SUFFOLK extends southward from the Yare on the Norfolk border to the Stour, which defines the boundary from Essex, intermediate to which are the Deben and the Orwell, the latter forming a broad estuary navigable by vessels of considerable burden. The coast-line is remarkable at various points for the rapid manner in which the sea undermines the low cliffs, consisting of alternations of clay, sand, and gravel, and makes havoc with the shores. No high grounds anywhere mark the surface, and varied features are only occasionally met with, but the tameness of the landscape is generally relieved by skilful cultivation and luxuriant verdure. Tillage husbandry is most extensively pursued, and very rich crops are obtained.

The county possesses a valuable breed of horses for farm-service, short, active, and strong, adapted for heavy as well as light work; and its cows are famed for the extraordinary quantity of milk they yield Suffolk, according to ancient local proverbs, is renowned for its milk, its maids, and its stiles. But of one product of the former made for domestic use, it has been said that, by having a hole bored through the centre, a cheese would become a good grindstone. The rural poet, Bloomfield, a native, attributes to this article the common properties of a post

'Too big to swallow, and too hard to bite.'

Ipswich, the site of a very extensive manufacture of agricultural implements, is on a gentle elevation rising up from the Orwell, the banks of which are well wooded, and abound with pleasing views. Cardinal Wolsey, born here in the parish of St Nicholas, commenced a college in the place of his nativity, but it fell with its founder. Bury St Edmunds, in the western division of the county, a very agreeable and interesting town, with excellent free schools, was once an ecclesiastical shrine of great celebrity, the site of one of the largest and wealthiest abbeys in the country, fine remains of which are extant. It was founded in honour of Edmund the Martyr, one of the kings of East Anglia, who was crowned at the spot. Before the highaltar, the confederate barons singly bound themselves by oath to compel King John to grant the Great Charter. Lowestoft, on the coast towards the northern border, the most easterly town in England, has become by modern improvements a bathing-place, and has trading communication with the opposite continental ports of Holland and Denmark. The herring-fishery is a principal pursuit, with that of mackerel, large quantities of which are sent to London. Aldborough, further south, the birthplace of Crabbe, the poetical painter of real life, is at one of those points of the shore which suffer from the encroachments of the sea. The old borough stood some distance eastward of its present representative, and twenty-four feet of water roll over its site. This is the case also with ancient Dunwich adjoining, once a parliamentary borough, with twelve churches, the seat of the first East Anglian bishopric. Almost every remnant of it has been engulfed; and but for the inhabitants retreating inland, and forming a village, the name itself would not now represent a single dwelling.

ESSEX, a continuation of the great eastern level to the Thames, is low and marshy in its maritime districts, but more inland, a pleasant alternation of gentle hill and dale is general. Several islands lie close off-shore, among which Canvey, Mersea, and Foulness are fertile and of some extent. Besides the Thames, Stour, and Lea, which are boundary rivers, the county contains the Colne, Blackwater, and Chelmer, forming considerable estuaries. The marsh-lands are excellent grazing-grounds; heavy crops of corn of the finest quality are yielded in the other districts; caraway and coriander seeds are raised; the teazle, or fuller's thistle, is also cultivated for the woollen cloth manufacture, though not to the same extent as formerly; and the saffron-yielding crocus is grown, the culture of which near the town of Saffron-Walden originated the name. Fine woodland scenery distinguishes the south-western division, the locality of Epping and Hainault forests, towards which the suburbs of the metropolis are rapidly advancing.

Chelmsford, in a beautiful valley between the Chelmer and the Cann, which here unite, has only local consequence as the county-town and an agricultural mart. Colchester, far larger, a few miles above the mouth of the Colne, has a coasting trade, and an oyster fishery in which a considerable number of the inhabitants are engaged. The oysters are bred in the estuaries of the rivers, and in the creeks between the islands and the main shore. The town is supposed to occupy the site of the Roman colony of Camelodunum, and very numerous antiquities have been gleaned from it. It was taken after a long siege by Fairfax in 1648, when one of the most melancholy episodes of the Civil War occurred-the military execution of the two royalist commanders, Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle. Harwich, on the coast, at the mouth of the

Stour, has one of the best harbours on the whole eastern sea-board, and is the only place between Yarmouth Roads and the Thames capable of affording refuge to vessels in easterly gales. It is now chiefly visited for sea-bathing, but was formerly a flourishing port, and the ordinary point of passage between England and the Netherlands. Walton-on-the-Naze, near the headland after which it is distinguished, and Southend, at the mouth of the Thames, are favourite summer resorts with metropolitans and provincials. Small towns are very numerous inland, and there are several villages of great interest. The little secluded hamlet of Greenstead, near Ongar, has a church the nave of which is of wood, worn by time and black with age, believed to be the genuine relic of an Anglo-Saxon wooden chapel. One of the very few round churches in England, after the model of that of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, is at Little Maplestead, built by the Knights-Hospitallers, the same as when it was erected, except the addition of a porch. Tilbury Fort, now a regular fortification, on the Thames opposite Gravesend, marks the site where Queen Elizabeth reviewed her troops in expectation of the arrival of the Spanish Armada.

