a city of Staffordshire, in Eng- land, 117 miles from London. It stands low, about three miles from the Trent: and its ancient name is said to have been Licidfield, signifying, “a field of carcasses,” from a great number of Christians having, as it is pretended, suffered martyrdom here in the per- secution under Diocletian. In the Saxons time, it was a bishoprick for a short space; and is now, toge- ther with Coventry, a bishoprick. It is divided into two parts by a rivulet and a kind of shallow lake, over which are two causeways with sluices. It is a long straggling place; but has some very handsome houses, and well paved clean streets. That part on the south side of the rivulet is called the city, and the other the close. The city is much the largest, and contains seve- ral public structures. It was incorporated by Edw. VI. with the name of bailiffs and burgesses; and is both a town and county, governed by 2 bailiffs chosen yearly out of 24 burgesses, a recorder, a sheriff, a steward, and other officers. The city has power of life and death within their jurisdiction, a court of record, and a pie- powder court. Here is a goal both for debtors and felons, a free school, and a pretty large well endowed hospital, for a master and 12 brethren. The county of the city is 10 or 12 miles in compass, which the Litchfield sheriff rides yearly on the 8th of September, and then feasts the corporation and neighbouring gentry. The close is so called from its being enclosed with a wall and a deep dry ditch on all sides except towards the city, where it is defended by a great lake or marsh formed by its brook. The cathedral, which stands in the close, was originally built by Oswiu king of Nor- thumbeland about 300. It was rebuilt and enlarged by Offa king of Mercia in 766. In 1148 it was rebuilt, and greatly enlarged in 1296. In the civil wars its spire was destroyed, and it converted to a stable. In 1776 a beautiful painted window, by the benefaction of Dr Adenbrook, was set up at the western end of the cathedral. In the civil wars it was several times taken and retaken, and thereby suffered much; but was so repaired after the Restoration, at the expense of 20,000l. that it was one the fairest and noblest structures of the kind in England. It is walled in like a castle, and stands so high as to be seen 10 miles round. It is 450 feet long, of which the choir is 110, and the breadth in the broadest place 80. Its portico is hard- ly to be paralleled in England. There were, till lately, 26 statues of the prophets, apostles, kings of Judah, and some kings of this land, in a row above it, as big as the life; and on the top, at each corner of the por- tico, is a stately pipe, besides a fine high steeple on the middle of the church. The choir is paved in great part with alabaster and cannel coal, in imitation of black and white marble. In 1789 it underwent a general repair, when the massive groined arch betwixt the west end of the church and the transept, which had forced the side wall out of its perpendicular, was removed. The prebendaries stalls, which are thought to be the best in England, were most of them re-erect- ed at the charge of the country gentlemen, whose names and arms are painted at the top of the stalls. The north door is extremely rich in sculpture, but much injured by time. The body which is supported by pillars formed of numbers of slender columns, has lately had its decayed leaden roof replaced by a neat slated covering. The choir merits attention on ac- count of the elegant sculpture about the windows, and the embattled gallery that runs beneath them; to which the altarpiece of Grecian architecture but ill corresponds; behind which is Mary’s chapel, divided from it by a most elegant stone skreen of beautiful work- manship. Here stood St Chad’s shrine, which cost 2000l. The charter house is an octagon room. In the same close are the palaces of the bishop and dean, and the prebendaries houses in a court on the hill. Here are three other churches; one of which, St Mi- chael’s, has a churchyard of 6 or 7 acres. There was a castle here, long since destroyed: and ancient camps have been discovered in its environs. In the neigh- bourhood are frequent horse races. The markets here are on Tuesday and Friday, and six fairs in the year. By inland navigation, this place has communication with the rivers Mersey, Dee, Ribble, Ouse, Trent, Darwent, Severn, Humber, Thames, Avon, &c.; which navigation, including its windings, extends above 500 miles in the counties of Lincoln, Notting- ham, York, Lancaster, Westmoreland, Chester, War- wick, Leicester, Oxford, Worcester, &c. Litchfield Litchfield sends two members to parliament. The population in 1811 was 5,022.

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