SUFFOLK, an English maritime county, on the borders of the German Ocean. It is bounded on the east by the sea; on the south by Essex, from which it is divided by the river Stour; on the west by Cambridgeshire; and on the north by Norfolk. Its medium length from east to west is forty-seven miles, and its breadth from north to south twenty-seven. The square contents are 1512 miles, or 967,680 statute acres. It consists of two grand divisions, one called the Liberty of Bury, the other the Guildable Land, each of which furnishes a distinct grand jury at the assizes. The next division is into twenty-one hundreds, and these are subdivided into five hundred and twenty-three parishes. The entire country forms a part of the diocese of Norwich.
The population of this county at the four decennial periods of enumeration was found to amount in 1801 to 210,431, in 1811 to 234,211, in 1821 to 270,542, and in 1831 to 296,000.
At the last period the occupiers of land employing labourers were ..... 4,526
Occupiers not employing labourers..... 1,121
Labourers employed in agriculture..... 33,040
Labourers employed in manufactures..... 676
Labourers employed in retail trade or handicraft... 18,167
Capitalists, bankers, &c..... 2,228
Labourers not agricultural..... 5,336
Other labourers under twenty years of age..... 4,940
Males at and above twenty years..... 71,376
Male servants..... 2,032
Female servants..... 11,483
In the same year the number of families chiefly employed in agriculture was found to be 31,491; those chiefly employed in trade, manufactures, and handicraft, were 18,116; and those comprised in neither of the preceding classes were 11,926. The number of inhabited houses was 50,139, occupied by 61,533 families; the uninhabited houses were 1141, and those building 259.
The annual value of the real property of the county, as assessed for the purposes of the property-tax in the year 1813, was L. 1,127,404.
The towns of this county containing more than 2000 inhabitants, with their population in 1831, were the following:
Suffolk is generally a level tract of country, in which, as
there are few elevations, there are scarcely any extensive prospects. It is, however, tolerably well clothed with trees, but wants running water; most of the streams being very sluggish in their course, and by no means copious. The soil is as various as in other districts of the same extent. On the sea-coast it is in general sandy, but rendered productive by the application of shell-marl, which is found in abundance. In the middle of the county, from north to south, called usually High Suffolk, which is the larger part, the soil is a tenacious, loamy clay, affording good pasturage for cows, whose butter is chiefly used to supply the London markets.
The north-western division is a poor sandy soil, in many places covered with heath, and scarcely fit for any other purpose than that of feeding sheep or breeding rabbits, of which latter animals, it is said, the skins of more than 40,000 annually supply fur to the hatters. The corn furnished by the eastern division of the county, besides supplying its vicinity, is sent to London from the ports of Ipswich and Woodbridge. The cultivation is commonly conducted on the Norfolk system of turnips, barley, clover, and wheat; and the husbandry being well executed, the crops are generally very good. The beans are peculiarly productive. Turnips, and in some districts carrots, are extensively cultivated. Hemp is grown in the garden of almost every peasant, and spun into linen for their domestic uses. Some few hops are grown in the vicinity of Stowmarket.
They have an excellent breed of draught-horses, well known by the name of Suffolk punches. The cows have been long celebrated for the abundance of their milk, which, in proportion to their size and the quantity of food they consume, exceeds the produce of any other race in the kingdom. They are all without horns. The sheep, of which large flocks are kept, are mostly of the Norfolk breed; but of late years they have been changed for those of the South Downs.
There are few manufactures in this county, though it was the first in which the Flemings introduced the cloth-
ing trade. Before the extension of machinery in the northern counties, the females found constant winter employment in spinning worsted, but that has ceased. A small portion of the manufacture of mixed silk and worsted stuffs is retained, in which 269 males above twenty years of age are employed at Sudbury, forty-two are so employed at Glensford, and a few at Lavenham and at Hadleigh. At Brandon no less than sixty men are employed in making gun-flints. There is some coarse linen made from hemp at Haverhill, and a little bone-lace at Eye.
