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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
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    "chunk_id": "1911:bideford:3921e6246358",
    "title": "BIDEFORD",
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    "verified_text": "bideford, a seaport, market town and municipal borough in the barnstaple parliamentary division of devonshire, england, 81/4 m. s.w. of barnstaple. pop. (1901) 8754. it is served by the london & south-western and the bideford, westward ho & appledore railways. it is picturesquely situated on two hills rising from the banks of the river torridge, 3 m. above its junction with the estuary of the taw. many of the houses are built with timber framework in elizabethan style, and the two parts of the town are united by a bridge of 24 arches, originally erected in the 14th century, when the revenue of certain lands was set apart for its upkeep. the church of st mary, with the exception of the tower, is a modern reconstruction. a stone chancel screen and a norman font are also preserved. industries include the manufacture of earthenware, leather goods, sails, ropes and linen, and ironfounding. the small harbour has about 17 ft. of water at high tide, but is dry at low tide. anthracite and a coarse potter's clay are found near the town. the borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. area, 3398 acres. bideford (bedeford, bydyford, budeford, bytheford) is not mentioned in pre-conquest records, but according to domesday it rendered geld for three hides to the king. from the time of the conquest down to the 18th century, bideford remained in the possession of the grenville family, and it first appears as a borough in an undated charter (probably of the reign of edward i.) from richard de grenville, confirming a charter from his grandfather, richard de grenville, fixing the rent and services due from the burgesses and granting them liberties similar to those in use at breteuil and a market every monday. another charter, dated 1271, confirms to richard de grenville and his heirs a market every monday and five days' fair yearly at the feast of st margaret (20th of july). in 1573 elizabeth granted a charter creating bideford a free borough corporate, with a common council consisting of a mayor, 5 aldermen and 7 chief burgesses, together with a recorder, town-clerk and 2 serjeants-at-mace. this charter also granted the tuesday market, which is still held, and three annual fairs in february, july and november, now discontinued. a later charter from james i. in 1610 added the right to have a town seal, 7 aldermen instead of 5, and 10 chief burgesses instead of 7, and continued in force until the municipal corporations act of 1873, which established 4 aldermen and 12 common councillors. in the 16th century sir richard grenville, the famous virginian settler, did much to stimulate the commercial development of bideford, which long maintained a very considerable trade with america, spain and the mediterranean ports, the import of tobacco from maryland and virginia being especially noteworthy. from the beginning of the 18th century this gradually declined and gave place to a coasting trade in timber and coal, chiefly with wales and ireland. the silk industry which flourished in the 17th century is extinct. see john watkins, _history of bideford_ (exeter, 1792). bidpai (or pilpay), fables of, the name given in the middle ages (from sanskrit _vidya-pati_, chief scholar) to a famous collection of hindu stories. the origin of them is undoubtedly to be found in the _pancha tantra_, or five sections, an extensive body of early fables or apologues. a second collection, called the _hitopadesa_, has become more widely known in europe than the first, on which it is apparently founded. in the 6th century a.d., a translation into pahlavi of a number of these old fables was made by a physician at the court of chosroes i. anushirvan, king of persia. no traces of this persian translation can now be found, but nearly two centuries later, abdallah-ibn-mokaffa translated the persian into arabic; and his version, which is known as the \"book of kalilah and dimna,\" from the two jackals in the first story, became the channel through which a knowledge of the fables was transmitted to europe. it was translated into greek by simeon sethus towards the close of the 11th century; his version, however, does not appear to have been retranslated into any other european language. but the hebrew version of rabbi joel, made somewhat later, was translated in the 13th century into latin by john of capua, a converted jew, in his _directorium vitae humanae_ (first published in 1480), and in that form became widely known. since then the fables have been translated into nearly every european tongue. there are also versions of them in the modern persian, malay, mongol and afghan languages. see wilson's analysis of the pancha tantra, in the _mem. of the royal asiat. soc._ i.; silvestre de sacy's introduction to his edition of the _kalilah and dimna_ (1816); articles by the same in _notices et extr. des mss. de la bib. du roi_, vols. ix. and x.; german translation by philipp wolff, _bidpai's fabeln_ (2 vols., 2nd ed., stuttgart, 1839); the _anvar-i suheili_, persian version of the fables, translated by e.b. eastwick (hertford, 1854); benfey, _pantscha tantra_, german translation with important introduction (2 vols., leipzig, 1859); other editions, by l. fritze (ib. 1884) and r. schmidt (ib. 1901); max mueller, _essays_ (leipzig, 1872), vol. iii. pp. 303, &c.; j. jacobs' edition of sir t. north's _morall philosophie of doni_, the earliest english version of the fables (london, 1888); j.g.n. keith-falconer, _kalilah and dimnah, or the fables of bidpai_ (cambridge, 1895), their history, with a translation of the later syriac version and notes; leopold hervieux, _les fabulistes latins_, &c. v. _jean de capoue et ses derives_ (1899); e.g. browne, _persian literat._ (1906), ii. 350.",
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