WORCESTERSHIRE, an inland district, belongs entirely to the basin of the Severn, by which it is traversed from north to south, nearly in the centre. It abounds with smiling

valleys, and richly-wooded landscapes, overlooked on the western side by the fine eminences of the Malvern Hills. The county contains coal in the extreme north; and salt is made extensively from brine-springs at Droitwich, where the salt-pans have sent up their clouds of white vapour from the time of the Romans, who extracted heaps of the snowy mineral from the saliferous waters. In addition to the ordinary products of tillage, hops are largely cultivated, with apples and pears for cider and perry.

Worcester, an episcopal city, on the eastern side of the Severn, is the chief mart for the agricultural produce, and has manufactures of gloves and porcelain. The cathedral, externally a plain building, makes nevertheless a pleasing impression, being spacious and of light architecture, crowned at almost every angle with spire-like pinnacles. It contains the tomb of the inglorious King John. The battle of Worcester, in which Cromwell defeated the forces of Charles II., was fought partly in the south-eastern meadows, and in the streets of the city. Previous to the action, the king stood upon the roof of the cathedral to view the hostile preparations. Dudley, the largest town, occupies a detached portion of the county, wholly within the limits of South Staffordshire, and is prominent in that wonderful scene of activity, a principal centre of coalmines and ironworks. But it possesses a very striking feature. Close to the town rises a somewhat lofty limestone hill, crowned by the remains of a feudal fortress, consisting of the keep, with fragments of walls, doors, and windows, partly surrounding a green, once the great courtyard, while clumps of trees clothe the hillside. The whole is enclosed for a protective purpose, but admission is granted to all visitors; and the contrast is striking in the extreme, turning from the smoking furnaces without to the sylvan solitude and the feudal relics within. Kidderminster, a principal seat of Brussels carpet-weaving, with tapestry and other fabrics, is in the northern section of the county, which includes Bromsgrove and Stourbridge, where various hardwares are produced. The large village of Redditch and its vicinity chiefly supply the domestic demand for needles, with an immense quantity for export, a manufacture in which young women are extensively employed. The total production in the district of these minute articles of convenience is estimated at 70,000,000 per week. Evesham, in the opposite section of the county, on the south-eastern border, is seated in a fertile valley, nearly encircled by the Avon, and surrounded by gardens, from which fruit and vegetables are sent to the great centres of population. The bell-tower remains of a once famous abbey, in possession of princely revenues, with some of the outbuildings. On the adjoining plain the battle was fought in 1265, which restored Henry III. to the throne, and proved fatal to his opponent, Simon de Montfort, the 'Sir Simon the Righteous' of the common people, and the real founder of popular representation. Great Malvern, on the south-western side, the head-quarters of hydropathy, is beautifully situated at the foot of the Worcestershire Beacon, the summit of which rises to the height of 1300 feet, overlooks a magnificent prospect, and is daily ascended by the summer visitors to the place. Two springs, St Anne's and the Holy Well, are distinguished by the extreme purity of their waters.

WARWICKSHIRE, to the eastward, while without any marked inequality of the surface, is diversified in almost all parts, and picturesque in some, watered by affluents of the Trent in the north, but chiefly by the Avon and its tributaries flowing to the Severn. In ancient times, it was comprehended in the great forest of Arden, and still retains abundance of fine timber both in hedgerows and plantations. A small but valuable coal-field lies within its limits, passing into Staffordshire. On the south-eastern side, where the Edge Hills form the border from Oxfordshire, the first battle between the king and the parliament was fought in the reign of Charles I. A plain, then known as the Vale of the Red Horse, on the Warwickshire side of the range, was the scene of the indecisive action, October 23, 1642. During the previous march of both armies through the county, the artisans of Birmingham refused to supply the royal troops with swords, but readily furnished them to the opposite party, while the blacksmiths left their homes to avoid shoeing the horses.

