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Buckinghamshire in Buckingham County England History and GeographyBUCKINGHAMSHIRE, an inland county, bounded on the north and north-west by the county of Northampton, on the east and north-east by the counties of Hertford and Bedford, on the south-east by the county of Middlesex, on the south-west by the county of Berks, and on the west by the county of Oxford: it extends from 51' 25´ to 52' 11´ (N. lat.), and from 30´ to 1' 9´ (W. lon.), is about forty-five miles in length, eighteen in breadth, and one hundred and thirty-eight in circumference, comprises seven hundred and forty square miles, and contains about four hundred and seventy-three thousand six hundred statute acres. The population, in 1821, amounted to 136,800. Buckinghamshire was originally inhabited by the Cassii, or Cattieuchlani: in the Roman division of the island it was included in the province of Britannia Superior, and afterwards in that of Flavia C?sariensis. During the Saxon heptarchy it belonged to the kings of Mercia; and when the Saxon kingdoms were united into one monarchy, it was comprised within the Dene-lege, or Danish jurisdiction. Edward the Elder constructed a fortress on each side of the Ouse, at Buckingham, in 918; about which period the Danes committed great depredations between Aylesbury and the Forest of Bernwood. During the war between King John and the barons, Hanslape Castle held out against that monarch, but was taken in 1216, by his favourite general, Falco de Breant, and demolished: the lands of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in the neighbourhood of Brill, were laid waste in 1233, by Richard Sward and other foreigners, who were in rebellion. This was one of the first counties that associated for mutual defence, in the early part of the civil war in the seventeenth century, on the side of the parliament; and it was the address of the inhabitants which excited that body to greater resistance; for, says Lord Clarendon, ';from the date of its presentation we may reasonably date the levying of war in England.' At the commencement of hostilities, the king had a garrison at Brill, on which the celebrated Hampden made an unsuccessful attack in 1642. Newport-Pagnell for a short time was garrisoned by the king's troops under Sir Lewis Dives, who abandoned it on the approach of the Earl of Essex, to whose party it proved a useful post for the remainder of the war. The royalists also evacuated Brill in the spring of 1643, about which period Prince Rupert attacked the parliamentary garrison at High Wycombe with some success. In the summer of this year, the Earl of Essex quartered his troops in the neighbourhood of Aylesbury and Thame; and in the month of August there was a grand rendezvous of the parliamentary army near the former place. Buckingham, during a part of the year 1644, was the head quarters of the royalists, who had also a garrison at Borstall House, which they evacuated in the month of June, and it was immediately taken possession of by the enemy, but was retaken soon afterwards by Colonel Gage. Greenland House, another garrison of the royalists, was surrendered to General Browne, in the month of July, after a pressing siege. Throughout the whole of the following year, neither of the contending parties obtained any advantage over the other in this county: Skippon and Fairfax successively attacked Borstall House, but both were repulsed; and from this place the assaulting army advanced upon Marsh-Gibwen, Brickhill, and Buckingham, all which fell into their possession; and Borstall-House, the sole remaining garrison of the royalists, was surrendered to the parliament in 1646. This county, with the exception of a few parishes, forms an archdeaconry, and is in cluded within the diocese of Lincoln, and province of Canterbury: it contains two hundred and two parishes, of which one hundred and one are rectories, sixty-eight vicarages, and the remainder perpetual curacies and donatives. For civil purposes it is divided into eight hundreds, viz. Ashendon, Aylesbury, Buckingham, Burnham, Cottesloe, Desborough, Newport, and Stoke, and contains the boroughs and market-towns of Buckingham, Amersharn, Aylesbury, High or Chipping-Wycombe, Great Marlow, and Wendover; and the markettowns of Beaconsfield, Chesham, Ivinghoe, Newport-Pagnell, Olney, Prince's Risborough, Fenny-Stratford Stony-Stratford, Winslow, and part of Colnbrook. Two knights are returned for the shire, and two burgesses for each of the six boroughs. Buckinghamshire is within the Oxford circuit: the summer assizes are held at Buckingham, and the Lent assizes and general quarter sessions at Aylesbury, where the common gaol and house of correction for the county is situated. There are one hundred and thirty acting magistrates, who hold divisional meetings, or petty sessions, at ten different places. The rates raised in the county for the year ending March 25th, 1827, amounted to £153,912. 9., the expenditure to £152,515. 19., of which £132,677. 1. was applied to the relief of the poor; the average rate is 4s. 11¾d. in the pound. Lace is manufactured in most parts of the county, especially in the neighbourhood of Olney and Hanslape: paper is made to a considerable extent, particularly in the vicinity of Wycombe, there being several mills on the Wyke engaged in manufacturing it. Agriculture is practised with greater or less sedulity, according to the nature of the soil: in the vicinity of the Chiltern Hills, where the shallowness of the soil calls forth the industrious powers of the husbandman, a more active system of farming prevails than in the rich Vale of Aylesbury; but this fine vale is chiefly composed of dairy and grazing farms, and numerous oxen fattened in it are annually sent to Smithfield market. A great number of calves is bred in the northern parts of the county, and sent to Aylesbury market, where they are sold to the farmers in the Chilterns, particularly to those in the vicinity of Amersham and Chesham, who feed them for the London market. The dairies in the vale furnish a great quantity of butter, chiefly by contract, to the dealers in London. Several droves of fat lambs are sent to Smithfield, but the breeding of sheep is an object of minor attention: the hogs are of the Berkshire breed. Aylesbury and its vicinity are celebrated for rearing ducklings very early in the spring, which are sent to London, and sold at a high price. The Chiltern