Map|Names of Places. | County. | Number of Miles From _Curiosities of Great Britain: England and Wales Delineated Vol.1-11 Historical, Entertaining & Commercial; Alphabetically Arranged. 11 Volume set.

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|Dist.|

Map|Names of Places. | Number of Miles From |Lond.|Population.

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45|Bents-Green |Castleton 12| 163| |

16|Bentworth pa|Basingstoke 8| 52| 592|

12|Benville ham|Yeovil 8| 130| |

23|Benwell to|Hexham 18| 276| 1278|

6|Benwick chap|Peterborough 6| 81| 526|

42|Beoley pa|Birmingham 11| 112| 673|

38|Bepton pa|Chichester 10| 53| 166|

14|Berdin pa|Bis. Stortford 6| 36| 342|

15|Berdwick ham|Sodbury 5| 97| |

14|Bere-Church pa|Aberton 3| 52| 142|

12|Bere ham|Sturminster 5| 109| |

16|Bere-Lay ham|Shanklin 10| 93| |

36|Bergholt, East pa|Manningtree 3| 63| 1360|

14|Bergholt, West pa|Halstead 10| 10| 786|

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Map| Names of Places. | County. |Number of Miles From |

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|Dist.|

Map| Names of Places. | Number of Miles From|Lond.|Population.

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15|Berkeley[A] m.t. & pa|Thornbury 7| 114| 3899|

34|Berkeley pa|Warminster 7| 103| 531|

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[A] BERKELEY. This ancient, but small town, is situated upon a pleasant

eminence in the beautiful vale of Berkeley, almost east from the Severn.

In the Domesday book, it is termed a royal domain and free borough. A

nunnery is said to have existed here in the reign of Edward the

Confessor; the frail sisters of which were dispossessed of their

estates, including the manor, by the craft of Earl Godwin, who found

means to introduce into the community a profligate young man, by whom

the nuns were seduced. This conduct being reported to the King, the

nunnery was dissolved, and its possessions granted to the Earl. The

Conqueror afterwards bestowed the manor on Roger, surnamed De Berkeley,

a chieftain who had accompanied him to England. Roger, his grandson,

taking part with Stephen, against Henry II., was deprived of his lands;

and Berkeley was given by that monarch to Robert Fitzharding, Governor

of Bristol, in reward for his eminent services. This nobleman was

descended from the Kings of Denmark, and in his posterity the extensive

manor of Berkeley, one of the largest in England, is still vested.

Berkeley church appears to be of the age of Henry II., though it has

undergone various alterations. Near the pulpit is a curious tomb, in

memory of Thomas, second Lord Berkeley, and Margaret, his first wife.

Here also are various other monuments of this family. The tower, which

stands at some distance from the church, was constructed about seventy

years ago. In the churchyard is the well known ludicrous epitaph,

written by Dean Swift, in memory of "Dickey Pearce, the Earl of

Suffolk's fool." Berkeley Castle appears to have been founded by Roger

de Berkeley, soon after the Conquest; but various important additions

were made to it during the reigns of Henry II., Edward II., and Edward

III. The form of the castle approaches nearest to that of a circle; and

the buildings are included by an irregular court, with a moat. The keep

is flanked by three semi-circular towers, and a square one of subsequent

construction: its walls are high and massive: the entrance into it is

under an arched doorway, with ornamental sculpture in the Norman style,

similar to one at Arundel Castle. This fortress has been the scene of

various memorable transactions; the most remarkable, perhaps, was that

of the murder of Edward II., in September, 1327, thus noticed by Gray:--

"Mark the year, and mark the night,

When Severn shall re-echo with affright,

The shrieks of death through Berkeley's roofs that ring;

Shrieks of an agonising King!"

Tradition states, that when the murder of King Edward had been

determined on, Adam, Bishop of Hereford, at the instigation of the

Queen, wrote to the keeper the following words; which, not possessing

the distinctness imported by punctuation, were capable of a double

construction:

"Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est."

