Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Balls of England and Wales, Their Legendary Lore, and Popular History. Re-Ed. by A. Gunn (Abridged, Paperback, Abridged edition)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 edition. Excerpt: ...is mentioned about 250 years later; and Camden speaks of its ruins as still existing in his time, overhanging the river, on the cast side of the town. At present not one stone of the fabric remains; but about 1820 its site might be very distinctly traced at the back of the Swan Inn, close to the old bridge: it forms a parallelogram, divided by a lane; and the site of the keep now makes an excellent bowling-green. The domain first became a dukedom when given to John, the third son of Henry IV. We have abridged most of these details from an excellent account of the Castle in the Penny Cyclopadia. The town of Bedford is one of the most interesting places in England; and there is perhaps no English town of similar extent equal to Bedford in the variety and magnitude of its charitable and educational establishments. It has been greatly improved since a great fire, in 1724, consumed 100 houses, and in 1802, 72 houses. The communication between the parts of the town separated by the O use is a handsome stone bridge of five arches, which was commenced in 1811, on the site of the old bridge of seven arches, which was popularly considered to have been built with the materials of the Castle demolished by Henry III.; but which Grose, the antiquary, understood to have been erected in the reign of Queen Mary, out of the ruins of St. Dunstan's Church, which stood on the south side of the bridge. The old Gaol was built on the bridge; here John Bunyan suffered one-and-fifty months' imprisonment in the reign of Charles II.; and held for many years the appointment of pastor to the Independent congregation at Bedford. His memory is still greatly revered, and the chair in which he used to sit is preserved in the vestry, as a sort of relic, with his vestry jug, the...