued by the brother of Clawlen, king of the West Saxons; and their county was afterwards made part of the kingdom of Mercia. About 200 years after the Saxons had been in possession the Danes began to invade this island, and in the reign of Edward the Elder (son of King Alfred), this county frequently became the scene of action in the wars between that victorious monarch and the invaders.

In the year 919 this monarch came to Bedford, and staid there four weeks, receiving the submission of all the neighbouring country. In 921 the Danes seized Temesford now Tempsford, and stationed themselves there. In an excursion from this place they attacked the town of Bedford, but were repulsed with great slaughter. Their fortress at Tempsford was, however, destroyed during the same summer by King Edward, who put their king, and a great number of his nobles, to death, in 1010 the Danish army burnt Bedford and Tempsford. The next year this county submitted to the dominion of the Anglo-Saxon king Ethelred.

During the civil wars in the reign of Charles I. Bedfordshire was one of the first counties that declared for the parliament, being within that district known by the name of the Eastern Associates. It is observed by Lord Clarendon that Bedfordshire was one of the counties in which the king had no visible party, nor one fixed quarter.

The same author informs us that in October 1643, Prince Rupert was sent by the king into Bedfordshire, at the head of a strong party of horse and foot. With this force the prince surprised and took Bedford, which was occupied as a strong post by the enemy. This expedition was principally designed to countenance Sir Lewis Dyves, whilst he fortified himself at Newport Pagnell, where he hoped to fix a garrison; none of the subsequent military transactions appear to have been in any way connected with this county.

CLIMATE

The air of this county is mild and salubrious. The face of the country is agreeably diversified by hill and dale, and the scenery much enlivened by the steeples of churches.

RIVERS

The principal rivers in this county are the Ouse and the Ivel, The former enters this county on the west side of it, running out of Buckinghamshire, between the villages of Brayfield and Turville; from whence it passes between Carlton and Harold, between Odel and Chillington, near Felmersham, Sharnbrook, Bletsoe, Milton-Ernest, and Oakley, and after a devious course through a number of fine meadows, to which its waters give beauty and fertility, passes through Bedford, where it becomes navigable; from thence it takes an eastward direction near Goldington, Willington, Barford, Tempsford, Roxton, Little Barford, and Eaton-Socon, and at length quits the county, at St. Neot’s, on the confines of Huntingdonshire. The principal bridges over the Ouse are Carlton, Radwell, Stafford-bridge near Oakley, Bromham, Bedford, Barford, and Tempsford. The great road from London to Glasgow passes over the last mentioned bridge.

The river Ouse is remarkable for the slowness of its motion, and for the many windings it makes in its short course of about 45 miles. It divides the county in two parts, and in a wet season is liable to sudden and great inundations. In the year 1256 the town of Bedford suffered great injury from the overflowing of this river, and again in 1570. The Cambridgeshire proverb, of “the bailiff of Bedford is coming,” mentioned by Fuller, alludes to the inundations of the Ouse, a most rapacious distrainer of hay and cattle.

The river Ouse abounds with a variety of freshwater fish, as pike, perch, bream, chub, bleak, crayfish, fine eels, dace, roach, and gudgeon.

The river Ivil rises near Baldock, in Hertfordshire, and enters this county near Stotfold, not far from Arlesay, after receiving a small stream called Hiz, it passes, near Henlow, to Langford, it is there joined by another small river. At Biggleswade the Ivil becomes navigable, and passing from thence near Sandy and Blunham, it falls into the Ouse a little above Tempsford.

The principal bridges over the Ivil, are at Girtford (a hamlet of Sandy), and at Biggleswade.

The Ivel produces the same variety of fish as the Ouse, and of the same description; it is particularly famous for gudgeons.

Navigable Canals.

No navigable canal passes through this county, but the Grand Junction Canal passes close to its borders, in the neighbourhood of Leighton Buzard, and comes up to that town. It is in contemplation to make a canal from Leighton to join the Ouse at Bedford.