Edward the King kill not to fear is good.

The keeper, easily divining the wicked wishes of his employer, put his

royal master to death. According to another account, when the death of

this unfortunate, but weak sovereign, had been resolved on by the Queen

and Mortimer, her infamous paramour, he was removed from Kenelworth to

Berkeley Castle, by Sir John Maltravers and Sir Thomas Gourney, to whose

keeping he had been previously committed. Thomas, second Lord Berkeley,

then owner of the castle, treated him with civility and kindness, but

was, in a short time, obliged to relinquish his fortress to the

government of Maltravers and Gourney, by whom the King was soon

afterwards murdered, in the most brutal and savage manner. "His crie,"

says Holinshed, "did move many within the castell and town of Birckelei

to compassion, plainly hearing him utter a waileful noyse, as the

tormentors were about to murder him; so that dyvers being awakened

thereby, (as they themselves confessed,) prayed heartilie to God to

receyve his soule, when they understode by his crie what the matter

ment." A small apartment, called the dungeon room, over the flight of

steps leading into the keep, is shewn as the place where the cruel deed

was committed: at that time, all the light it received was from arrow

slits; the windows have been since introduced. A plaister cast kept

here, and said to have been moulded from the King's face after death,

is, in reality, a cast from his effigies on the tomb at Gloucester.

Berkeley Castle, during the civil wars, was held for the King; and

frequent skirmishes took place in the town and neighbourhood. In 1645 it

was besieged, and surrendered to the parliament, after a defence of nine

days. In the apartments, which are mostly low, dark, and void of

proportion, are preserved a numerous assemblage of portraits, chiefly of

the Stratton branch, the bequest of the last heir of that family.

Besides these portraits, here are several miniatures of the Berkeleys,

of considerable antiquity, and so far curious. A few landscapes, by

Wouvermans, Claude, Salvator Rosa, &c. complete the Berkeley collection.

Edward Jenner, an English physician, celebrated for having introduced

the practice of vaccination, as a preventive of the small-pox, was the

youngest son of a clergyman, who held the rectory of Rochampton, and the

vicarage of this place, and the son was born here, May 17, 1749. Being

destined for the medical profession, he was, after a common school

education, placed as an apprentice with a very respectable surgeon, at

Sodbury, in his native country. He visited London, to finish his

studies, by attending the lectures of the celebrated anatomist John

Hunter. Returning to the country, he settled here, as a practitioner of

the various branches of his profession. A situation like this afforded

but little leisure or opportunity for acquiring distinction, and an

occasion presented itself for obtaining a larger field for observation,

improvement, and emolument: this, however, he was induced to decline.

