Market, Tuesday.—Fair, Saturday after September 15, for cattle, sheep, linen and woollen cloth.
Market, Tuesday.—Fair, Saturday after September 15, for cattle, sheep, linen and woollen cloth.
[B] BELPER, or Belpar, anciently Beaupoire, is situated on the banks of the Derwent, in the hundred of Appletree. It is a chapelry of Duffield; and, though formerly an inconsiderable village, its population now exceeds, with the exception of Derby, every other town in the county. The great increase of population began from three large cotton mills of Messrs. Strutts, the first of which was erected in 1776. Two of them yet remain; but the third was destroyed by fire early in the year 1803. The largest of these mills is 200 feet long, 300 feet wide, and six stories high: it is consideredManufactories.fire proof, as the floor is built on brick arches, and paved with brick. The two water-wheels, which are employed in the machinery in this building, are remarkable for magnitude and singularity of construction; one of them being 40 feet long, and 18 in diameter; and the other 48 feet long, and 12 feet in diameter. As timber could not be procured large enough to form the axles of these wheels in the common manner, they are constructed circularly and hollow, of a number of pieces, and hooped in the manner of a cask. One of the shafts is six feet in diameter, and the other nine. The shuttles are constructed in one piece, so as to support the lateral pressure of the water, although it is ten feet deep, by resting one upon another. This is different from the usual mode of construction, in which they are supported by large perpendicular beams at every six or seven feet, in order to sustain this lateral pressure. About twelve or thirteen hundred people are employed at these mills; and the proprietors have built many houses, and a chapel, for their accommodation.Cotton Mills.Near the mills a stone bridge of three arches has been erected across the Derwent, at the expence of the county, the former one having been washed down by a dreadful flood, in 1795. At a short distance, lower down the river, is a bleaching mill, belonging to the same proprietors; an iron forge, and two cotton mills; one of them constructed like that before described. A stone bridge was also erected here by these gentlemen in 1792. These mills afford regular employment to about 600 persons. A Sunday school has been established here, and another at Belper, for the instruction of the children employed at the cotton works.
Market, Saturday.—Mailarrives 1.30 afternoon; departs 8.45 morning.
Market, Saturday.—Mailarrives 1.30 afternoon; departs 8.45 morning.
[A] BELTON. The church is a small ancient structure. The tower appears to have been rebuilt in the year 1637, and at a subsequent period, the chancel has been renewed. The church is extremely neat, and hasBelton House.in the south window six pieces of stained glass, illustrative of scriptural subjects. Within the nave are several splendid monuments. Belton House, near Grantham, the residence of Earl Brownlow, is situated on a beautiful lawn, in a wooded valley, through which the river Witham winds its course. The mansion was built in the year 1689, from designs by Sir Christopher Wren. The form of the building is that of the letter H, a stile of architecture peculiar to that period. It is of stone, and presents four uniform elevations. The apartments are lofty, and well proportioned. Several of the rooms are highly ornamented with carving by Gibbons. The late Lord Brownlow made considerable improvements in the mansion. He took down the cupola and balustrade from the roof. The drawing room was considerably enlarged, and a new entrance at the south front made. Here are many pictures by celebrated masters of the Flemish and Italian schools, with numerous family portraits by Lely, Reynolds, Kneller, Romney and others. Among the latter we may remark a portrait of Sir John Cust, Bart., Speaker of the House of Commons, in his robes, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. William III. in his progress through the northern counties, honoured Belton House with his presence. The park comprises an area of five miles in circumference, inclosed by a wall; numerous plantations of fine trees are highly ornamental to the place. Sir John Brownlow, K.B. afterwards Viscount Tyrconnel, enriched the library with a valuable collection of books; he also formed some extensive gardens, which have since been more adapted to the modern taste in gardening.
