BEDFORDSHIRE. The article, in the work, on this county, is almost exclusively confined to its ancient history, and its antiquities, and in the .short notices which it gives on other points, it is by no means accurate. In this article, therefore, we shall at tend to what is omitted or incorrect in the former.
This county possesses no natural limits, except the Ouse for a short space on the east and west sides, and a rivulet on the south-west border. It is situate between the parallels of 51.47 and 52.17 north latitude, and between 0.17 and 0.46 west lon gitude from Greenwich. According to the report to the Board of Agriculture, it contains 807,200 acres ; according to the returns to Parliament of the poor-rates, drawn up under the inspection of Mr Rose, 275,200; and according to Dr Beeke, in his Observations on the Income Tax, 293,059. Nearly the whole of .this county is situate on the eastern side of the'grand ridge of the island, and consequent ly nearly all its waters drain off in that direction. The face of the country is, in general, varied with small hills and valleys, and affords few extensive level tracts. The highest range of hills are the Chiltern, which cross a part, and skirt the remainder of the southern extremity of this county. This ridge fre quently projects abruptly into the valleys in a strik ing manlier. Under it is a large tract of hard, steril .land, which gives this part.a dreary and uncomfort able appearance. The next-most considerable range, in point of height, is of clay, crossing the county near its northern end. The next range is of sand, and enters the county on its western side, near Apsley Guise, and passes on in a north-eastern direction. The other are for the most part of alluvial clay.
Four•fifths of the surface of this county are cover ed with alluvial soils, which consist principally of yellow and dark coloured clays. Fuller, speaking in general terms of its soil, gives a pretty just de -scription of it, by saying, that it is a deep clay with 4 a belt or girdle of sand about, or rather athwart the body of it, from Woburn to Potton. This soil pre
vails in the north-west parts. From the south-east ern corner to the middle of the county, light loain, sand, gravel, and chalk predominate. Th ewestern part is, for the most part, flat and sandy. In the south-west, about Woburn, are large tracts of deep barren soil. Upon the gravel, in the bottoms of the vales in the sand district, there is a considerable quantity of peat, which contains a large quantity of sulphuric acid.
The uppermost stratum in Bedfordshire is a thick body of chalk, with numerous layers of flints. This advances no farther northward or north-west than Luton and Dunstable. Hard chalk, without flints, succeeds. Near the bottom of this is a very durable freestone. The upper and lower chalk are to gether about 400 feet thick. Chalk-marl succeeds the chalk. To the northward of Hockliff there are thick masses of alluvial clay. The ferruginous sand stratum of Woburn crosses the county, as has been already mentioned, from Woburn to Potton. It is about 170 or 180 feet thick. Near the bottom of it are beds of fuller's earth. This substance is found from five to seven or eight feet thick, between beds of sand or sandstone, over several hundred acres on the north-west of Woburn, both in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Formerly, the most ex tensive workings were in Apsley-Guise parish, in the former county ; but, at present, the only pit that is used is in Buckinghamshire. The site of Bedford is formed of a stratum of clunch clay; it is the thickest of the Bedfordshire strata, and ex tends for several miles to the south side of the county town. In some parts of this stratum, there are beds of argillaceous schist, so impregnated with a bitu minous substance as to burn like bad coal. In the immediate site of the town of Bedford are several strata of grey compact limestone, which are probably the lowest struta in the county. The strata 'of Bed fordshire have a pretty regular dip towards the south east, at the rates of 1 in 50 to 1 in 80.