a county of England, is bounded on the west by Monmouthshire and Herefordshire, on the north by Worcestershire, on the east by Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, and on the south by Wiltsire, and part of Somersetshire. It is sixty miles in length, twenty-five in breadth, and one hundred and sixty in circumference; containing 1,100,000 acres, 26,760 houses, 162,560 inhabitants, 290 parishes, 140 are impropriations, 1,220 villages, 2 cities, and 28 market towns. It sends only 8 members to parliament, 6 for three towns, viz. Glocester, Tewkesbury, and Cirencester; and two for the county. Its manufactures are woollen cloths of various kinds, men's hats, leather, pens, paper, bar iron, edge tools, nails, wire, tinned plates, bras, &c.; and of the principal articles of commerce of the county, it exports cheese 8,000 tons; bacon, grain, cider, 5,000l. worth; perry, 5th, 4,000l. worth, &c. It lies in the diocese that takes its name from the capital, and in the Oxford circuit. The air of the county is very wholesome, but the face of it is very different in different parts: for the eastern part is hilly, and is called Cotswold; the western woody, and called the Forest of Dean; and the rest is a fruitful valley, through which runs the river Severn. This river is in some places between two and three miles broad; and its course through the country, including its windings, is not less than seventy miles. The tide of flood, called the Boar, rises very high, and is very impetuous. It is remarkable, that the greatest tides are one year at the full moon, and the other at the new; one year the night tides, and the next the day. This river affords a noble conveyance for goods and merchandise of all sorts to and from the county; but it is watered by several others, as the Wye, the Avon, the Ivis, the Leyden, the Frome, the Stroud, and Windrush, besides lesser streams, all abounding with fish, the Severn in particular with salmon, conger eels, and lampreys. The soil is in general very fertile, though pretty much diversified, yielding plenty of corn, pasture, fruit, and wood. In the hilly part of the county, or Cotswold, the air is sharper than in the lowlands; and the soil, though not so fit for grain, produces excellent pasture for sheep; so that of the four hundred thousand that are computed to be kept in the county, the greater part are fed here. Of these sheep the wool is exceeding fine; and hence it is that this shire is so eminent for its manufacture of cloth, of which fifty thousand pieces are said to have been made yearly, before the practice of clandestinely exporting English wool became so common. In the vale, or lower part of the county, through which the Severn passes, the air and soil are very different from those of the Cotswold: for the former is much warmer, and the latter richer, yielding the most luxuriant pastures; in consequence of which, numerous herds of black cattle are kept, and great quantities of that excellent cheese, for which it is so much celebrated, made in it. The remaining part of the county, called the Glochidion Forest of Dean, was formerly almost entirely overrun with wood, and extended 20 miles in length, and 10 in breadth. It was then a nest of robbers, especially towards the Severn; but now it contains many towns and villages, consisting chiefly of miners, employed in the coal pits, or in digging for or forging iron ore, with both which the forest abounds. These miners have their particular laws, customs, courts, and judges; and the king, as in all royal forests, has a swain-mote for the preservation of the vert and venison. This forest was anciently, and is still noted for its oaks, which thrive here surprisingly; but as there is a prodigious consumption of wood in the forges, it is continually dwindling away. A navigable canal is made from Stroud to Framilode, forming a junction between the Severn and Thames. Its chalybeate springs are, St Anthony's well, in Abbenhall parish; at Barrow and Maredon, in Bodington parish; at Ash-church, near Tewkesbury; at Dumbleton, near Winchcomb; at Eafington, near Durley; and at Cheltenham. Its ancient fortifications, attributed to the Romans, Saxons, or Danes, are Abston and Wick, and at Downton, Dixton, Addlethorpe, Knole, Over Upton, Hanham, Bodington, and Bourton on the Water.