HARDINGSTONE, a parish in the hundred of
WYMERSLEY, county of NORTHAMPTON, 2 miles (S.
S. E.) from Northampton, containing, with the hamlets
of Cotton-End, Far-Cotton with Paper-Mills, and Delapree-
Abbey, 1012 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage,
in the archdeaconry of Northampton, and diocese
of Peterborough, rated in the king's books at
£13.5., and in the patronage of the Crown. The
church, dedicated to St. Edmund, has portions in the
early style of English architecture. The river Nen, and
a branch from the Grand Junction canal to Northampton,
pass through the parish, and join at Cotton-End,
where are commodious wharfs and warehouses. There
are many fine springs of water, and some which are
strongly impregnated with iron. Near the side of the
London road is one of the beautiful monumental crosses
erected by Edward I. to the memory of his consort
Eleanor, called Queen's Cross, to the south-west of
which is a commanding eminence crowned by the remains
of Danes camp, a circular fortification enclosing
an area of more than four acres, and supposed to have
been constructed by Sweyn, the father of Canute. In an
adjoining field the skeletons of soldiers have been found,
buried with their arms, consisting of swords, spears, &c.,
also some earthen vessels of a peculiar shape. A battle,
called the battle of Northampton, was fought here, in
which the Duke of Buckingham and other nobles were
killed, and Henry VI. was made prisoner, in the 38th
year of his reign. James Hervey, author of the Meditations,
was born at this village in 1714.