he again revolted, and engaged in the schemes of the Earl of Warwick, to restore the deposed Henry. Having raised forces, he joined Margaret of Anjou before the battle of Tewkesbury. He was appointed by the general, John, Earl of Somerset, to command what was called the middle ward of the army. When Somerset, who led the van, found himself unsupported in the fierce attack he had made upon the enemy, he returned enraged to discover the cause. He found Lord Wenlock, with his troops, standing in the market-place. Whether a panic had seized, or whether, through a mutability of mind, he was meditating a new revolt, does not appear; but the Earl, unable to curb his fury, rode up, and with one blow of his battle-axe claved the head of the supposed traitor.

The Wenlock arms are strewed over the walls in various parts of Luton church, a circumstance rendering it probable that he contributed towards the expence of repairing it, when the chapel above-mentioned was erected.

Part of this town was given by King OFFA to the monks of St. Alban's; but the patronage of the church was not appendant to the gift. The advowson was purchased of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, for eighty marks, by Robert, the eighteenth abbot of St. Alban's; who gave it to his monastery a short time before his death. By a charter of confirmation, granted by King' John in the first year of his reign, its revenues were appropriated to the purchase of provisions for the use of the abbey guests.

In the reign of Edward the Fourth, a stately mansion was begun at Luton, by Lord Wenlock. Only the portico was finished, which still remains complete in the wood at Luton Hoo: it is a very beautiful specimen of that kind of architecture, styled the florid Gothic.

"The Lord Wennelock," says Leland, "left an heire general, that was maried to a kinnesman of Thomas Scotte, otherwise caullid Rotheram, Bishop of York. He had with her yn mariage LUTON, in Bedfordshire, and three hunderith markes of landes thereaboute, and a faire place within the paroche of Luton caulyd SOMERYS, the which house was sumptuously begon by the

Lord

Lord Wennelok, but not finisched." The gateway, and part of a tower, are yet to be seen. The tower has been very high, and of great strength. Prior to the invention of gunpowder, it might' have been regarded as impregnable. In the wall was a hole or cavity, called a whispering-pipe, which conveyed the lowest sound from the bottom to the top: this was entire, before Sir John Napier began to pull down the tower, about the commencement of the last century.

Mr. JOHN POMFRET, the poet, was born at Luton, and educated at Cambridge. On entering into orders, he obtained the living of Malden, in this county, and might have risen in the church, but from a malicious interpretation of some passage in his poem of the Choice, from which it was inferred, that he considered happiness as more likely to be obtained in the company

a mistress than of a wife.

of

"This reproach," says Dr. Johnson," was easily obliterated; for it had happened to Pomfret, as to almost all other men who plan schemes of life; he had departed from his purpose, and was then married." The malice of his enemies was, however, attended with a fatal consequence: the delay constrained his attendance in London, where he caught the small-pox, and died in 1703, in the thirty-sixth year of his age.

LUTON HOO,

THE seat of the Marquis of Bute, stands on an elevated situation at the edge of the Bedfordshire downs, about two miles from Luton, in the midst of a well-wooded-park.

The house was in a great measure rebuilt by its late noble owner, the father of the present Marquis, who employed the celebrated Adams to reconcile the incongruities of its architecture, and rectify the dissonance of the materials and arrangements, that had been occasioned from the mansion having been erected at various times, and by different persons. This the artist effected by building a kind of architectural façade on the mass, and forming a comfortable and convenient suite of rooms. The

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The library, said to be only inferior to Blenheim, is 146 feet in length, divided into three rooms. The books are abundantly numerous, scarce, and well arranged.

In the old chapel is preserved an extremely fine Gothic wainscot, wonderfully enriched with carving, intermingled with Latin sentences of Scripture, in ancient characters. It was first put up at Tyttenhanger, in Hertfordshire, by Sir Thomas Pope, the founder of Trinity College, Oxon; and was removed to Luton in perfect preservation by the family of Napier, to whom this estate formerly belonged. The floor is paved with black and white marble.

