[A] BERWICK. The town is situated N. by W. from Newcastle. King Edgar gave it, with Coldingham, to the church of Durham; but it was afterwards forfeited by Bishop Flambard. It had a church in the reign of Alexander, and, in David's time constituted one of the four boroughs where courts of trade were wont to be held. In 1173, it was reduced to ashes; and in the following year, Earl Duncan marched to the place, and butchered its defenceless inhabitants. Henry II. having obtained the castle as a pledge for King William, strengthened its fortifications. It was restored, however, The disputed town. in the following reign. King John made dreadful ravages in the town and neighbourhood. A convention was held here by Edward I., in 1291, to arbitrate the claims to the crown of Scotland, which were at length determined in favour of his creature, Baliol. This prince having shortly afterwards thrown off his allegiance, Berwick became exposed to the fury of Edward's resentment. In 1296, the English king fortified it with a wall and a fosse, and in the same year received the homage of the Scotch nobility here In 1297, the town was taken by Sir William Wallace; but the castle held out, and after a long assault, was relieved. Wallace about eight years after this was betrayed, and half of his body exposed upon Berwick-bridge. The Countess of Buchan, for crowning Robert Bruce, at Scone, Countess of Buchan shut up in a cage six years. was shut up here in a wooden cage, six years, and then released. Edward II. and his queen wintered at Berwick in 1310. He assembled his army here before the battle of Bannockburn. Peter Spalding betrayed this place into the hands of Robert Bruce in 1318: many attempts were made to recover it, which was not effected till the day after the battle of Hallidon-hill, in 1333. Edward III. was here in 1335, with a great army in 1340, and the year after, at Easter, held a tournament; but during his absence in France, in November 1353, the Scots surprized and took the town. The castle, under the renowned Sir John Copeland, held out till Edward, in February following, arrived with a great army, and forced the Scotch to capitulate. Seven Scotchmen, in 1377, surprised the castle, and held it eight days against 7,000 archers, and 3,000 cavalry. The deputy-governor, under the Earl of Northumberland, betrayed it into the enemy's hands in 1384; but the earl soon after recovered it. Through the solicitation of his uncle the Earl of Worcester, engaging in the rebellion against Henry IV., in 1406, he employed this fortress against the king; but a cannon-shot, the first that was ever fired in England, so alarmed the garrison, that it, immediately surrendered. According to Walsingham and Speed, this shot was of a large size, and demolished great part of a tower. In 1811, a The first cannon-ball used in England. all of cast iron, weighing ninety-six pounds, answering to this account, was found in a part of the ruins of the castle. It had penetrated the wall about three yards, at a place where it was flanked with a tower. An unsuccessful attempt was made to reduce it in 1422; but after the battle of Towton, in 1461, it was again in the hands of the Scots, who strengthened its walls, and held it till 1482, when it finally came into possession of the English. "From that time," observes Camden, "the kings of England have continually added works to it, particularly Queen Elizabeth, who, lately to the terror of the enemy, and security of the towns-people, contracted the circuit of the walls, drawing within the old ones a very high wall, well built of strong stone, surrounded by a deep ditch, a regular rampart, redoubt, counterscarps, and covered ways, so that the form and strength of the fortifications are sufficient to discourage all hopes of carrying it by assault, not to mention the bravery of the garrison, and the stores in the place, which exceed belief." Between the years 1761 and 1770 the walls were almost entirely rebuilt in many parts, and finished in 1786. The governor of Berwick has a salary of £586. 7s. 1d. The barracks measure 217 by 121; and contain twenty-four rooms for officers, and seventy-two rooms adapted to hold 567 privates. The church of Berwick, a peculiar of the dean and chapter of Durham, stands on the north side of the parade. It was rebuilt between 1642 and 1652, at the cost of £1400. It has no steeple. It consists of three aisles, and several galleries, all handsomely pewed. The Worshipful Mercers' Company, in London, founded a lectureship here. David I., King of Scotland, The church and convents. founded here a convent for Cistertian Nuns; and Robert III, granted its revenues to Dryburgh Abbey. The convent of Carmelites originated with Sir John Grey, in 1270. The Scotch King, in 1239, brought hither a convent of Dominicans, which Edward III. removed. The Trinitarians had a house here, as had the Franciscans; and between the sea and the town, in Maudlin-field, stood the hospital and free chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, which had an hospital or hermitage belonging to it at Segeden.—Queen Elizabeth founded a free school here; and a charity-school was rebuilt in 1725, in which twenty boys and six girls are clothed and educated. Berwick bridge was swept away by a flood in 1199. It The bridge 24 years in building. was rebuilt of wood, of which it consisted, till the time of James I., who commenced the present elegant structure of stone. It has fifteen arches; its length being 1164 feet, and its breadth seventeen. It was twenty-four years, four months, and four days in building, and cost government £14,960 1s. 6d. The Town Hall was built in 1754. On its ground-floor, on the east-side, is a piazza, called the Exchange; and opposite it are cells for criminals, and shops. The second floor consists of two spacious halls. The outer hall, for holding courts and guilds, measures, sixty feet by thirty-one. The inner hall forty-seven feet long and twenty-three feet broad, is occasionally occupied for public entertainments. The upper story is the common gaol of the town. The turret, 150 feet high, contains eight musical bells. The first charter of the corporation was granted by Edward I. The corporation were first summoned to send members to parliament in the latter end of the reign of Edward IV. The last charter of this town was granted by James I. The corporation now consists of a mayor, recorder, town clerk, four bailiffs, a coroner, four serjeants at mace, Municipal officers. and a water-bailiff. The mayor is also escheator in the borough, clerk of the market, and a justice of the peace; the other justices of the town being the recorder and such resident burgesses as have sustained the office of mayor. They are lords of the manor of Tweedmouth, where they hold a court-leet and court-baron twice a year. Their annual revenues arising from duties taken at the quay and gates, are estimated at £7000. Besides the trade in salmon, great quantities of corn and eggs are exported here for London. One morning in the month of October, 1814, there were upwards of 10,000 salmon, in Berwick market, caught in the Tweed, some of which might have been bought at 2s. each. At the same time, the finest herrings Salmon and herring fisheries. (of which an immense shoal was on the coast) were sold for 2s. the hundred of six score. On the same day the best salmon was sold in Newcastle market at 6d. per pound, and some of the inferior kind as low as 4d. The port has about sixty or seventy vessels. The harbour abounds with low dangerous rocks. At its mouth a noble pier has recently been constructed on the site of an old one, built by Queen Elizabeth. Berwick Castle, once a place of high importance, is now almost levelled with the ground. About 400 yards north of it, is a pentagonal tower, called the Bell Tower, having its name from containing a bell, which was rung on any occasion of alarm.

