ARLSEY, a parish in the hundred of CLIFTON, county
of BEDFORD, 4 miles (N, W. by W.) from Baldock,
containing 562 inhabitants. The living is a discharged
vicarage, to which the rectory of Astwick was united in
1764, in the archdeaconry of Bedford, and diocese of
Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £8, and in tlie
patronage of R. Houston, Esq. The church is dedicated
to St. Peter. This place is recorded in Domesday-book
as a market-town, and its market, in 1270, was .confirmed
to Stephen Edworth, then lord of the manor, to
be held on Wednesday, with a fair on the festival of
St. Peter and St. Paul, both of which have been long
discontinued. At Etonbury, near the road to Baldock,
is an ancient intrenchment, the site of the castle of
the manor.