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Surface, Hydrography, Communications

Bedfordshire has no high lands of any great extent. The range of the Chiltern Hills (under the name of the Dunstable and Luton Downs) crosses it in a NE direction, near Dunstable, separating the basin of the Thames from that of the Ouse. Another ridge, having the same general direction, extends from Ampthill to near the junction of the Ivel with the Ouse. Some hills, between which the Ouse wind its course, and in which some of its feeders take their rise, occupy the north-west parts of the county. Between these hills and the Ampthill ridge is the vale of Bedford, a corn district of considerable extent. The woodlands are chiefly of modern origin, having been planted during the latter part of the last century : they consist chiefly of oak, Scottish fir, larch, and underwood of various kinds.

The chief river is the Ouse, which, approaching the county from Buckinghamshire, and forming for a short distance the boundary of the two counties, crosses Bedfordshire with so winding a course, that although the distance from the point where it first enters the county, to the point where it leaves, is, in a direct line, not quite 17 miles, the length of the river itself, between the same points, is probably not less than 45 miles. The average depth of the Ouse is considered to be about ten feet, and it is fordable in several places. It is subject to sudden and destructive inundations at all seasons. In its course through Bedfordshire it is increased by many streams, which flow into it on each bank, but none of these are of any size or importance except the Ivel. The Ivel is commonly considered to have its source near Baldock, in Hertfordshire, but the principal branch of it rises on the NW slope of the Chiltern hills, a little to the NE of Dunstable, and flowing to the NE, unites with the Ouse at the village of Tempsford, after a course of 30 miles. The streams which form another considerable feeder of the Ouse cross the county in its northern part. The river Lea, which fails into the Thames just below London, rises on the opposite slope of the same range of hills as the Ivel, and not far from the springs of that river ; but only a small part of its course is in Bedfordshire. The Ouzel, a tributary of the Ouse, separates Bedfordshire from Buckinghamshire, but is to be considered as properly belonging to the latter county. The fish of the Ouse are pike, perch, tench, bream, chub, bleak, crayfish, fine eels, dace, roach and gudgeon. Bleak abound particularly about Bedford bridge. Eels are found in the greatest abundance and of the largest size at Stoke mill, near Melchbourne. The fish of the Ivel are, for the most part, the same as those of the Ouse: it is particularly for gudgeon.

The navigation of the Ouse commences at Bedford, and that of the Ivel at Shefford : by means of these rivers the county communicates with Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk ; and, more remotely, with other counties. There are no canals in Bedfordshire, but the Grand Junction canal approaches close to its western border at Leighton Buzzard. The great road to Manchester. Leeds, Carlisle, and Glasgow, passes through it on the S.W. side, and the high north road, through York and Edinburgh, on the eastern side.

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