BEDFORDSHIRE, one of the south midland counties of England, surrounded by the counties of Buckingham, Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Hertford. It is the fourth smallest county, containing only 295,509 acres or 461 square miles. Its extreme length from north to south is about 47 miles, and its width 21 miles. The great Ouse, which flows through the county eastward, is navigable from Bedford to the sea at King’s Lynn. The Midland and Great Northern Railways intersect the county, also the Bletchley and Cambridge branch of the London and North-Western. The surface of the county is for the most part level, but the northern half is undulating, with a subsoil generally of boulder-clay and Oxford-clay. A fine tract of land south of Bedford is bounded by a range of lower-greensand running east and west, presenting beautiful woodland scenery, parallel to which, along the Hertfordshire border, the Chiltern chalk range rises to 500 feet above the sea-level and 400 feet above the level of Bedford. The county is generally devoted to corn-growing, but the Ouse valley has a large breadth of rich pasturage, and all along the west side of the Great Northern railway is a sandy loam, on which onions, potatoes, and market produce are grown. Agricultural implement and other engineering works employ about 1000 hands at Bedford and Luton; while the female industry of the county is pillow-lace, and in the south straw-plait. The plait is made up, chiefly at Dunstable and Luton, into hats and bonnets, which are exported to all parts of the world. Luton is the most populous town in the county, slightly exceeding the county town of Bedford. The county rate assessment is .£585,840. and the expenditure in 1873 was £1 1,802. The county belongs to the diocese of Ely, and coincides with the ...archdeaconry of Bedford. It contains 9 hundreds and 124 parishes. It is in the Norfolk circuit, and assizes are held twice a year. A court of quarter-sessions sits at Bedford, and the petty sessional divisions are seven. Two members are returned to parliament for the county and two for the town of Bedford. The titles derived from the county are that of duke to the house of Russell, and of baron of Bletsoe to the family of Lord St John, and the largest landowners are the duke of Bedford and Mr Whitbread of Southill. The most distinguished residence in the county is Woburn Abbey (duke of Bedford), near the town of that name. It was formerly a Cistercian abbey, granted at the Reformation by Henry VIII. to the family of Russell, the fourth duke of which house erected the present edifice. It is a very grand and capacious pile, situated in an extensive park, and is furnished with a large and valuable collection of paintings and statues. Luton Hoo is also an extensive mansion, which was reconstructed and improved for the third earl of Bute by the brothers Adam. A library, 146 feet in length, furnished with a valuable collection of books, and a large selection of paintings of some of the first masters, chiefly of the Italian school, are its distinguishing ornaments. Besides these there are other mansions which are highly deserving of notice, especially that of Mr Whitbread at Southill; Wrest Park, belonging to the Dowager Countess Cowper, Hawnes House, to the Rev. Lord John Thynne; Sutton, to Sir John Μ. Burgoyne; and Oakley House, to the marquis of Tavistock.
There are a general infirmary and fever hospital at Bedford; near Aresey is the Three Counties Lunatic Asylum (for Beds, Herts, and Hunts) provided for 685 patients; at Carlton is the juvenile county reformatory; at Kempstonthe county school (300 boys), also the Military Brigade Dépôt. Connected with the county are the militia (18th Light Infantry), the duke of Manchester’s cavalry volunteer corps, and the rifle volunteers.
The population of the county stood at the four last decennial enumerations as follows :— [table]
In the year 1871 the number of agricultural labourers was 15,962, of straw-plaiters 23,508 (90 per cent, being females), and of lacemakers 6051, all female3. The towns and their populations in 1871 were as follows:—Luton, 17,317; Bedford, 16,850; Leighton-Buzzard, 4696; Dunstable, 4558; Biggleswade, 4244.
When the Romans landed in Britain Bedfordshire formed a portion of the district of the Cattieuchlani, whose sovereign or chief, Cassibelenus or Cassivelaunus, com manded the united forces which opposed Julius Caesar. When, in the year 310, the Emperor Constantine ruled the whole island, and divided it into five provinces, Bedfordshire was included in the third division called Flaυia C oesariensis, and remained so till the final abandonment of Britain by the Romans. Under the Saxon heptarchy it formed part of the kingdom of Mercia, until with the rest of the island it was united to the kingdom of the West Saxons, which was divided by Alfred into counties, hundreds, and tythings, when this county first received its present name.
There are many remains of Roman, Saxon, and Norman antiquities. Traces of a Roman station are to be seen at Sandy near Potton, and at Maiden-Bower near Dunstable. Leighton-Buzzard, or Beaudesert, is supposed to have been a Roman camp. The ancient Icknield and Watling Streets passed through the county; and the remains of both may be definitely traced, as well as of some others constructed by the Romans.
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