The town of Warwick, ancient and quiet, is seated on the right bank of the Avon. It has a striking feature in its old baronial castle, close to the river, still in perfect preservation, and the residence of the Earls of Warwick. The towers, the stream, the bridge, and fine trees around, form a very picturesque scene. Leamington, in the immediate vicinity, larger, fashionably arranged, and almost entirely modern, has been raised from obscurity by its mineral springs, twelve in number, consisting of the three varieties of saline, chalybeate, and sulphureous waters. A short excursion northward from both places leads to two memorable spots-the wooden knoll of Blacklow Hill, with its monumental stone, scene of the summary execution of Piers Gaveston by the barons in the time of Edward II.; and to Kenilworth, where splendid ivy-clad remains of castellated strength revive the memory of Queen Elizabeth, entertained within its walls, then standing in their pride, by her minion the Earl of Leicester. Further on in the same direction is Coventry, a city which shares a bishop's see with Lichfield, and was of high importance in the middle ages, long familiar with royal progresses and sacred pageants. Many narrow streets and overhanging timber houses remain as memorials of the past, with St Mary's Hall, now the town hall, of the time of Henry VI, and St Michael's Church, a master-piece of the lighter Gothic style. Few places have more frequently changed their industry. Under the Plantagenets, it was famous for caps and bonnets; under the Tudors, for woollen broadcloths, and a blue thread so celebrated for its permanent dye, that 'true as Coventry blue' became a proverbial expression; next followed the production of tammies, camlets, shalloons, and

WARWICKSHIRE-NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

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calimancoes; then succeeded broad silks and ribbons, which last remains, in connection with watch-making. The county contains Rugby, a centre of railways, the seat of a popular and richly-endowed school; and Stratford-upon-Avon, reverenced as the birthplace of Shakspeare. But its consequence is mainly derived from Birmingham, the third of the provincial towns in population. This capital of the midlands is situated near the north-western border, towards the centre of England, on an insignificant stream, a sub-tributary of the Trent. It is the greatest seat of hardware production in the world, embracing articles remarkable for their diversity and discordance, the massive and the minute, the costly and the cheap, the domestic and the warlike, the ornamental and the useful, made of gold, silver, iron, copper, or a compound of metals, with plated and japanned wares. The premises of the largest firms are like villages for extent; their workmen are of the superior class as to habits and intelligence; and their show-rooms are wondrous repositories of beautiful objects. The manufacture of firearms was first introduced in the reign of William III., for whom some infantry muskets were made. During the Crimean war, three thousand Minié rifles were supplied to the government weekly, with the same number of bayonets. Priestley the philosopher, Hutton the historian, and Watt the improver of the steam-engine, were long associated with the town. Birmingham has no advantages of position and few attractive features, but it was one of the first places in the provinces to erect a civic building worthy of its own wealth and enterprise, adapted for corporate purposes, and the holding of large assemblies. This is essentially in the form of a classical temple, with ranges of majestic Corinthian columns along the sides and fronts; and being well placed, it is a very striking object. The free grammarschool, in the Tudor style, is also a beautiful structure; and a public park is a modern addition.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE borders on the preceding county, and also on eight others, owing to its extent and irregular shape, which is narrow and elongated. It contains a succession of smooth waving hills and vales, amply watered, with the remnants of three ancient forests, Whittlebury, Salcey, and Rockingham. But the ground generally is elevated, and hence while streams are sent out into adjoining districts, none whatever are received from them. The highest land is on the north-western side, and forms the line of water-shed between the basins of opposite seas. Here, in the parish of Naseby, rises one branch of the Nen, the principal river, flowing to the Wash; and in the garden of the little inn opposite the village church is the source of the Avon, which descends to the Bristol Channel.

The field of Naseby, once a moor, now distributed into farms, was the scene of the decisive battle in which the royalists were defeated by Fairfax and Cromwell, and the cause of Charles I. received a blow from which it never recovered. He was soon afterwards a captive at Holdenby House in the county. While under tillage to a considerable extent, the greater part of the surface consists of luxuriant grass-lands. Northampton, pleasantly situated on the north bank of the Nen, has the boot and shoe manufacture for its staple, an industry shared to some extent by Wellingborough, Kettering, Daventry, and contiguous villages, giving employment to not less than 30,000 persons. Large orders are executed for the government and foreign export. The trade has here been localised for many centuries. When Cromwell's soldiers marched through the place nearly barefoot, the citizens were able to furnish them with fifteen hundred pairs of shoes. Further back, King John here bought his boots at a shilling a pair, and his slippers for sixpence. Fuller remarks, that 'the town of Northampton may be said to stand chiefly on other men's legs, where, if not the best, the most and cheapest boots and stockings are bought in England.' The stocking manufacture has ceased. Northampton contains an interesting example of the Norman style in St Peter's Church, and one of the round churches in St Sepulchre's, built by the Knights-Templars, with a few vestiges of the castle. There are large open grounds for recreation, and an extensive promenade between rows of lime-trees. The town was long the residence of Dr Doddridge, and for a brief period of Akenside and Colonel Gardiner. It is historically known as the scene of Thomas-à-Becket's final breach with the first Plantagenet, and has a spring called Becket's Well, from a tradition that he there knelt down to pray on escaping by night from the walls. A mile to the south, stands one of the beautiful crosses, the most perfect remaining, erected by Edward I. in honour of his queen Eleanor. In the meadows along the river, the Yorkists triumphed over the Lancastrians, in a battle fatal to numbers of the nobility. Peterborough, a small episcopal city, towards the north extremity of the county, possesses a noble object in its cathedral, charmingly secluded in a green close, with garden-flowers and shrubberies around it. The structure is remarkable for its massiveness, and has a west front unlike any other in the kingdom, and unequalled for simple grandeur and majestic beauty. It contains the tomb of Catherine of Aragon, and afforded a grave to Mary Queen of Scots prior to the removal of her remains to Westminster. The same sexton officiated at the funerals of these two queens, though half a century intervened between them. His portrait hangs near the western entrance of the cathedral, representing him with the emblems of his vocation-a bunch of keys, a spade, a pickaxe, and a skull. In the southern division of the county are two costly and difficult works, a cutting and a tunnel, on the line of the London and North-Western Railway. The Blisworth cutting passes through limestone nearly as hard