The branch of industry which, next to agriculture, gives employment to the greatest number of inhabitants, is the and con-
fishery. Many vessels are equipped at Lowestoffe and
Southwold to take herrings, which are cured in houses ap-
propriated for that purpose in these towns. The taking of
mackerel is beneficial before the season when the shoals of
herrings arrive on the coast. There is little other com-
merce in the county than that which arises from the trans-
mission of the agricultural products to the metropolis.
The navigable rivers are the Salk, which passes by Rivers and
Thetford, and runs to the Ouse; the Deben, of short canals,
course, which runs by Woodbridge to the sea; the Orwell,
a beautiful river, navigable to Ipswich; and the Blythe, na-
vigation to Framlingham. To these may be added the Wave-
nay, which forms the northern boundary of the county; and
the Stour, which is its southern. The only navigable
canal is one between Ipswich and Stowmarket; but the
river Yare having been rendered navigable to Norwich,
has a canal at its mouth at Lowestoffe in this county: the
admission is by gates, which exhibit one of the most com-
plete specimens of hydraulic architecture in the kingdom.
Suffragan The landed property of the county is much divided. There are scarcely any estates so large as to create a decided political preponderance, and there is a larger number of proprietors occupying their own lands, of a value of from £100 to £400 per annum, than in any other county. Except in the heavy clay districts, the farms are generally large; and the tenants being possessed of ample capitals, the agricultural business is admirably conducted. There are neither mines nor mineral springs in this county. In the summer season sea-bathing attracts a considerable portion of company to the shore at Lowestoffe, Southwold, and some other spots, where every accommodation for such parties is provided.
Antiquities. Among the antiquities stand first the remains of the ancient Roman castle at Burgh, on the banks of the Yare. It is said to have been the ancient Garianonum, erected by Publius Ostorius Scapula, in the reign of the emperor Claudius. The walls, which are still standing, enclose a space 642 feet in length and 320 in breadth; they are fourteen feet in height and nine in thickness. The whole ground plan, including the wall, is more than five acres, and is capable of containing a cohort and a half; having been built to keep in subjection the Sceni, a people inhabiting Suffolk, Norfolk, Huntingdonshire, and Cambridge-shire. The most remarkable of the Saxon antiquities are the monastery at Bury St Edmund's, that of Framlingham, and several ancient churches.
Titles and representation. The following peers derive their titles from places in this county: Marquis Cornwallis; Earls of Suffolk, Orford, Euston, and Stradbrooke; and Barons Rendlesham and Worlingham. The county has been formed into two divisions, the eastern and western, for the purpose of electing members to parliament, each division returning two. The elections for the eastern part are held at Ipswich; and the other polling places are Needham, Woodbridge, Framlingham, Saxmundham, Beccles, and Halesworth. The elections for the western part are held at Bury St Edmund's; and the other polling places are Wickham Brook, Lavenham, Stowmarket, Botesdale, Mildenhall, and Hadleigh. By the reform act the boroughs of Dunwich, Alborough, and Orford, which had each returned two members, have been disfranchised; and Eye, which likewise returned two, now returns only one. Ipswich, Bury St Edmund's, and Sudbury return two members as before.
The most remarkable seats among a very great number belonging to noblemen and gentlemen in this county are, Euston Hall, Duke of Grafton; Broom Hall, Sir E. Kerrison; Ickworth, Marquis of Bristol; Henham, Lord Stradbrooke; Worlingham Hall, Lord Gosford; Boston Hall, Sir H. E. Banbury; Rendlesham, Lord Rendlesham; Benacre, Sir Thomas Gooch; Haveningham Hall, Lord Huntingfield; Sotterly Park, Miles Barm, Esq.; Flinton Hall, Alexander Adair, Esq.; Redgrove Hall, Admiral Wilson; Woolverston Park, Charles Berners, Esq.; Long Melford, Sir Hyde Parker; Shrubland Park, Sir William Middleton; and Tendring Hall, Sir Joseph Rowley.1