STAFFORDSHIRE, a county of England, bounded on the south by Worcestershire, by Cheshire and Derbyshire on the north, by Warwickshire and Derbyshire on the east, and Shropshire and Cheshire on the west. The length is reckoned at 40 miles, the breadth at 26, and the circumference at 141. It contains 5 hundreds, 150 parishes, 810,000 acres, 1 city, and 18 market-towns. The air, except in those parts that are called the Moorlands and Woodlands, and about the mines, is good, especially upon the hills, where it is accounted very fine: but the soil in the northern mountainous part is not so fertile. In the middle, where it is watered by the Trent, the third river in England, it is both fruitful and pleasant, being a mixture of arable and meadow grounds. In the south, it abounds not only with corn, but with mines of iron and pits of coal. The other rivers of this country, besides the Trent, which runs almost through the middle of it, and abounds with salmon, are the Dove and Tame, both which are well stored with fish. In this county are also a great many lakes, or meres and pools, as they are called; which, having streams either running into them or from them, cannot be supposed to be of any great prejudice to the air, and yield plenty of fish. In divers parts of the county are medicinal waters, impregnated with different sorts of minerals, and consequently of different qualities and virtues; as those at Hynts and Brefsford-house, which are mixed with bitumen; those at Ingeffre, Codsalwood, and Willough-bridge park, which are sulphureous. Of the saline kind are the Brine-pits at Chertley, Epsom, Penfret-close, of which very good salt is made. There is a well at Newcastle Under-Lyne that is said to cure the king's evil; another called Elder-well near Blemhill, said to be good for sore eyes; and a third called the Spa, near Wolverhampton.
Great flocks of sheep are bred in this county, especially in the moor-lands, or mountains of the northern part of it; but the wool is said to be somewhat coarser than that of many other counties. Of this wool, however, they make a variety of manufactures, particularly felts. In the low grounds along the rivers, are rich pastures for black cattle; and vast quantities of butter and cheese are made there. In the middle and southern parts not only grain of all kinds, but a great deal of hemp and flax, are raised. This county produces also lead, copper, iron; marble, alabaster, mill-stones, limestone; coal, salt, and marles of several sorts and colours; brick-earth, fullers-earth, and potters-clay, particularly a sort used in the glass-manufacture at Amble-
Ambicot, and sold at seven-pence a bushel; tobacco-pipe-clay; a sort of reddish earth called slip, used in painting divers vessels; red and yellow okers; fire-stones for hearths of iron furnaces, ovens, &c.; iron-stones of several sorts; blood-stones, or hæmatites, found in the brook Tent, which, when wet a little, will draw red lines like ruddle; quarry-stones, and grind-stones. For fuel the county is well supplied with turf, peat, and coal of several sorts, as cannel-coal, peacock-coal, and pit-coal. The peacock-coal is so called, because, when turned to the light, it displays all the colours of the peacock's tail; but it is fitter for the forge than the kitchen. Of the pit-coal there is an inexhaustible store: its burns into white ashes, and leaves no such cinder as that of the Newcastle coal. It is not used for malting till it is charred, and in that state it makes admirable winter-fuel for a chamber.
This county is in the diocese of Litchfield and Coventry, and the Oxford circuit. It sends eight members to parliament; namely, two for the county, two for the city of Litchfield, two for Stafford, and two for Newcastle-Under-Line.