AYLESBURY, a market-town, parliamentary borough, and railway junction, in the county of Buckingham, 39 miles N.W. of London. It stands on a gentle eminence in the centre of a fertile vale, and consists of several streets and lanes irregularly built, but well paved and lighted. The county-hall, market-house, and county gaol are handsome buildings, as is also the parish church, an ancient structure with a tower rising from the centre. It has a free grammar-school (1611), several other schools and charities, a corn-exchange (1865), three banks, a savings bank, an infirmary (1833), a union workhouse, and places of public worship for Roman Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Independents, &c. It returns two members to parliament. The assizes and quarter sessions and the elections of members for the county are held here. The inhabitants are principally employed in the manufacture of bonelace and strawplaiting, besides the rearing of ducks, which are sent in large quantities to the London market at Christmas. A branch canal, six miles in length, connects Aylesbury with the Grand Junction Canal. Population of parliamentary borough in 1871, 28,760.

AYLESFORD, a village of England, in the county of Kent, 3j miles from Maidstone, and 32 from London. It stands at the base of a hill on the right bank of the Medway, which is here crossed by a stone bridge of six arches. The church stands on an eminence behind the village. At a short distance to the W. was a Carmelite friary, founded in 1240, the remains of which now form a part of the family mansion of the earl of Aylesford. The vicinity exhibits several remains of antiquity, among which is, or rather was, for it is grievously destroyed, a cromlech called Kit’s Coity House, about a mile N.E. from the village. This is supposed by Mr Fergusson, in accordance with tradition, to mark the burial-place of Catigern, w ho was slain here in a battle between the Britons and Saxons in 455 a.d. The tomb of Horsa, who fell in the same battle, is situated at Horsted, about 2 miles to the N. Near Aylesford, too, are other remains, known as the Countless Stones. Population of parish in 1871, 2100.