AGRICULTURE

SOIL

The author of the General View of the Agriculture of this county, published by the Board of Agriculture, calculates that Bedfordshire contains 307, £00 acres; of these he computes 217,200 to be in open fields, common meadows, commons, and waste; 68,100 in inclosed meadows, pasture, and arable; and 21,900 of woodland.

Fuller gives a pretty correct general description of the soil of this county, by saying that it is deep clay, with a belt or girdle of sand about, or rather athwart, the body of it from Woburn to Potton. According to the author of the agricultural survey, there is every kind of soil and every mixture of soil in this county. He describes the prevailing soil of the north and west parts to be clay and strong loam, that of the south and east parts light loam, sand, gravel, and chalk. The chalk hills extend across the county from Hertfordshire to Buckinghamshire. From Dunstable to Woburn, the soil is various, chalk, clay, loam, and sand. At Houghton it is chalk on the high grounds, and black clay in the low lands. From Woburn to Newport Pagnell there is a great variety of soil; for some miles it is quite a light sand, and then a gravel with some light loams. About Wanden or Wavendon the soil is chiefly sand.

The vale of Bedford is a very rich tract of land, the soil of which, being exceedingly fertile and well cultivated, produces abundant crops of fine wheat, barley, and turnips. The land on the north side of the vale is a strong clay; that on the south, though in general lighter, is still very productive. The natural fertility of the vale is much encreased, by the periodical overflowing of the river Ouse.

Mode of Management

By the truly patriotic endeavours of the late Duke of Bedford, a laudable emulation has been excited among the fanners in the neighbourhood of Woburn, and other pans of the county, the good effects of which are already become visible.

The qualities of cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, &c. have been greatly improved by the introduction of the most celebrated breeds from other counties, and the melioration of the land has kept equal pace with the improvement of the cattle. In both departments the agricultural system of this county is rapidly advancing to perfection.

His grace the present duke follows the steps of of his late brother, in patronising experimental agriculture, and keeps up all the establishments which he formed with a view to that purpose. The park farm at Wobourn well deserves the attention of every man, who feels himself interested in the advancement of the science of agriculture. The farm-yard is replete with conveniences for abridging and expediting labour; besides barns, stables, fatting houses, &c. there is a mill for threshing, winnowing, grinding, and dressing wheat, &c. In another part is a small water-wheel, which gives motion to some ingenious machinery, for bruising malt and cutting straw into chaff. The water is supplied by pipes, which convey it from ponds situated on the adjoining eminences. Most of these conveniences were constructed, under the direction of Mr. Salmon, the duke’s clerk of the works, the ingenious inventor of several useful improvements in agricultural implements.

An annual sheep-shearing was established by the late Duke of Bedford, and continued by the present, at which three or four hundred persons are generally assembled, to partake of the festive cheer which then prevails at Wobourn. The meeting is held about the middle of June, and continues for several days; during this time experiments are made with newly-invented implements of agriculture, and premiums given for those which are judged to be of the most utility. Large premiums are also given to such persons, who in the course of the preceding year have expended the greatest sums in introducing valuable breeds of other counties, or who produce the best specimens of sheep, &c. bred in Bedfordshire; smaller sums are distributed for the furtherance of beneficial practices in husbandry.

Lord Ossory, Mr. Whitbread, and many other private gentlemen, add their influence and example towards the improvement of the agriculture of the county of Bedford, so that throughout the whole of the cultivated part of it, it may be generally observed that with respect to management of the land, the best systems universally obtain, and with respect to the live stock of the county, it consists of all the various kinds of the most improved breeds, as they are adapted to the nature of the land upon which they are reared.

