“ Its industries embrace the manufacture of agricultural machinery, cigar-making, brewing and distilling. Verden was the see of a bishopric founded in the first quarter of the 9th century, or earlier, and secularized in 1648. The duchy of Verden was then ceded to Sweden, passed in 1719 to Hanover and in 1810 to the kingdom of Westphalia. It was restored to Hanover in 1814, and was, with Hanover, annexed by Prussia in 1866. ”