The grounds, though not highly favoured by nature, have been considerably improved by art. The river Lea, which meanders through the park, has been formed into a noble lake at the bottom of the eminence on which the house is seated. The width of this expanse of water, (nearly a quarter of a mile,) its islands, and the numerous trees and plantations with which it is diversified, present an agreeable prospect. From a path leading through a fine valley, there is a pleasing view of a plain Tuscan pillar, whose graceful effect entirely results from its simplicity and harmony of proportion. On the pedestal is this inscription:

In Memory of

MR. FRANCIS NAPIER.

Upon the summit of the pillar is an urn, which is peculiarly beautiful. The prospect from this spot is interesting to the lover of the picturesque; where the breaks through the woods, the hollow dales, and groups of fine beeches, present an agreeable variety to the landscape-painter. The beech trees are more valuable here, as the general soil of the county is unfavourable to their growth.

MERGATE, MARKYATE, OR MARKET STREET.

THIS town is generally regarded as being in Bedfordshire, tho', in fact, it is situated both in this and the adjoining shire of Hert

ford.

ford. The counties in this part intersect each other in a singular manner; the boundaries being so irregular that the three hamlets, which compose the town, appear to be seated near the extreme point of a neck of land, (if the term may be allowed us,) branching out from that division of the county which is crossed by the Icening Way.

This place consists of one principal street, about three quarters of a mile in length. The houses are rudely built, and mostly inhabited by inn-keepers, shop-keepers, and common tradesmen, whose chief dependence for support is, as we have already mentioned, on the passage of travellers. The inequality of the poor's rates in neighbouring parishes is here remarkably apparent. the hamlet of Humbershoe (which is on one side of the street) they are full three times as much as in the two hamlets on the opposite side. The reason assigned is, that Humbershoe has very little land, and a number of ruinous houses.

In

In a wood near this town was a nunnery of the Benedictine order, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It was built and endowed by Geoffrey, Abbot of St. Alban's, on some lands that were given by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, London, in the year 1145. In Dugdale's Monasticon is the following story relative to its foundation.

"When Geoffrey was Abbot of Saint Alban's, one Roger, a monk of that place, led a most holy eremitical life, near the village called Markate, in the way to Dunstable. The latter four years of his life, he had, in a room separated from his own, the virgin Christina, whom he instructed in such a manner that she became famous for miracles, which moved the said abbot to build there a residence for her, and other nuns that had resorted to her; and the said building happening to be burnt, he again rebuilt the same." What these miracles were, we are not informed; neither do we know any thing of the holy monk's method of instruction. It is much to be lamented that it was not committed to writing for the benefit of posterity. The revenues at the dissolution were rated at 1141. 16s. 1d. per annum.

LEIGHTON BEAUDESERT,

OR, as it is sometimes corruptly written, Leighton Buzzard, is a considerable market-town, and in a very fair way for improvement; the grand junction canal passing it within a furlong, on the west side, where the river Ouzel separates the counties of Bedford and Bucks. The commodities sold in the market are cattle, corn, grocery, bone-lace, platted straw, &c. The channel of the canal is of sufficient width and depth to carry craft of eighty tons burden.

The number of houses in this town is 333; the inhabitants, on a fair average, five to a house; this gives about 1670 for the population. There is a congregation of Baptists, and another of Quakers, here: among the latter, but very few poor can be found. This circumstance seems to arise from some excellent rules, by which the sect is regulated. If a member becomes idle, drunken, or otherwise depraved, he is immediately expelled the society. The poor are partly maintained at home, and partly in the workhouse, which is in a very excellent situation. Those who are in the house, are employed in lace-making. In this town there is an alms-house for eight poor women, who have each an apartment, clothes, fuel, and 2s. 6d. a week: and donations to the amount of about 221. annually are distributed in bread to the indigent parishioners.

The principal antiquity of Leighton Beaudesert is a handsome pentangular CROss, supposed to have been erected nearly 700 years ago, but by whom, or for what purpose, we have not been able to discover. From the court-roll of the town, it appears, that some time about the year 1650, it was presented at the courtleet, as being in such a ruinous state, that it greatly endangered the lives of those persons who were passing near it. On this occasion it was ordered to be repaired, and a tax of 4d. levied on every inhabitant to defray the charges.

The height of the cross is twenty-seven feet two inches, from the top of the stone work to the basement, which is seven feet four inches from the ground on the lowest side, and consists of