Hills cross the county from Bedfordshire to Oxfordshire, forming part of the great chain that extends between the counties of Norfolk and Dorset: on the western side of the county, parallel to these, is a range of hills of calcareous stone. The prevailing soil is either a rich loam, strong clay, chalk, or loam upon gravel: the soil in the neighbourhood of the Chiltern Hills is chalky; in that part of the county which borders upon Bedfordshire it is a deep sand, and here is also found a rich blue marl used for manure. The crops commonly cultivated are wheat, barley, peas, beans, tares, turnips, and clover; and woad has lately been introduced: a considerable quantity of fuller's earth was formerly obtained from the pits at Wavendon, but the demand for it has lately diminished. According to the Agricultural Survey of Buckinghamshire, published in 1794, the number of acres in common fields was ninety-one thousand, and of waste lands about six thousand; but several of the parishes have since been enclosed. The most extensive commons are Wickham Heath, comprising about one thousand five hundred acres; Iver Heath, about one thousand one hundred and fifty; Stoke Heath, about one thousand; Fulmer Heath, about six hundred; and Great Harwood common, about five hundred and sixty. The principal woodlands lie south of the Chiltern Hills, and are somewhat extensive; the prevailing kind of wood is beech: a tract of land on these hills, consisting of about one hundred acres, is covered with box-wood, apparently the indigenous production of the soil. Whaddon Chase, in the northern part of the county, comprises two thousand two hundred acres of woodland. The river Thames separates the southern part of Buckinghamshire from Berkshire, during a course of about twenty-eight miles: the Colne flows between this county and Middlesex for the space of about fourteen miles: the course of the Ouse through Buckinghamshire, or as a boundary to it, is little less than fifty miles; that of the Ousel, as connected with the county, is nearly thirty: the Wyke rises at West Wycombe, and passing by High Wycombe, falls into the Thames near Hedsor. The Grand Junction canal enters the county near Wolveston, is carried across the valley of the Ouse and over the river by an aqueduct about three quarters of a mile in length, proceeds to Fenny-Stratford, and quits the county near Marsworth. The great road from London to Chester and Holyhead enters this county between the forty-first and forty-second mile-stones, and passing through Fenny-Stratford and Stony-Stratford, quits near the fifty-third mile-stone; the great road to Liverpool enters at the forty-third mile-stone, and after proceeding through Newport-Pagnell, passes into North-amptonshire between the fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth mile-stones; the road from London to Oxford and Bath enters at Colnbrook, and passing through Slough, quits at Maidenhead bridge; another road to Oxford runs in a little beyond Uxbridge, passes through Beaconsfield and High Wycombe, and leaves the county near the thirty-seventh mile-stone. The ancient Roman road Ikening-street enters near Edlesborough, crosses the high road from Aylesbury to London near the thirty-third mile-stone, and passing through Wendover, runs into Oxfordshire near Chinner: the Watling-street enters with the modern road to Ireland, at the forty-second mile-stone, proceeds through Fenny-Stratford and Stony-Stratford, and at the latter town crosses the Ouse into Northamptonshire; the real course of the Akeman-street in this county has never been determined. On the top of the hill at West Wycombe there are remains of a circular camp; at Danesfield, on the banks of the Thames, is an intrenchment nearly circular, with a double vallum: there is a circular camp near High Wycombe, at Old, or All, Hollands; and an intrenchment nearly of the same form at Cholsbury, two hundred and eighty-nine yards in diameter from east to west, and two hundred and seven from north to south: in the adjoining village of Hawridge the manor-house is built within an ancient circular intrenchment; there are also large intrenchments at Hedgerley-Dean, and a fosse that extends to East Burnham. Above the village of Medmenham are the remains of a large camp nearly square, enclosing about seven acres; in a wood near Burnham there is an oblong vallum and trench, about one hundred and thirty paces long and sixty wide, called Harlequin's Moat; on the east side of the Chiltern Hills, near Ellesborough, are some strong earth-works, at one corner of which is a high circular mount eighty paces in circumference, called the Castle Hill, or Kimble Castle: a large mound of earth, called Grimesdike, runs nearly east and west through part of this county. There are no remains of ancient castles in Buckinghamshire; but the sites of those that formerly stood at Castlethorpe, Lavendon, and Whitchurch, are indicated by the earth-works which still exist. Among the ecclesiastical edifices, Stewkley church is entitled to primary notice, both on account of its antiquity and as being one of the most complete specimens of Saxon architecture remaining; no part of it, either internally or externally, having been altered or materially defaced; nor have any additions been made to it, except the porch on the south side and the pinnacles of the tower: the door-way of Water-Stratford church is enriched with Saxon ornaments; and Dinton church has another remarkable door-way of this kind: Upton church retains its original form, and is on the same plan as that at Stewkley, but less ornamented and much smaller: the door-ways of Caverfield, Horton, Lathbury, Twyford, Waddesdon, Wormenhall, and Westbury churches are circular, with Saxon mouldings and other ornaments; there are also remains of this style in those at Fingest, Hanslape, Lekhampsted, Stone, Tyringham, and Tingewick: Chetwode and Hillesdon churches are the only examples of English architeeture worthy particular notice. There are very few relics of Burnham abbey, or of that of Medmenham: Nutley abbey, now the residence of a farmer, is in better preservation: the college of the Bon-hommes at Asheridge, the greater part of which has been pulled down, exhibited a fine specimen of early English architecture: part of St. Margaret's nunnery is standing, and occupied as a dwelling-house. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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