The circumstances of the transaction are thus related by Dr. Lettsom, in

his address to the London Medical Society:--"Dr. Jenner happened to dine

with a large party at Bath, when something was introduced at the table

which required to be warmed by the application of the candle, and doubts

were expressed by several persons present, whether the most speedy way

would be to keep the flame at a little distance under, or to immerse the

substance into it. Jenner desired that the candle might be placed near

him, and immediately putting his finger into the flame, suffered it to

remain some time; next he put his finger above it, but he was obliged to

snatch it away immediately. 'This, gentlemen,' said he, 'is a sufficient

test.' The next day he received a note from General Smith, who had been

of the party the preceding day, and who was before that time an utter

stranger, offering him an appointment in India, which would insure him,

in the course of two or three years, an annual income L3,000. The offer

was referred to his brother, and Jenner, from his attachment to him,

declined it." He had already obtained the reputation of a man of talent

and science, when he made known to the world the very important

discovery which has raised him to an enviable situation among the

benefactors of the human race. His investigations concerning the cow-pox

were commenced about the year 1776, when his attention was excited by

the circumstance of finding that some individuals, to whom he attempted

to communicate the small-pox by inoculation, were insusceptible of the

disease; and on inquiry he found that all such patients, though they had

never had the small-pox, had undergone the casual cow-pox, a disease

common among the farmers and dairy-servants in Gloucestershire, who were

not quite unacquainted with its preventive effect. Other medical men

were aware of the prevalence of this opinion; but they treated it as a

popular prejudice, and Jenner seems to have been the first who

ascertained its correctness, and endeavoured to derive from it some

practical advantage. He discovered that the variolae vaccinae, as the

complaint has been since termed, having, in the first-instance, been

produced by accidental or designed innoculation of the matter afforded

by a peculiar disease affecting the udder of a cow, could be propagated

from one human subject to another by inoculation, to an indefinite

extent, rendering all who passed through it secure from the small-pox.

He made known his discovery to some medical friends, and in the month of

July, 1796, Mr. Cline, surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, introduced

vaccination into the metropolis. So singular and anomalous a fact as the

prevention of an infectious disease by means of another, in many

respects extremely differing from it, could not but be received with

hesitation; and a warm controversy took place on the subject among the

medical faculty. This ultimately proved advantageous both to the

discovery and the discoverer, as it terminated in establishing the truth

of the most important positions which he had advanced, and left him in

full possession of the merit due to him as a successful investigator of

the laws of nature. The practice of vaccine inoculation was adopted in

the army and navy, and honours and rewards were conferred on the author

of the discovery. The diploma constituting him doctor of medicine, was

presented to Jenner as a tribute to his talents, by the University of

Oxford; he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society, and of other

learned associations; and a parliamentary grant was made to him of the

sum of L20,000. The extension of the benefits of vaccination to foreign

countries spread the fame of the discoverer, who received several

congratulatory addresses from continental potentates. The emperor of

Russia, when in this country in 1814, sought an interview with Dr.

Jenner, treated him with great attention, and offered to bestow on him a

Russian order of nobility. He also visited the King of Prussia, Marshal

Blucher, and the Cossack General, Count Platoff, the latter of whom said

to him, "Sir, you have extinguished the most pestilential disorder that

ever appeared on the banks of the Don." On receiving his diploma, Dr.

Jenner practised as a physician at Cheltenham, during the season, and

that watering-place was his principal residence till he became a

widower, when he removed to Berkeley, to spend in retirement the evening

of his life. He died suddenly in consequence of apoplexy, January 26,

1823, and was interred in the parish church of this town.

_Market_, Wednesday.--_Fair_, May 14, for cattle and pigs.

[Sidenote: The nunnery.]

[Sidenote: The castle.]

[Sidenote: Murder of Edward II.]

[Sidenote: Besieged by the Parliament.]

[Sidenote: Edward Jenner.]

[Sidenote: Anecdote.]

[Sidenote: Discovery of vaccination by the cow-pox.]

[Sidenote: Jenner's subsequent fame.]

Map| Names of Places. |County.|Number of Miles From |

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Map| Names of Places. |Number of Miles |Dist.|Popul

| From |Lond.|-ation.

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18|Berkhampstead, Gr.[A] m.t. & pa|Dunstable 11| 26| 2369|

18|Berkhampstead, Little pa|Hoddesdon 6| 19| 450|

39| Berkeswell pa|Meriden 2| 93| 1450|

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[A] BERKHAMPSTEAD. "The Saxons, in old time," observes Norden, "called

this town Berghamstedt, because it was seated among the hills; for Berg

signified a hill; ham, a town; and stedt, a seat; all of which was very

proper for the situation hereof." The buildings are chiefly of brick,

and irregular, but intersected with various handsome houses.

Berkhampstead consists of one principal street, about half a mile in

length, extending along the side of the high road; and another smaller

one branching out from the church towards the site of the castle. The

Grand Junction Canal runs the whole length of the town, and very close

to it, which makes it a place of considerable trade. Many respectable

and genteel families reside here, and hold their monthly balls at the

King's Arms Inn, during the winter. The King of Mercia had a palace or

castle here; and the town had attained sufficient importance at the time

of the Conquest, to be appointed as the place of meeting between the

Norman sovereign, and the chiefs of the confederacy formed against his

power, and headed by Abbot Fretheric, of St. Alban's. "In the brough,"

says the Domesday Book, "are two and fifty burgesses, who pay four

pounds a year for toll; and they have half a hide, and two shillings

rent, common of pasture for the cattle, wood to feed a thousand hogs,

and five shillings rent by the year. Its whole value is sixteen pounds.