[B] BELVOIR. The Castle is one of the most magnificent structures in the kingdom. It is placed on an abrupt elevation of a kind of natural cliff, forming the termination of a peninsular hill. It has been the seat of Manners, Dukes of Rutland, for several generations, and claims the priority of every other building in the county in which it is situated. Belvoir has been the site of a Castle ever since the Norman conquest; and its possessors have been chiefly persons of eminence who have figured in the pages of history. The view from the terraces and towers comprehends the whole vale of Belvoir and the adjoining country as far as Lincoln, including twenty-two of the Duke of Rutland's manors. On the southern slope of the hill are enclosed-terraces, on which there are several flower-gardens,The Castle.surrounded by shrubberies. The park is of great extent, containing fine forest trees, which form a woodland beneath the hill so extensive as to afford shelter for innumerable rooks. Its interior and furniture is of the most superb and costly description; it also contains one of the most valuable collections of paintings in this country, whether considered for the variety of the schools, or the works of each master. A conflagration took place in the year 1816, which consumed a great portion of the ancient part of the castle, and several of the pictures. A curious anecdote is related, illustrative of the folly and superstition of ancient times, which may not be uninteresting to add. Joan Flower and her two; daughters who were servants at Belvoir Castle, having been dismissed the family, in revenge made use of all the enchantments, spells, and charms that were at that time supposed to answer their malicious purposes. Henry the eldest son died soon after their dismissal, but no suspicion of witchcraft arose till five years after, when the three women who are saidCharge of witchcraft.to have entered into a formal contract with the devil, were accused of "murdering Lord Henry Ross by witchcraft and torturing the Lord Francis his brother and Lady Catherine his sister." After various examinations they were committed to Lincoln gaol. The mother died at Ancaster, on her way thither, having wished the bread and butter she ate might choak her if she was guilty. The daughters were tried before Sir Henry Hobbert, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Sir Edward Bromley, one of the Barons of the Exchequer; they confessed their guilt and were executed at Lincoln, March 11, 1618.
[A] BEMERTON, a parish in the hundred of Branch and Dole. The rectory of this place is interesting, as having been the residence of no less than four celebrated characters, viz. Dr. Walter Curie, Bishop of BathCelebrated men.and Wells, and afterwards of Winchester, who died in 1647; George Herbert, called the divine, who died in 1635; John Norris, a metaphysical writer, who died in 1711; and, lastly, Mr. Archdeacon Coxe, the traveller and historian, who died in 1828: all of them gentlemen highly distinguished in the annals of literature.
[B] BENEFIELD. In this parish are some remarkable cavities, called Swallows, which have opened a wide field of speculation among philosophers, who have grounded, upon the singular phenomena they exhibit, some new systems with regard to the theory of the earth. These swallows are situated about a furlong west of the village, and are nine in number.Geological curiosities.Through these cavities, the land-flood waters constantly pass and disappear. They are of a circular form, and of various diameters; some having an oblique, and others a perpendicular descent, opening beneath the apertures into large spaces, which exhibit several smaller conduits, through which the waters pass, to join perhaps, some subterranean river, or mingle with the grand abyss of waters, which some philosophers have placed in the centre of the earth.
[A] BENENDEN, or Biddenden, three miles south east from Cranbrook, is at present populous, though the clothing manufacture, which first occasioned the increase of the population of this part of the county, in the reign of Edward the Third, has for many years failed here. Several good houses still remaining, discover the prosperity of the former inhabitants. The church is a handsome regular building, and its tower a structure of considerable height and strength. By the old part now remaining, it appears to have been originally but small. The interior contains several ancient brasses, and among them, one for the Goldwells of Great Chart; with the dates 1452, and 1499, in Arabic numerals: the rebus of this name, a golden fountain, or well, is also in one of the windows. A free grammar school, now degenerated into a complete sinecure, was founded here in the year 1522. There is a tradition in this parish, that a bequest for the use of the poor, of 20 acres of land, now called the Bread and Cheese land, lying in five pieces, was given by two maiden sisters, commonlyThe Biddenden maids.called the "Biddenden Maids," of the name of Chulkhurst, "who were born joined together by the hips and shoulders, in the year 1100;" and having lived in that state thirty-four years, died within about six hours of each other. This tale is affected to be established by the correspondent figures of two females impressed on cakes, which after Divine service, in the afternoon, on every Easter Sunday, are distributed to all comers, and not unfrequently to the number from 800 to 1000. At the same time, about 270 loaves, weighing three pounds and a half each, and cheese in proportion, are given to the poor parishioners; the whole expence being defrayed from the rental of the bequeathed lands. The marvellous part of the story however, was wholly discredited by the well informed, until the visit of the Siamese twins to this country revived it with some appearance of truth.
