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 62 miles, the breadth 33, and the circumference 180. It contains five hundreds, 150 parishes, 810,000 acres, 18 market-towns, and 4 K. inhabitants. 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. The soil in the northern mountainous parts is not fertile; but 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 principal rivers of this county, besides the Trent, which runs almost through the middle of it, and abounds with salmon, are the Dove and Tame, both of which are well stored with fish. In this county are also a great many lakes, and meres or 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; they 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 Hints and Bredfordhouse, which are mixed with bitumen; those at Ingleside, Codswalwood, and Willoughbridge park, which are sulphureous. Of the saline kind are the Brine-pits at Chertley, Epson, Pensnet-clofe, of which very good salt is made. There is a well at Newcastle-under-Lyme that is said to cure the king's evil; another called Elderswell 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 moorlands, 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; vast quantities of butter and cheese are made. In the middle and southern parts not only grain of all kinds, but a great deal of hemp and flax are raised. This country produces also lead, copper, iron; marble, alabaster, millstones, limestone; coal, salt, and marbles of several sorts and colours; brick-earth, fullers earth, and potters clay, particularly a sort used in the glass manufacture at Amblecot, and sold at seven-pence a bushel; tobacco-pipe clay; a sort of red-clay earth called slip, used in painting divers vessels; red and yellow ochres; fire-stones for hearths of iron furnaces, ovens, &c.; iron-stones of several sorts; bloodstones, or haematites, found in the brook Tent, which, when wet a little, will draw red lines like ruddle; quarry-stones, and grind-stones. For fuel the country 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: it 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 Lichfield and Coventry, and the Oxford circuit. It sends ten members to parliament; namely, two for the county, two for the city of Lichfield, two for Stafford, two for Newcastle-under-Lyme, and two for Tamworth.