BEDFORD, a very ancient town in the central part of England, and the capital and only borough town in the county of the same name, (See BED FORDSUIREO is situated on both sides, but principally on the north side of the Ouse river, which is naviga ble from the Eastern Sea, or German Ocean, by way of Lynn, Downham, Ely, St Ives, Huntingdon, and St Neots, to this town. Bedford is situated rather north of the centre of the county, and at the northern skirt of a very wide vale, of strong but good clay land, called the vale of Bedford : in the immediate site of the town, several strata of grey compact lime stone, abounding with gryphites and other species of fossil shells, usually denominated anomia, having very dark blue or black beds of clay between them, ap pear from under the thick strata of clay which com pose the vale of Bedford, and the hills north of it. This limestone, which is dug and burnt on the west side of the town, and of which the churches, the bridge, and most of the ancient buildings are con structed, has hence been denominated the " Bedford limestone," in the enumerations of the British strata by Mr William Smith and his pupils. See the Phi losophical Magazine, vol. xxxvi. p. 105.
This town ,was called by the Saxons, Bedan Ford, signifying the fortress on the ford, alluding to an im mense tumulus, or mound of earth, which, perhaps prior to this, was raised by immense labour from a ditch surrounding it, on the north bank of the river, opposite to the ancient ford, and site perhaps of a bridge in more modern times, about 200 yards east of the present bridge, which is itself a work of con siderable antiquity. Offa, king of the Mercians, is said to have been buried in a small chapel, seated on or near to the Ouse, in this town, of which no ves tige now remains. A desperate battle was fought near this town, in 572, betiveen Cuthwolf the Saxon king, and the Britons, which terminated disastrously to the natives ; and the inhabitants of Bedford in consequence were a prey to their merciless invaders : who frequently renewed their marauding visits, until the year 911, when they were defeated and driven from this part of the country. The third baron of Bedford, Baron de Beauchamp, built a very strvmg and spacious castle, on and around the site of the an. cient fort, surrounding the whole by a very deep ditch, vestiges of which still remain on the east and part of the north sides : the site of the castle being now occupied by the gardens and paddock belong ing to the New Swan Inn ; and the spacious top of the keep and tumulus above mentioned, by a pleasant bowling-green, which is surrounded by tall elm trees, that grow on the steep sides of what still bears the name of the Castle-hill.
The late Duke of Bedford, justly stiled the " Great.
Duke of Bedford," purchased the site of this castle, and a miserable inn which stood at the corner of the bridge, from one of the inhabitants, and, at the ex pense of R9000, erected here a magnificent inn, for the general accommodation of the inhabitants and travellers, but more especially for the meetings of the justices, grand jury, &c. at the times of the assises
and quarter sessions, and the inhabitants at county meetings, and on other public occasions. The south and west fronts of this building are faced with the beautiful white free-stone from the lower beds of the chalk strata, brought from Totternhoe, near Dunsta ble : all the other parts are of limestone, raised from the fosse of the Castle-hill just bye.
The great strength of the castle of Bedford ren dered it a place of contention in most of the civil wars which rent the kingdom, in the ages which suc ceeded its erection. King Stephen besieged this castle, and reduced it. The refractory barons, in the reign of King John, possessed themselves of Bedford castle, until expelled by Fulco de Brent, a general in the king's army, who, in reward for his services, re ceived a grant of this castle, which he held until, in the succeeding reign, he in his turn rebelled, and was taken and sent prisoner to London, after a vigorous siege of GO days, by Henry the Third, who, after hanging 25 of the rebellious knights found in this. castle, demolished it ; since which period, the mason and the lime-burner have long removed and used every stone which formed the massive walls of this once formidable castle., Bedford contains five different parishes, viz. St Paul, St Peter, and St Cuthbert, on the north side of the river, and St Mary and St John on its south side. St Paul's church, which was collegiate before the conquest, is the largest church, and is ornamented with a tall octagonal spire, the latitude of which, ac cording to the government trigonometrical survey, is 52° 8' 8".8 N. and its longitude 0° 27' 43".3 W. of Greenwich observatory, or 1' 50".9 in time. The government of the town is vested in a mayor, recor der, deputy-recorder, an indefinite number of alder men, (who have served the office of mayor,) two. bailiffs, and thirteen common councilmen. Until about the year 1798, the corporation of Bedford had for a long time numbered in its body, but few of the largest merchants, traders, or opulent persons of the place, and continual jealousies and civil broils were the consequence of these distinctions, which the ge nius and conciliatory talents of the late Duke of Bed ford, their recorder, enabled them to remove, and many beneficial measures for the improvement of the town were and since have been the consequences. The bailiffs are lords of the manors, and have right• of fishing in the Ouse river for nine miles each way from Bedford.