Markets, Wednesday and Saturday.—Fairs, Friday in Trinity Week, for black cattle, sheep, and horses.—Mail arrives 9.49 morning; departs 2.1 afternoon.—Bankers, Commercial Banking Company; draw on Jones, Lloyd, and Co.; Batson and Co.: draw on Glynn and Co.—Inns, King's Arms, and Red Lion.

MapNames of PlacesCounty Number of Miles FromDist.
Lond.		Popul
ation.
4Besselsleigh[A]paBerksAbingdon5Oxford6Farringdon1460124
43BessingbypaE.R. YorkBridlington2Carnaby1Hornsea1223883
27BessinghampaNorfolkCromer6Holt6Aylesham8116137
27BesthorpepaNorfolkAttleborough1Buckenham4Wymondham695542
30BesthorptoNottinghamNewark8Tuxford8Saxilby9132322
22BeswicktoLancasterStockport7Bury9Bolton12183248
46BeswickchapE.R. YorkBeverly7Gt Driffield7Hornsea13190205
37BetchworthpaSurreyReigate3Dorking3Leatherhead7261100
21BethersdenpaKentAshford6Tenterden7Smarden454973

[A] BESSELSLEIGH, is a small village, in the hundred of Hormer. The manor formerly belonged to the family of Legh, from which it passed, by a female heir, to that of Besils, or Blesells, which flourished there for several centuries. "At this Legh," says Leland, "be very fayre pastures and woodes. The Blesells hathe bene lords of it syns the tyme of Edwarde the First, or afore, and ther they dyd enhabite. The place is all of stone, and stondithe at the west end of the paroche churche. The Blesells cam out of Provence in Fraunce, and were men of activitye in The Blessell's family. feates of armes, as it appearith in monuments at Legh, how he faught in Listes with a strange knighte that chalengyd hym, at the whiche deade the Kynge and Quene at that tyme of England, were present. The Blesells were countyd to have pocessyons of 400 marks by the yere." In the year 1516, the estates of the Blesells were carried, by the marriage of an heiress, to the Fettiplaces, a respectable Berkshire family, one of whom Besil Fettiplace, Esq., was High Sheriff in the 26th of Queen Elizabeth. The manor of Besselsleigh was purchased of the Fettiplaces, by William Lenthall, Esq., Speaker of the Long Parliament, whose descendants now reside at Burford, in Oxfordshire.

