GUILDFORD, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of England, capital of the county of Surrey, is beautifully situated on a gentle acclivity of the northern chalk downs and on the river Wye, crossed there by a bridge of five arches, 30 miles S.S.W. of London. It consists chiefly of one long, wide, and well-built street, and contains a number of old picturesque gabled houses, with quaint lattices and curious doorways. The principal buildings are the ruins of an old castle, erected soon after the Norman conquest, and for a long time used as the county jail; the town-hall, erected in 1683, containing a number of interesting pictures; the corn market-house, erected in 1818; the county hall and assize court in the domestic Gothic style, erected in 1862; the Abbots Hospital, founded by Archbishop Abbot for decayed tradesmen and decayed tradesmen’s widows; the county hospital, opened in 1866,. erected as a memorial to the Prince Consort; the Royal Free Grammar School, founded in 1509; the Institute, formed in 1841, with museum, library, and reading and lecture rooms; the church of St Mary, in the Anglo-Norman style, of very early origin, and restored in 1863; the church of St Nicholas, in the Gothic style, erected on the site of an ancient structure of Saxon origin; and Holy Trinity church, a red brick structure erected 1749-63, with a square embattled tower. Guildford has corn mills, iron foundries, and breweries. There is considerable trade in corn, and fairs are held for cattle, sheep, horses, and pigs. Guildford first returned members to Parliament in the reign of Edward I. Formerly it had two members, but since the Reform Act of 1867 it returns only one. The population of the municipal and parliamentary borough in 1861, when the municipal and ...