Bedfordshire is a county in England. Its county town is Bedford, on the River Great Ouse, roughly fifty miles north of London. Some lists call it “southern England” because it sits in the southern half of the country and not far from the capital — though actually, people in England more often place it in the East of England, north of London, not with the south-coast counties like Sussex or Hampshire. The name is Bedford plus shire, an old English word for a county. Luton, a larger town, also lies in the historic county. British English has a gentle joke as well: “off to Bedfordshire” can mean going to bed, because the name begins with bed. That is wordplay, not a geography lesson.