Bedford, its Early History-The Present Town-Its Schools-John Bunyan-Elstow-Bunyan's Cottage and the VillageHis Early Life-His Struggles and Persecutions-His Books-"Pilgrim's Progress."

EDFORD, as it appears to the passing traveller, was

well described by Camden more than two centuries since:"Tis more eminent for the pleasantness of its situation and antiquity than anything of beauty or stateliness." It is typical of many English towns: standing in a wide, level grassy valley, which is bounded by the sloping sides of a gently undulating table-land of no great height; a quiet-looking town, on the banks of a quiet river; without signs of hurry or press of work, yet a fairly busy and thriving place; without any conspicuous monuments of antiquity, yet with a history of its own, going back into the remote past and not altogether uneventful.

Whether Bedford was a Roman station, and once rejoiced in the name Lactodorum, is a question on which the learned have differed. The weight of authority, however, is opposed to this identification; and though Roman remains have been found in many other parts of the country, so far as we are aware few, if any, have occurred here. Of late years, however, Bedford has become noted among students of pre-historic antiquities, owing to the discovery in its vicinity of those rude tools or weapons of chipped flint which are the earliest works of man at present known to us. The first recognition of these was in the year 1861, by the late Mr. J. Wyatt, an inhabitant of Bedford, and well known for his scientific attainments. They have been found in considerable numbers in the gravel-pits at Biddenham and other localities within two or three miles of the town, associated with the remains

PRE-HISTORIC ANTIQUITIES.

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of mammals, such as the reindeer, the urus, the cave-bear, mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and others which either are wholly extinct or have long since vanished from Britain. The river gravels in which these occur are some distance from the Ouse, and about forty feet above it. Similar implements, supposed to have been used for axe-heads, chisels, scrapers, and the like, have been found at many localities in England and France, not to mention other countries-in England, more especially in the southern and eastern districts. In France, the most famous localities are in the valley of the Somme, near St. Acheul and Amiens, where they have been

found in surprising numbers at a height of full ninety feet above the present level of the stream. They commonly vary from about three to ten inches in length, and are generally more or less oval or almond-shaped. The first discovery of these implements was received with much incredulity, and all kinds of absurd hypotheses were advanced to explain the evidence of design apparent in their form, and to diminish the antiquity which was claimed for them by geologists because of their height above and distance from the existing rivers. That they are really the work of man, no reasonable person at the present day can doubt; that they carry back the first appearance of man in North-Western Europe to a period much more remote than

MAP OF BEDFORD.

was formerly thought, can hardly be disputed. They were probably made by a people even less civilised than were the Esquimaux when the first navigators from Europe cast anchor on the shores of Greenland. In those far-off days the valley of the Ouse must have been a very different place from what it is now. We must efface the cornfields from the uplands, the rich pastures from the valley plain; we must cut down the stately trees from the hedgerows and the parks, and replace all these by marsh and moorland, with stunted forest and frost-nipped shrubs; we must imagine the Ouse to be flowing in a larger channel and with a swifter stream; in short, we must picture England with a climate like that of Labrador and a population no more civilised than the aborigines of Patagonia. In this district also are found remains of the races who succeeded this long-forgotten people-races who gave a higher finish to their weapons of stone and of bone, and then learnt the use of bronze, and at last even of iron; but, so far as we are aware, the immediate neighbourhood of

Bedford has been less prolific than some other parts of East Anglia. As was stated above, it is more than uncertain whether Bedford was a Roman station; and no event of importance is on record as having happened there (except a battle fought in the year 572, in which Cuthwulf the Saxon overcame the Britons) until Offa, the renowned King of Mercia, made choice of this town for his last resting-place. He was buried, it is said, near the river-side, but no trace remains of his monument, which, according to tradition, was swept away by a flood. Bedford at the present day stands on both banks of the Ouse, and the part on the right bank is said to have been founded by Edward the Elder, after the town had been much injured by a foray of the Danes.

Thus far, to judge by its absence from history, Bedford, with one exception, must have had a peaceful time; but, as Camden* remarks, its troubles began with the Normans, "for after Pagan de Beauchamp, the third that was called Baron of Bedford, had built a castle there, never a civil commotion arose in the kingdom but what had a stroke at it while standing. Stephen, in the first place, when he had possessed himself of the kingdom of England against his solemn oath, took this castle, with great loss on both sides; afterwards when the Barons took up arms against King John, William de Beauchamp, lord of it, and one of the leaders of the faction, put it in their hands; but about two years after, Falco de Breaut laid siege to it, presently had it surrendered to him by the Barons, and bestowed upon him by the king. But this ungrateful man afterwards renewed the war against Henry, pulled down the religious houses to fortifie his castle, and very much damnified the country all round, till at last the king laid siege to it, and after sixty days, having tamed the insolence of the rebels, possessed himself of that nursery of sedition." After the surrender a part of the castle, apparently including the most important works, was destroyed, and the rest restored to its former owner as a dwelling-house. The stones were given to the Canons of Newenham and Chadwell and to the Church of St. Paul's in Bedford-no doubt to repair the injuries which they had suffered at the hands of Falco de Breaut.

Some remnants, chiefly an outer wall, yet remain of the first of these religious houses, and may be seen from the railway between Bedford and Cambridge, which passes through an angle of the enclosure. According to Camden, the community was once attached to the above Church of St. Paul, but was transferred to this spot by the wife of the builder of the castle, Pagan de Beauchamp.

Bedford at the present time has a population of about 18,000, for it has increased since the last census, when the number was 16,851, and is still increasing. A branch of the London and North-Western Railway skirts the town on the southern side, and the main line of the Midland on the western, the stations being separate. Neither line affords a good view of Bedford, as it lies rather low on the banks of the Ouse, which passes through the town, the larger part occupying the left bank of the river. That is crossed by a handsome stone bridge of five arches, in the line of the principal street, which is called the High Street. In this there are no buildings of special interest, either from their age or architectural merits, yet it would not be easy to find a better example of a

* "Britannia :" Bedfordshire.