MapNames of PlacesCounty Number of Miles FromDist.
Lond.		Popul
ation.
25Bethnal Green[A]paMiddlesexPopular2Stratford2Clapton3162018
35BetleypaStaffordNewcastle7Nantwich8Keel5157870
12BettescombepaDorsetLyme Regis6Axminster5Charmouth514665
53BettesfieldFlintWhitchurch6Ellesmere6Oswestry14173359
21BetteshangerpaKentSandwich4Deal4Wingham56720
33BettonhamSalopDrayton2Adderley4Woore6155
33BettonhamSalopShrewsbury3Ch. Stretton11Wenlock11159
33BettwspaSalopKnighton7Bis. Castle11Ludlow22164389
49BettwspaCarmarthenLlandillo7Camarthen18Neath13211830
52Bettws-Yn-Rhos[B]paDenbighAbergeley4Aberconway9Denbigh11214912
54BettwspaGlamorganBridgend5Pyle5Neath13186362
55BettwstoMerionethBala2Corwen11Llandrillo7195
26BettwspaMonmouthNewport3Careleon4Pontypool715195
26BettwshamMonmouthAbergavenny5Lanthony7Crickhowel8151
56BettwspaMontgomeryNewtown4Montgomery7Llanfair7175
51Bettws Bleddrws[C]paCardiganLampeter2Tregaron9Llandovery20211235
58Bettws ClyropaRadnorHay4Kington8Glasbury7160
58Bettws DiserthpaRadnorNew Radnor8Builth6Rhayader15173141

[A] BETHNAL GREEN. There is a curious legend relating to this place, of which Henry de Mountfort, son of the ambitious Earl of Liecester, who was slain with his father at the memorable battle of Evesham, is the hero. He is supposed to have been discovered among the bodies of the dying and the dead (by a young lady) in an almost lifeless state, and deprived of his sight by a wound which he had received during the engagement. Under the fostering hand of this "faire damosel" he soon recovered, and afterwards marrying her, she became the mother of the celebrated "Besse," the heroine of the popular ballad of the beggar's daughter of Bethnal-green, written in the reign of Elizabeth. Fearing least his rank The blind beggar of Bethnal-green. and title should be discovered by his enemies, he is said to have disguised himself as a beggar, and taken up his residence at Bethnal-green. The beauty of the daughter attracted many suitors, and she was at length married to a noble knight, who, regardless of her supposed meanness and poverty, had the courage to make her his wife: her other lovers having deserted her on account of her low origin. At Bethnal-green is an old mansion, which the inhabitants, with their usual love of traditionary lore, assign as the palace of the blind beggar. The tradition, though with very little grounds for its foundation, is still preserved on the sign posts of several public houses in the neighbourhood. On the 19th September, 1826, the parish officers of Bethnal-green waited on the Secretary of State for Gang of 500 thieves, in 1826. the Home Department, and stated that a lawless gang, of 500 or more, thieves infested that neighbourhood and committed the most dreadful outrages nightly, upwards of fifty persons having been robbed and beaten in the course of a week; the secretary ordered forty men mounted, to patrole the parish, and aid the local authorities in bringing the offenders to justice. The hospital called the Trinity House, founded in the year 1695, for twenty-eight ancient seamen, who have been masters of ships, and their widows, is in this parish. The funds arising from the ballast-offices, lighthouses, buoys, beacons, &c. are appropriated by parliament to this corporation. Each of the inmates receives 16s. a month, 20s. a year for coals, and a new gown every second year. Many of the streets of this parish are almost wholly occupied by the operative silk-weavers.

[B] BETTWS-YN-RHOS. Fairs, February 20, May 8, August 15, and November 20.