as flint, with soft strata above and below. Where the excavation is confined to the limestone, the rock forms complete natural walls on both sides; but where it descends to the underlying blue shale, a portion of this had to be scooped out and replaced with artificial walls, continuing the natural ones to the required depth. Upwards of 800 labourers, aided by horse and steam power, were employed upon this work; more than 1,000,000 cubic yards of material were removed; 3000 barrels of gunpowder were used in blasting; and about £250,000 expended. The Kilsby tunnel, upwards of a mile and a quarter long, passes through shale of the lower oolite. But in the process of excavation, an extensive quicksand was tapped, practically a subterranean lake, from which the water poured out in apparently exhaustless quantities. Thirteen steam-engines, 200 horses, 1250 men, were engaged in carrying it off, which required eight months to be effected, though the drainage was conducted night and day, at the rate of 1800 gallons per minute. Two years and a half were occupied in completing the tunnel, at the cost of about £300,000. Thirty-six millions of bricks were consumed in the lining, which would nearly make a footpath a yard wide from London to Aberdeen.

HUNTINGDONSHIRE, of very limited extent, wholly agricultural, belongs partly to the level of the fens, and was the scene of the last great work of drainage in that district in 1851, when the bed of Whittlesea-mere was laid dry. This was the largest English sheet of water apart from the lake district, two miles and a quarter long by one and a quarter broad, abounding with fish and aquatic fowl, much frequented by sporting-parties. It is now a succession of cornfields and pastures, intersected with hedges, and occupied with farm-buildings. Throughout the whole region of the Fens, both the flora and fauna have been largely affected by the removal of the surface-waters, and the reduction of spongy lands to firm ground. While reeds and sedge have given place to crops of corn, the wildfowl they sheltered have been compelled to seek fresh nestling-places and feeding haunts. Curious birds found in solitary swamps are no longer met with. The edible frog, rare in England, but once common in this district, locally known as the Cambridgeshire nightingale' and the 'Whaddon organ,' from its musical croak, has become scarce; and the beautiful swallow-tailed butterfly, delighting in marshes, is a somewhat rare object.

Huntingdon, on the Ouse, and the line of the Great Northern Railway, consists of a single principal street, and is distinguished as the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell. At St Ives, equally small, lower down on the same river, he was a resident farmer, and acquired the popular title of Lord of the Fens from some displays of public spirit relative to their improvement. St Neots, higher up the stream, has a considerable paper manufacture. The best, richest, and highest-priced cheese in the market, called Stilton, has the name from a village in this county. It was not originally made at the place, nor is it at present. But it acquired the name from travellers on the great north road becoming acquainted with its quality at the village inn, the landlord of which obtained it from a relative in North Leicestershire, the first and still the chief site of production.

BEDFORDSHIRE, but little more extensive, belongs mostly to the basin of the Ouse, which runs through it from west to east in a very tortuous manner, answering to the descriptive touches of Cowper, long a resident by its banks-'Ouse's silent tide,'

'Slow winding through a level plain

Of spacious meads with cattle sprinkled o'er,'

and fringed with flags and reeds. Chalk-hills vary the southern part of the county, and oolitic strata compose the surface in the northern. Between the two, there is a belt of iron-sand interposed, running from south-west to north-east, varying from one to five miles in breadth. This sandy tract is specially adapted for horticultural purposes, and on it, as well as the adjacent chalky soils, culinary vegetables are raised for the metropolitan and other markets.

Bedford occupies both banks of the Ouse, and attracts residents of moderate means for the educational term and permanently, owing to the advantages offered by excellent free-schools, with which other important benefactions are connected. The original endowment by Sir William Harpur, about three centuries ago, now yields a very large annual income, as it consists of land in the very heart of London. The schools, preparatory, commercial, and others, are included in a building in the Tudor style, and have exhibitions to the universities. The other charities comprise donations on going out to service, at the commencement and close of apprenticeship, with marriage-portions, almshouses, a hospital for poor children, and