a county of England, so called from its northern situation in respect of Suffolk, is bounded on the east and north by the German ocean; on the south by Suffolk, from which it is parted by the rivers Waveney and the Lesser Ouse; and on the west it is separated from Cambridgeshire by the Greater Ouse, and from a small part of Lincolnshire by the Washes. According to Templeman, it extends in length 57 miles, in breadth 35, and 140 in circumference. It contains an area of 1426 square miles, one city, 32 market towns, 711 villages. In 1811 it contained 52,807 houses, and 291,999 inhabitants, of whom 100,410 were in towns, and 191,589 in the country. It is divided into 31 hundreds, 164 vicarages, and 660 parishes.

The air differs in different parts of the county according to the soil, which in some places is marshy, especially on the sea coast, and there the air is foggy and unwholesome; in others it is clayey and chalky, poor, lean, and sandy, and there the air is good. The county is almost all champaign, except in some places, where rise gentle hills. The marsh lands yield rich pasture for cattle; the clay grounds pease, rye, and barley; and the sandy heaths feed vast flocks of large sheep, of which some villages are said to keep 4000 or 5000. These heaths abound also in rabbits of a silver gray colour. Walsingham is noted for producing the best saffron. Great quantities of mackerel and herring are caught upon the coasts of this county, the former in the spring, and the latter in September; especially at Yarmouth, where they are cured in a particular manner, and to great perfection. Wood and honey are also very plentiful in this county; and on the coasts jet and ambergrise are sometimes found. The inhabitants are generally strong and active, sagacious and acute. That they are so robust, is the more to be wondered at, because the common people live much on puddings, Norfolk dumplings. They are for the most part in easy circumstances, and were formerly very quarrelsome and litigious. In consequence of this disposition, lawyers swarmed among them to such a degree, that a statute was made so early as the reign of Henry VI. to restrain their number. The manufactures of the county, which is exceedingly populous, are chiefly woollen and worsted stuffs and stockings, for which they are well supplied with wool from the vast flocks of sheep breed in it. It gives title of duke to the elder branch of the family of Howard, lies in the diocese of Norwich, and sends twelve members to parliament, viz. two knights for the shire, two citizens for Norwich, and two burgesses for each of the boroughs of Lynn Regis, Great Yarmouth, Thetford, and Castle-rising.

The county is well watered, and supplied with fish by the rivers Yare, Thurn, Waveney, the Greater and Lesser Ouse, and the Bure, besides rivulets. The Bure abounds in excellent perch, and the Yare has a fish peculiar to it called the ruff. The latter rises about the middle of the county; and after being joined by the Waveney and Bure, falls into the sea at Yarmouth. At the equinoxes, especially the autumnal, the Ouse is subject to great inundations, being forced back by the sea, that enters it with great fury. See Norfolk, Supplement.