TOWCESTER, (Northamptonshire) 6 m. from Northampton, 50 cm. near 61 mm. from London, is a handsome old populous T. in the
great road to Chester, with good inns for travellers. The Danes besieged it in 917, but could not take it, and K. Edward
the Elder incompassed it afterwards with a strong stone wall, of which there is now no sign. It has a fair large Ch. and 3
bridges ever two streams into which the little r. Tove, or Wedon, is divided, and which incompass the T. 'Tis supposed to
have been a Roman station, if not the Tripontium of Antoninus, because of the old Roman coins often dug up here; and it is
certain that the Watling-Street runs through it, and plainly appears in several places bet. this and Stony-Stratford. Here
was formerly a priory. Sir Richard Empson, Henry VII's favourite, was born here. The people, young and old, are employed
in the mfs. of lace and silk. The Mt. is on T. Fairs August 10, September 23, and October 18, and here are annual
horseraces. The Earl of Pembroke, the Ld. of this T. in the R. of Edw. II. procured a Fair here on March 25, which is
since altered to March 22.