[B] BENFLEET lies south-west by south from Rayleigh. Here was a castle, built by Hastings, the celebrated Danish pirate, and which buildingA pirate's castle.Matthew of Westminster described, as having deep and wide ditches. This fortress Alfred the Great took and destroyed in the year 890; Hasting's wife and two sons taken therein, were sent to London. The creeks entering the Thames round Benfleet are celebrated for their oysters.
[C] BENNINGTON, called Belintone in the Domesday Book, was a seat of the Mercian kings; and here a great council of nobility and prelates was assembled about the year 850, under King Bertulph, who on the complaint of Askill, a monk of Croyland, of the great devastations committed on the property of that monastery by the Danes, granted the monks a new charter of divers "splendid liberties," and several extensive manors. InAncient charters.the 33d of Edward I. a charter of a weekly market, and a fair annually, was granted for this manor; but the former has long fallen into disuse! The manor was long in possession of the Bourchiers, Earls of Essex. Robert, the third Earl, after his divorce from the infamous Lady Francis Howard, his first wife, in 1613, sold it to Sir Julius Cæsar, Knt., from whom it descended to his son and heir, Sir Charles Cæsar. This gentleman was appointed Master of the Rolls in 1638; and, after being twice married, and having fifteen children by both wives, died of the small-pox, at Bennington, in 1643: this disease proved fatal also to several of his issue, and among them, to Julius, his eldest surviving son, who dying within a few days, was buried in the same grave with his father. Henry, his next son, and heir, represented this county in the two first parliaments held in the reign of Charles II.; and he was knighted by that sovereign in 1660: he also died of the small-pox, in January 1667.The small-pox fatal to Cheshires.This manor was sold to the trustees under the will of Sir John Cheshire, Knt. His great nephew, John Cheshire, Esq., resided in a small mansion near the ancient castle at Bennington, which stood westward from the church, and most probably occupied the spot whereon stood the palace of the Saxon Kings. The artificial mount of the keep, with the surrounding ditch, are still to be seen. The old manor-house that had been inhabited by the Cæsars, stood in the park, at a small distance from the village, but was burnt down about fifty years ago. A small edifice, since erected on the site, was for some years occupied by Mr. Bullock. Bennington church is a small fabric, consisting of a nave and a chancel, with a tower at the west end, and a chapel or burial-place connected with the chancel on the north. Here are two ancient monuments, under arches, which formTheir monuments.part of them, each exhibiting recumbent figures of a knight and a lady. Many of the Cæsars lie buried here. The Benstede family, sometime lords of the manor, are supposed to have built this church, as their arms are displayed both upon the roof and on the tower. In a niche over the south porch, St. Michael and the dragon are sculptured.
[A] BENSINGTON was an ancient British town, taken from the original inhabitants by Ceaulin, in the year 572. The west Saxons held the place for two centuries, and appear to have constructed a castle for its defence; but it was reduced by Offa, king of the Mercians, who defeated his rival in a sanguinary contest. To the west of the church are a quadrangularA Mercian King.bank and trench. Three sides of the embankment are much defaced. Plot mentions an "angle of King Offa's palace near the church;" by which he probably alludes to the same spot. In this village are several modern buildings. The church, which is gothic, has been built at different times. In the brick flooring of the nave are some ancient stones, with mutilated brasses. Here is a Sunday-school supported by subscription; and a meeting-house for methodists.
