AMPTHILL, a small neatly-built market town in Bedfordshire, situated about 8 miles south of Bedford. Besides the old parish church, it contains various dissenting chapels, a county court-house, a savings bank, several schools, and an almshouse. Near the town is Ampthill house, a mansion of the late Lord Holland, containing a valuable collection of paintings, a library, and a museum. The site of the old castle in which Catherine of Aragon resided while her divorce from Henry VIII. was pending, is marked by a cross within the grounds. The district is chiefly agricultural, but in Amp thill there is a large brewery, and a considerable amount of straw-plaiting and lace-making. Population in 1871, 2∙220.