HISTORY OF BEDFORD

AND

VISITOR'S GUIDE.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

COMPILED BY

THOMAS ALLEN BLYTH, Ph.D., (Gott.)

ASSISTANT MASTER, BEDFORD COMMERCIAL SCHOOL.

[WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY SEVERAL OTHER GENTLEMEN.]

VILLA BEDFORDIE

LONDON:

LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, & DYER.

BEDFORD:

J. R. PORTER, 7, HIGH STREET.

BEDFORD:

PUBLISHED BY J. R. PORTER, 7, HIGH STREET.

PREFACE.

THE great want of a History of Bedford has long been felt by all classes of society in the Town and County; and the endeavour to supply this want has been an undertaking involving much reading and careful investigation.

In preparing the present History of this ancient borough and market town, the compiler has consulted every book, pamphlet, magazine, and manuscript, to which he has had access, and from which any local information could be obtained. And he is indebted to several clergymen, ministers, and other gentlemen, who, having devoted more or less attention to the history of their own locality, kindly favoured him with scraps, with the loan of books and valuable manuscripts, and by revising the proof-sheets relating to those buildings and places with which they are connected.

Nevertheless, it is to be feared that occasional inaccuracies will be found, but he earnestly trusts that these may meet with the lenity and forbearance of the reader.

THE

ANCIENT HISTORY OF BEDFORD.

Time-honoured town! to memory so dear
Claiming the tribute of a grateful tear:
Oh, fostering nurse of many an one that now
Sleeps with his fathers in the sod below!
A bright horizon long has marked thy way,
Few clouds have hid thy ever prosperous day.
Thy sons beloved, have many a laurel won,
Thy heroes oft a glorious race have run,
And well I love to scan their deeds of old,
To sing the triumphs of the brave and bold,
To listen to the tale of BEDFORD's pride,
And see how well they lived-how nobly died.
Hail to thee, honoured spot! when toil and strife
And all the stern realities of life

Shall come about me, when the power of truth
Shall scatter all the dreams that brighten youth,
How oft shall memory dwell upon the past,
And sigh for other days too bright to last;
How oft thy name shall fill my grateful soul
And animate my being's very whole!

Universally it is admitted, that the early history of Great Britain, previous to the Roman Invasion, is such that we can place no reliance upon any one thing as an historical fact. Julius Cæsar, on his arrival, found this country divided into no less than thirty-four different tribes, seventeen of which occupied that part of it now known as Scotland; among the remaining seventeen were the Cattieuchlani, who occupied Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire. And it was Cassivellaunus, the chief or governor of this tribe of Britons, the Cattieuchlani or Cassii, who was chosen by unanimous consent to lead them against the arrogant, invading Cæsar. During the Roman government, Bedfordshire formed part of Britannia Superior, afterwards of Britannia Prima. Upon the last Roman division of the island into five provinces, which was made in the year 310 by the Emperor Constantine, Bedfordshire was included in the third division, called Flavia Cæsariensis. After the establishment of the Saxon Heptarchy, it formed part of the kingdom of Mercia: and, from Brompton we learn that, when the two kingdoms of the Heptarchy were abolished, the kings of Mercia retained one moiety of Bedfordshire; the kings of Essex became possessed of the other. Bedfordshire continued as a part of the Mercian kingdom until the year 827, when, with the other divisions of the island, it became subject to the West Saxons under Egbert. Alfred having subdivided his kingdom into shires, hundreds, and tythings, and marked the limits and name of each division, this was called Bedefordscire, since contracted to its present name.