BEDFORD, the county town of Bedfordshire, is a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town, situated in a fertile vale on both sides of the river Ouse, which is here crossed by a handsome stone bridge of five arches. It is 50 miles N.W. of London by road, and 62¾ by the North-Western Railway, a branch of which goes off from the main line at Bletchley to Bedford. The town consists chiefly of one long wide street, intersected by smaller ones at right angles, and is well built, paved, and lighted with gas. It has five parish churches, four of which are fine old Gothic edifices: the fifth is a recent erection in the Norman style. A district church was opened in 1841. There are also Independent, Methodist, and Baptist chapels, and a small Jewish synagogue. Bedford in proportion to its size has more public endowments than any other place in the kingdom, for which it is chiefly indebted to Sir W. Harper, Lord Mayor of London in 1561, who founded here a free school, and conveyed for its support, and for portioning poor maidens, a piece of ground in London, the overplus, if any, to be given to the poor. This ground has gradually risen in value so as now to produce nearly £14,000 annually. It supports a grammar and other schools, and 58 almshouses, besides large sums given annually as marriage portions, for apprenticing youths, and other benevolent purposes. In 1849 above £4000 were expended on the schools, £1750 on the almshouses, £858 in apprentice fees, £400 in marriage portions, £179 in donations to servants, and upwards of £1000 in other charities. The grammar-school has eight exhibitions of £80 per annum each, at Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin. Among its public buildings are the county hall, the jail, built on the site of that in which Bunyan wrote his Pilgrim's Progress—house of correction, lunatic asylum, infirmary, Bedford library and subscription rooms, and the corn exchange. Its principal manufactures are straw-plait and lace; and a considerable trade is carried on with Lynn Regis, by means of the Ouse, in corn, malt, coals, timber, and iron. Market-days, for cattle, Monday, and for corn, Saturday. Bedford is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors; and it sends two members to parliament. Pop. 1851, 11,693.