COUNTORS, COUNTOURS, or COUNTERS, has been used for sergeants at law retained to defend a cause, or to speak for their client in any course of law.
It is of these Chaucer speaks:
A sheriff had he been, and a countour,
Was nowhere such a worthy vavasour.
They were anciently called serjeant countours.
COUNTRY, among geographers, is used indifferently to denote either a kingdom, province, or lesser district. But its most frequent use is in contradistinction to town.