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218 MedicEval Military Architecture. which is perfectly level, and has for above half a century been employed as a bowling-green. The slopes are uniform and mode- rately steep, and planted with trees and shrubs. On the north side, or that farthest from the river, an excavation has been made for an ice-house ; but this is of modern date, and does not appear to have laid open any traces of masonry below the surface of the ground. Towards the river, and westwards towards the town bridge about a furlong above the castle, the ground is perfectly flat, and under cultivation as a garden ; but, on the north and north-east it is rather higher, and here are traces of a ditch at the foot of, and concentric with, the mound, and no doubt a part of its defence upon this its weaker side. The only masonry that can possibly be old is a small rectangular mass on the south side of the mound, and which now carries a modern summer-house. The ragstone of the country, of which this fragment is comprised, weathers so rapidly that it is difficult to form an opinion upon its age; but, though possibly old, it may be of recent date. Looking to the position of the mound as regards the river, and to the low and flat character of the ground about it, it is evident that the great strength of the place must have been derived from the Ouse, here deep and broad, and from banks of earth and ditches filled from and communicating with the river. The entire absence of masonry and the disappearance of all but a trace of the sur- rounding banks and ditches, commemorated in the Chronicles as once so high and deep, are fully accounted for by the circumstances recorded of the famous siege by Henry III. Bedicanford, or Bedford, was well known to the Saxons, and a town probably of Saxon origin. Here, just outside the town, was buried in 796 the Saxon Offa, king of Mercia, in a chapel long since swept away by the flood waters of the Ouse. Early in the tentli century the town was attacked by a party of Danish settlers from the five burghs, who were beaten off by the townspeople, and shortly afterwards Edward the elder repaired the place, and erected what some call the suburb of Mikesgate, and some a strong place, on the southern side of the river, possibly a cover for the " ford," which contributed towards the name of the town. Bedford was, without doubt, an important town under the Saxons, and, as at Tamworth, Leicester, Wareham, and Wallingford, had a citadel at one angle of the enclosure, upon the river. The Barony, also called the Honour, of Bedford, was conferred by William Rufus upon Payn, second son, but eventual heir of Hugh Beauchamp, a companion of the Conqueror, and possibly allied to the greater family of that name, who afterwards held the earldom of AVarwick. Hugh was the recipient of many manors in Buckingham, and about twenty in Bedfordshire. Payn is the reputed builder of the Norman castle, described as of great strength, with ditches and ramparts of earth, and which descended to his son Simon, steward to King Stephen. The family, however, afterwards took part against