a county of England, bounded on the south by Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and Radnorshire; on the north, by Cheshire; on the east, by Staffordshire; on the west, by Montgomeryshire and Denbighshire, in Wales. Its length is between 49 and 50 miles, its breadth about 38, and its circumference about 210. It is an inland county, containing 890,000 acres, 113,680 inhabitants, and 15 hundreds, in which are 170 parishes, and 15 market towns. It makes a part of three bishoprics, viz. Hereford, Coventry and Litchfield, and St Asaph. Some part of it lies on the north, and some on the south side of the Severn. Besides the Severn, it is also watered by the Teme or Tegidion, as it is called in Welsh, which flows from the mountains of Radnorshire; and by the Tern, which has its rise and name from one of those pools called Learne, in Staffordshire. All these abound with fish, especially trouts, pikes, lampreys, graylings, carp, and eels. The air, especially upon the hills, with which the county abounds, is very wholesome. There is as great a diversity of soil as in most other counties. On the hills, where it is poor, is very good pasture for sheep; and in the low grounds, where it is very rich, along the Severn in particular, there is plenty of grass for hay and black cattle, with all sorts of corn. No county is better provided with fuel than this, having in it many inexhaustible pits of coal, and also mines of lead and iron. Over most of the coal-pits in this county lies a stratum or layer of blackish porous rock, of which, by grinding and boiling, they make pitch and tar, which are rather better than the common sort for caulking ships, as they do not crack, but always continue close and smooth. Quarries of limestone and ironstone are common enough in the county, and the soil in many places is a reddish clay. As it lies upon the borders of Wales, it was anciently full of cattle and walled towns. On the side next that country there was an almost continued line of castles, to guard the county against the inroads and depredations of the Welch. The borders here, as those between England and Scotland, were called marches, and there were certain noblemen intitled barones marchiae, marchiones de marcia Walliae, "lords of the marches, or marquises of the marches of Wales," who were vested with a sort of palatine jurisdiction, held courts of justice to determine controversies, and enjoyed many privileges and immunities, the better to enable and encourage them to protect the county against the incursions of the Welch, and to maintain order amongst the borderers; but they often abused their power, and were the greatest of tyrants.

As to the ecclesiastical government of the county, the far greater part, namely, all that belongs to the bishoprics of Hereford, and of Litchfield and Coventry, is under the jurisdiction and visitation of the archdeacon of Shrewsbury or Salop, and is divided into several deaneries.

The Oxford circuit includes in it this county, which sends 12 members to parliament, viz. two for the shire, and two for each of the following towns, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Wenlock, and Bishop's Castle.