The castle erected by the Saxons was enlarged, strengthened, and

fortified with additional outworks, by the Earl of Mortaigne; but in the

time of his son and successor, William, who had rebelled against Henry

I., it was seized, and ordered to be razed to the ground." It is

probable, however, that the demolition was only partial, as it was again

fitted up as a royal residence, either in the time of Stephen, or early

in the reign of Henry II. The castle and honour of Berkhampstead

continued in the possession of the crown till the seventh of King John,

who granted them to the Earl of Essex, for L100. per annum. In the year

1216 the castle, which had been reverted to the crown, was besieged by

Lewis, Dauphin of France, in conjunction with certain English barons.

The garrison, taking advantage of the negligence of the besiegers, made

two successful sallies on the same day, capturing divers chariots, arms,

and provisions; but, after a siege of some continuance, they

surrendered. Henry III. granted the Earldom of Cornwall, with the honour

and castle of Berkhampstead, to Richard, his brother, for his services

at the siege of the castle of Riole, in France; but, disagreeing with

him, he revoked the grant. The interposition of the Earls of Pembroke

and Chester occasioned its restoration to the Earl of Cornwall. In 1245,

the King granted him an annual fair, of eight days' continuance, for his

manor of Berkhampstead; and here, after a long illness, he died on the

4th of April, 1272. Edmund, his only surviving son, succeeded to his

estates and titles; and in his time there were twelve burgesses within

the borough, with fifty-two free tenants, and twenty-two tenants by

serjeancy. This Earl founded the college of Bon-Hommes, at Ashridge, in

Buckinghamshire. In the fourth of Edward III., John of Eltham, brother

to the King, had a grant of Berkhampstead, with other manors, to the

value of 2,000 marks per annum: but, dying without issue, in 1336, his

estates were granted by the King, to Edward the Black Prince, with the

Dukedom of Cornwall, to be held by him and his heirs, and the eldest

sons of the heirs of the King's of England. Richard II. occasionally

resided at Berkhampstead castle. Since that period, the castle and

honour of Berkhampstead have descended from the crown, to the successive

Princes of Wales, as heirs apparent to the throne, and possessors of the

Dukedom of Cornwall, under the grant of Edward III. The castle was

situated on the east side of the town; and, though the buildings are now

reduced to a few massive fragments of wall, the remains are still

sufficient to evince the ancient strength and importance of this

fortress. The ramparts are very bold, and the ditches still wide and

deep, particularly on the north and east sides, though partly filled up

by the lapse of centuries. The keep was a circular tower, occupying the

summit of a high and steep artificial mount, moated round. Large trees

are now growing on the sides of the mount, as well as on many parts of

the outward rampart, and declivities of the ditches: other parts are

covered with underwood, in many places so thick as to be impassable. The

inner court is now an orchard; the outer court is cultivated as a farm;

and a small cottage, with a few out-buildings, now occupies a portion of

the ground once occupied by Princes and Sovereigns. Near the rampart, on

the west side, flows the little river Bulbourne. The church, dedicated

to St. Peter, is built in the form of a cross, with a tower rising from

the intersection towards the west end, and having a projecting staircase

at the south-east angle, terminated by a turret at the summit. The tower

is supported on strong pointed arches, and was originally open, but is

now closed from the church by the belfry floor. On the outside of the

tower, next the street, is a sculpture of an angel supporting a shield,

impaled with the arms of England and France quarterly. The same arms are

painted on glass in the window of a small chapel within the church.