[B] LONG BENTON. A dreadful calamity occurred at Heaton Colliery, in this neighbourhood, on the morning of May 3, 1815, when, byDreadful accident.the sudden influx of water from an old mine, Mr. Miller, (the under-viewer, who left a wife and eight children), 22 workmen, 42 boys, and 37 horses, perished; and 25 widows, with about 80 children, were left to bemoan the sudden death of their husbands and fathers. Steam-engines were immediately employed, and every exertion was made for the recovery of the bodies; notwithstanding which, it was not till the 6th of January, in the following year, that the first body was found. It was that of an old man employed on the waggon-way: and a fact worthy of notice is, that the waste-water in which he had been immersed had destroyed the woollen clothes, and corroded the iron parts of a knife the deceased had in his pocket, yet his linen and the bone-haft of his knife remained entire. Shortly after, Mr. Miller, and a few others, were discovered: they had met a similar fate, having been overtaken by the water about a hundred yards from the shaft to which they had been hastening to save themselves. But the lot of these eight persons may be considered fortunate, when compared with the unhappy beings left at work towards the rise of the mine, and as yet unconscious of their dreadful situation. About the 16th of February, the higher parts of the workings were explored; and now a scene trulyFifty-six lives lost in a mine.horrible was presented to view: for here lay the corpses of 56 human beings, whom the water had never reached, being situated 35 fathoms above its level. They had collected together near the crane, and were found within a space of 30 yards of each other; their positions and attitudes were various; several appeared to have fallen forwards from off an inequality, or rather step, in the coal on which they had been sitting; others, from their hands being clasped together, seemed to have expired while addressing themselves to the protection of the Deity; two, who were recognized as brothers, had died in the act of taking a last farewell by grasping each other's hand: and one poor boy reposed in his father's arms. Two slight cabins had been hastily constructed by nailing up deal boards, and in one of these melancholy habitations three of the stoutest miners had breathed their last. A large lump of horse flesh, wrapped up in a jacket, nearly two pounds of candles, and three others, which had died out when half-burned, were found in this apartment, if it can be so called. One man, well known to have possessed a remarkably pacific disposition, had retired to a distance to end his days alone, and in quiet. Another had been placed to watch the rise or fall of the water; to ascertain which, sticks had been placed, and was found dead at his post. There were two horses in the part of the mine to which the people had retired; one had been slaughtered, its entrails taken out, and hind quarters cut up for use; the other was fastened to a stake, which it had almost gnawed to pieces, as well as a corfe or coal basket that had been left within its reach. That these ill-fated people perished for want ofCause of their death.respirable air, and not from hunger and thirst, is certain; for most of the flesh cut from the horse, with a considerable quantity of horse-beans, were unconsumed, and a spring of good water issued into this part of the colliery; besides, the unburned remains of candles afford evidence of a still stronger nature; and by these data the coroner's jury was enabled to pronounce a verdict accordingly. The overman had left the chalk-board, in which it is usual to take down an account of the work done, together with his pocket-book, in an empty corfe; on these some memorandum might have been expected to be noted: but no writing subsequent to the catastrophe appeared on either.—The bodies of those men which had lain in wet places were much decayed; but where the floor was dry, though their flesh had become much shrivelled, they were all easily recognised by their features being entire.
[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 wasThe nunnery.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 theThe castle.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 ofMurder of Edward II.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 theBesieged by the Parliament.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,Edward Jenner.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 theAnecdote.course of two or three years, an annual income £3,000. 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 medicalDiscovery of vaccination by the cow-pox.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 variolæ vaccinæ, 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,Jenner's subsequent fame.and of other learned associations; and a parliamentary grant was made to him of the sum of £20,000. 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.