The parish of Sandy near Northill, is much noted for its gardens; there are upwards of two hundred acres of land, occupied by nearly as many gardeners, who supply the whole country for many miles with vegetables, from Hertford to the metropolis. Their soil is a rich black sand, two or three feet deep. Carrots they sow about Lady-day, upon ground dug one spit deep, they hoe them very carefully three times; and the work by the day comes to nearly two pounds per acre for the three hoeings, according to the goodness of the crop. They set them out about eight or ten inches, from plant to plant, and get, on a medium, a crop of two hundred bushels upon an  acre. Parsnips they cultivate exactly in the same manner, but the product never equals that of carrots, by fifty or sixty bushels. The price of carrots vary from eighteen-pence to six-shillings per bushel, but the former price is very low. Potatoes they plant at the same time: twenty bushels plant an acre, at the distance of about one foot every way; they hoe them three times, but not at all before they come up, as is practised in some counties. They reckon the Midsummer dun sort to yield the best; a middling crop is two hundred and fifty bushels per acre; they always manure for them, either with dung or ashes, about twenty loads, but ashes they prefer.

Of onions they sow vast quantities; the time about a fortnight before Lady-day; they hoe and weed them always five times, at the expence of about four pounds per acre, and set them out six inches asunder. The average crop is about two hundred bushels, the price varying from two to six shillings a bushel. They always manure for them with great care.

These gardeners give from two pounds to five pounds rent per acre, for their land, and in some instances considerably more. It is, as we have above observed, a rich loose black sand, of a good depth, and very favourably protected from cold winds by several considerable hills. It is a curious, and a very pleasing sight, to behold crops of onions, potatoes, French-beans, and even whole fields of cucumbers, intermixed with crops of wheat, barley, turnips, &c.

Woad (Isatis Tinctoria) was formerly universally cultivated in this county; at present there is none to be found in it. The seeds of this plant, are sown every year, and the old woad plucked up, unless it is intended to be saved for seed. It is sown about the beginning of March, and cropt about the middle of May following, as the leaves come up. It is best in quality in a fair and dry summer, but most in quantity in a moist one. Then they crop it four or five times, according as it comes up; the first crop is best; every crop after is worse in order, and the last worst of all. As soon as it is cut it is carried to the woad mill, and ground as small as it can be until it becomes fit to ball. When it is balled, they lay the balk on hurdles to dry, and when it is perfectly dry they grind them to powder in the mill as small as possible; thus ground they throw it upon a floor, and water it, Which they call couching, and let it smoak and heat, turning it every day until it be perfectly dry and mouldy, which they call silvering. When it is silvered they weigh it by the hundred, and bag it, putting two hundred weight in a bag, and so send it as fit for sale to the dyers, who try how it will dye and set the price accordingly: the best woad is usually worth 18l. per ton. Three hundred acres were lately let for the cultivation of woad at 7l. per acre at Tyrringham and Lathbury in Buckinghamshire.

With the tincture of this plant the ancient Britonswere wont to dye their bodies, that they might appear more terrible to their enemies. The Romans called this herb Vitrum, witness Cœsar, Vitruvius, Mela, Pliny, and Marcellus Empyricus; which word being manifestly an interpretation of Glastum, it appears that Glassa or Glasse signified the same tiling among the ancient Britons that it does among us, and not a blue colour, as Mr. Camden tells us, as it now does among the Welch. Why the Britons should call this herb Glasse, we know no better reason than because it resembles some kind of glass in colour, which we know hath often a tincture of blue in it; whence also a dilute blue is called Color hyulinus.

MINES AND MINERALS

There are no mines in this county, nor any great abundance of fossils, either native or extraneous.-A gold mine is said to have been discovered at Pollux Hill in this county, about the year 1700, which was seized for the king, and granted by lease to some refiners; who, though they produced gold from the ore, found the quantity so small, that it was not equal to the expence of separation. Woodward, in his History of Fossils, mentions “a mass of shining yellow talc, with a yellow matter mixed with it,” as having been found at this place, which probably was the substance mistaken for gold

Cornua Ammonis, and other kinds of shells, are found in the stratum of stone in the Toternhoe quarries, and great abundance of petrified wood, together with griphites, belemnites, &c. under the stratum of fuller s earth at Aspley.