Various chapels and chantries were founded here in the Catholic times,

and are still partially divided from the body of the church. The

sepulchral memorials are numerous. Between two columns of the nave,

surrounded by pews, is an ancient tomb of rich workmanship, having on

the top, full-length effigies of a Knight and his Lady, both recumbent.

The Knight is represented in armour, with his hands raised in the

attitude of prayer across his breast: his head rests on a helmet, having

a human head, with a long beard, at the upper end; his feet are

supported on a lion: he has on a hood and gorget of mail; and, on the

sash, which crosses his body and shoulder, is a rose: opposite to this,

on his breast-plate, is a dove. The figure of the lady is greatly

mutilated; her hands and head are broken off; the latter rests on a

cushion, and is covered with net-work; she is arrayed in a close dress,

and has a rose on each shoulder. No inscription is remaining on this

tomb to designate the persons to whose memory it was erected. Torynton

is supposed to have been the founder of the church; a man in special

favour with Edmond Plantagenet, Duke of Cornwall. In Sayer's chancel is

an altar-tomb of alabaster and black marble, in the memory of John

Sayer, Esq., who was chief cook to Charles II. when in exile, and

founder of the alms-house for poor widows in this town. A large and

strong building of brick, erected as a free-school in the reign of Henry

VIII., and endowed with the lands of the guild or brotherhood of St.

John the Baptiste, (an ancient foundation in this town,) stands at the

bottom of the churchyard. In the next reign the school was made a royal

foundation, and incorporated. The master is appointed by the crown, and

has apartments at one end of the free school; the school-room occupies

the centre; and the other end is inhabited by the chaplain and usher.

Here is also a charity-school, supported by voluntary contributions, &c.

Numerous donations for charitable purposes have been made to this

parish, the principal of which was a bequest of L1,000., made by John

Sayer, Esq., in July, 1681, for the building and endowment of an alms

house: this was erected after his decease by his relict, who placed in

it six poor widows, and increased the original endowment by the gift of

L300. Each widow has a small allowance weekly, and a cloth gown worth

20s. once in two years. In the 14th of Edward III., two representatives

were sent from this borough; but this was the only return ever made,

except to the great council held at Westminster, in the 11th of the same

King. Berkhampstead had a charter of incorporation granted by James I.,

but it scarcely survived the reign of his son. An attempt was made to

revive the charter, a year or two after the restoration, but it did not

succeed. The honour of Berkhampstead formerly included upwards of

fifty-five lordships and manors, in the three counties of Herts,

Northampton, and Buckingham. Berkhampstead-place is situated on a

pleasant eminence adjoining the town. Great part of the structure was

erected by the Careys, having been burnt down in the time of the Lord

Treasurer Weston, who then resided in it: the remainder was afterwards

repaired, and with some additions, forms the present dwelling. King

James's children were mostly nursed in this house. The life of Cowper,

the poet, who was born here, will be given at Olney, on account of the

length of the present article.

_Market_, Saturday.--_Fairs_, Shrove-Monday, Whit-Monday, for cattle;

Aug. 5, cheese; September 29, Oct. 11, statute.--_Mail_ arrives 11.30

night; departs 3.30 morning.--_Inn_, Kings Arms.

[Sidenote: Description.]

[Sidenote: Its ancient castle.]

[Sidenote: The seat of Kings and Nobles.]

[Sidenote: Now in ruins.]

[Sidenote: The church.]

[Sidenote: Free school.]

[Sidenote: Contained fifty-five lordships.]

Map|Names of Places.| County. | Number of Miles From |

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4|Berkshire[A] co| | | |

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|Dist.|

Map|Names of Places.|Number of Miles From |Lond.|Population.

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4|Berkshire[A] co| | |145289|

29|Berling to|Widrington 7| 306| |

35|Bermersley to|Cheadle 11| 156| 244|

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Curiosities of Great Britain: England and Wales Delineated Vol.1-11 Historical, Entertaining & Commercial; Alphabetically Arranged. 11 Volume set. · 第 28 / 31 段

Map|Names of Places. | County. | Number of Miles From |