AYLESBURY  , a

market-town in the Aylesbury parliamentary division of Buckinghamshire, England, 38 M . N . W. by W. of London; served by the Great Central, Metropolitan and Great Western railways (which use a common station) and by a branch of the London & North-Western railway . Pop. of urban district (1901) 9243 . It has connexion by a branch with the Grand Junction canal . It lies on a slight eminence in a fertile tract called the Vale of Aylesbury, which extends north-ward from the foot of the Chiltern Hills . Its streets are mostly narrow and irregular, but picturesque . The church of St Mary, a large cruciform building, is primarily Early English, but has numerous additions of later dates . The font is transitional Norman, a good example; and a small pre-Norman crypt remains beneath part of the church . There are some Decorated canopied tombs, and the chancel stalls are of the 15th century . The central tower is surmounted by an ornate clock-turret dating from the second half of the 17th century . The county-hall and town-hall, overlooking a broad market-place, are the principal public buildings .

The

grammar. school was founded in 1611 . Aylesbury is the assize town for the county, though Buckingham is the county town . There is a large agricultural trade, the locality being especially noted for the rearing of ducks; straw-plaiting and the manufacture of condensed milk are carried on, and there are printing works . The Jacobean mansion of Hart-well in the neighbourhood of Aylesbury was the residence of the French king Louis XVIII. during his exile (1810-1814) . Aylesbury (IEylesburge, Eilesberia, Aillesbir) was famous in Saxon times as the supposed burial-place of St Osith . In An) . 571 it was one of the towns captured by Cuthwulf, brother of Ceawlin, king of the Saxons . At the time of the Domesday survey the king owned the manor . In 1554, bya charter from Queen Mary, bestowed as a reward for fidelity during the rebellion of the duke of Northumberland, Aylesbury was constituted a free borough corporate, with a common council consisting of a bailiff, to aldermen and 12 chief burgesses . The borough returned two members to parliament from this date until the Redistribution Act of 1885, but the other privileges appear to have lapsed in the reign of Elizabeth . Aylesbury evidently had a considerable market from very early times, the tolls being assessed at the time of Edward the Confessor at 25 and at the time of the Domesday survey at £Ld . In 1239 Henry III. made a grant to John, son of Geoffrey FitzPeter of an annual fair at the feast of St Osith (June 3rd), which was confirmed by Henry VI. in 144o .

Queen Mary's charter instituted a Wednesday market and fairs at the feasts of the

Annunciation and the Invention of the Holy Cross . In 1579 John Pakington obtained a grant of two annual fairs to be held on the day before Palm Sunday and on the feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross, and a Monday market for the sale of horses and other animals, grain and merchandise .