There are several mineral springs in this county, but none of them have acquired much celebrity: the springs enumerated are at Barton; Bedford, (near the Friars); Cupwell, at Bletsoe (near the Falcon); Poplar Well, at Blunham (near Barford bridge; Bromham (near Web’s-Lane); Bushmead; Clapham; Cranfield; Hulcot; Milton Ernest; two at Odell; Chadwell at Pertenhall; a well called Ochres, at Resely; Selsoe (at a farm called New Inn); Turvey in Dovehouse Close; and the spring which supplies the cold bath in Wrest Gardens.

The Fuller’s Earth Pits, in the vicinity of Wobourn, have been in general described as being in this county, but this is a mistake; they being certainly in Buckinghamshire, in the parish of Wavendon or Wandon, as it is commonly called. They are two miles north of Woburn, and about one furlong on the western side of the Northampton road.

The more ancient pit, it is true, is in the county of Bedford, in the parish of Aspley, which adjoins that of Wandon; but this has been disused for upwards of a century. It has large trees growing in it, and is now become the secure residence of the cunning fox, who in its mazy and intricate recesses finds a safe retreat.

“From the surface, for about six: yards depth, there are several layers of sands; all reddish, but some lighter coloured than others, under which there is a thin stratum of red sand-stone, which they break through; and then, for the depth of seven or eight yards more, there is sand again, after that they come to the fuller's earth; the upper layer of which, being about a foot deep, they call the cledge; and this is by the diggers thrown by as useless, by reason of its too great mixture with the neighbouring sand, which covers, and has insinuated itself among it; after which they dig up the earth for use, to the depth of about eight feet more, the matter where of is distinguished into several layers, there being commonly about a foot and a half between one horizontal fissure and another. Of these layers of fuller’s earth, the upper half, where the earth breaks itself, is tinged red; as it seems by the running of the water from the sandy strata above; and the part they call the crop, betwixt which and the cledge above-mentioned is a thin layer of matter, not an inch in depth, in taste, colour, and consistency, not unlike to Terra Japonica. The lower half of the fuller’s earth they call the wall earth; this is untinged with that red above-mentioned, and seems to be the more pure and fitter for fulling; and underneath all is a stratum of white rough stone, of about two foot thick,  which, if they dig through, as they very seldom do, they find sand again, and there is an end of their works.

“One thing is observable in the site of this earth, which is, that it seems to have every where a pretty equal horizontal level; because they say, that when the sand ridges at the surface are higher, the fuller’s earth lies proportionably deeper.

“The perpendicular fissures are frequent, and the earth in the strata, besides its apparent distinction into layers, like all other kinds of matter, by reason of its peculiar unctuousness, or the running of the adjacent sand imperceptibly among it, breaks itself into pieces of all angles and sizes.

“Fullers earth, is a thing of great service and importance; one main property of it is to imbibe oil, grease, and other like unctuous matter; it is that property that renders this earth so useful in the cleansing woollen cloth. Every body conversant in rural affairs, must needs know how frequently tar is of necessity employed, as also grease and tallow, in the external affections and diseases of sheep; and besides, their wool cannot be worked, spun or wove into cloth, unless it be well oiled and greased; all which unctuous matter must be taken forth again out of the cloth before it can be worn; nor is any thing yet known so serviceable to that purpose as this earth; and as the fuller’s earth of England is got in great plenty, so it very much exceeds any yet discovered abroad in goodness, which indeed is one great reason why the English surpass all other nations in the woollen manufacture; and to preserve the benefit of this to the country, and secure it from the usurpation of foreigners, the exportation of English fuller’s earth is strictly prohibited by act of parliament.“

CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS

The county of Bedford is divided into the nine following hundreds: viz. Manshead, Flit, Willey. Wixamtree, Stodden, Barford, Biggleswade, Clifton, and Redburnstoke. These hundreds contain nine market towns: Ampthill, Bedford, Biggleswade, Dunstable, Harold, Leighton Buzzard, Luton, Potton, and Woburn.

Bedfordshire is in the diocese of Lincoln, and is

under the jurisdiction of an archdeacon, and is divided into six deaneries: viz: Bedford, Clopham, Dunstable, Eaton, Fleete, and Shefford, containing 121 parishes.