One of the most ancient of the strongholds of Midland England was the
Bedicanford of the Saxons, where contests took place between them and
the Britons as early as the sixth century. It stood in a fertile valley
on the Ouse, and is also mentioned in the subsequent contests with the
Danes, having been destroyed by them in the eleventh century. Finally,
William Rufus built a castle there, and its name gradually changed to
Bedford. It was for years subject to every storm of civil war--was taken
and retaken, the most famous siege lasting sixty days, when Henry III.
personally conducted the operations, being attended by the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the chief peers of the realm: this was in 1224, and the
most ingenious engines of war were used to batter down the castle-walls,
which till then had been regarded as impregnable. The stronghold was
ultimately captured, chiefly through the agency of a lofty wooden castle
higher than the walls, which gave an opportunity of seeing all that
passed within. The governor of the castle, twenty-four knights, and
eighty soldiers, making most of the garrison, were hanged. King Henry
then dismantled it and filled up the ditches, so as to "uproot this
nursery of sedition." The ruins lasted some time afterward, but now only
the site is known, located alongside the river Ouse, which runs through
the city of Bedford. This town is of great interest, though, as Camden
wrote two centuries ago, it is more eminent for its "pleasant situation
and antiquity than for anything of beauty and stateliness." Its
neighborhood has been a noted mine for antiquities, disclosing remains
of ancient races of men and of almost pre-historic animals of the Bronze
and Iron Ages. The town lies rather low on the river, with a handsome
bridge connecting the two parts, and pretty gardens fringing each shore.
This bridge is a modern structure, having succeeded the "old bridge,"
which stood there several centuries with a gate-house at either end, in
the larger of which was the old jail, that had for its most
distinguished occupant that sturdy townsman of Bedford, John Bunyan. The
castle-mound, which is all that is left, and on which once stood the
keep, is on the river-shore just below the bridge, and is now used for a
bowling-green in the garden of the chief hotel. The memorials of the
author of the _Pilgrim's Progress_, first a prisoner and then a minister
of the gospel in Bedford, are probably the most prized remains of
ancient days that Bedford has, though they are now becoming scarce.