[C] BETTWS BLEDDRWS. In this neighbourhood there exists a curious custom relating to marriage, called a bidding, which takes place about a week previous to the day of ceremony. The banns are published as in England. A bidder goes from house to house, with a long pole and ribbons flying at the end of it, and standing in the middle floor in each house, he repeats a long lesson, with great formality. He mentions the day of the wedding, the place, the preparations made, &c. The following is a specimen:—Speech of the Bidder in 1762. "The intention of the bidder is this; with kindness and amity, with decency and liberality for Einion Owain, and Llio Elys, he invites you to come with your good will on the plate; bring current money; a shilling, or two, or three, or four, or five; with cheese and butter we invite the husband and wife, and children, and men-servants, from the greatest to the least. Come there Curious marriage customs. early, you shall have victuals freely, and drink cheap, stools to sit on, and fish if we can catch them; but if not, hold us excuseable; and they will attend on you when you call in upon them in return. They set out from such a place to such a place." The gwahodder, or bidder, has eight or ten shillings for his trouble. Saturday is always fixed on as the day of marriage, and Friday is allotted to bring home the furniture of the woman, consisting generally of an oak chest, a feather bed, clothes, &c. The man provides a bedstead, a table, a dresser and chairs. The evening is moreover employed in receiving presents of money, cheese, and butter, at the man's house, from his friends, and at the woman's house from her friends. This is called purse and girdle, it is an ancient British custom. All these presents are set down minutely on paper. If demanded, they are to be repaid. On Saturday, the friends of the man come all on horseback, from the number of eighty to a hundred, and have bread and cheese, and ale at his cost, making at the same time their presents, or pay pwython, i.e. the presents that have been made at their weddings. From ten to twenty of the best mounted go to the intended bride's house to demand her. The woman with her friends are expecting the summons, but she appears very uncomplying, and much Welsh poetry is employed by way of argument; one party being within the house, the other without, abusing each other much. Several persons then deliver orations on horseback, with their hats off, demanding the daughter from the father, who were answered by persons appointed for the business. At length the father appears, admitting and welcoming his guests. They alight, walk in, take some refreshments, and proceed to church. The girl mounts behind her father, mother, or friend, upon the swiftest horse that can be procured. Her friends then pretend to run away with her, riding like mad folks, in any direction. During this time, the girl has no pillion, sitting upon the crupper, and holding by the man's coat, at last the horse is tired, or the bride growing impatient consents to go, using only some feints to get out of the road, till they arrive at the church. The ceremony being over, they return to the married couple's house, eating at free cost, but finding their own liquor. Sunday being come, the married pair stay at home receiving good will and pwython. On Monday the drink is exhausted, and the cheese, &c. is sold, frequently making, with the money presented, a sum of £50 to £60. On the following Sunday, most of the company attend the young pair to church, and the ceremony closes. Among the eminent natives of this neighbourhood, was David ap Gwylim, of Bro Ginin, whose works appeared in a large volume, in the year 1789. He A Welsh poet. nourished from about the year 1330 to 1370. In early life he enjoyed the munificent patronage of Ivor the generous, an ancestor of the Tredegar family. Under the influence of a passion for the fair Morvudd he composed 147 poems. Their loves were mutual, but her friends induced her to accept a wealthy connection, named Rhys Gwrgan, an officer of the English army, who served at the battle of Cressy, 1346; Dab Gwilym persuaded Morvudd to escape with him, during the absence of her husband in France; in consequent of which he was imprisoned, but liberated through the influence of his friends. It is from the poems of this author, that the modern literary dialect has chiefly been formed.

Fairs, August 17, and September 23 and 27.

MapNames of PlacesCounty Number of Miles FromDist.
Lond.		Popul
ation.
50Bettws GarmonpaCarnarvonCarnarvon5Beddgelart7Llanberris6230128
55Bettws Gwerfyl Goch[A]paMerionethCorwen5Bala11Ruthin12199273
51Bettws JevanpaCardiganNewcastle7Cardigan10Llanarth9236386
51Bettws LleucepaCardiganLampeter8Tregaron6Aberystwith16217381
26Bettws NewyddpaMonmouthUsk4Abergavenny7Monmouth12142890
50Bettws-Y-Coed[B]paCaernarvonLlanrwst5Bangor20Corwen23217348
30BevercoatespaNottinghamTuxford3Ollerton5E. Retford714051
42BeveregeislWorcesterWorcester2Droitwich5Bewdley12113
46Beverley[C]m.t. & boE.R. YorkHull9Scarborough35York281838302