one of the English boundaries counties on the western side of the kingdom. On and Extent. the north-east it is bounded by Warwickshire; on the north-west by Worcestershire; Oxfordshire and Berkshire bound it on the east; Wilts and Somerset on the south; and Hereford and Monmouth on the west. The greatest length is 70 miles, and the greatest breadth 35. Its area is 1718 square miles (including its rivers), or 1,099,520 acres.

By the census of 1801, the number of inhabitants appeared to be 250,809; and, in 1811, was found to be 285,514; of these 141,920 lived in the cities, or in those towns and large villages which contained upwards of 1000 souls. In this enumeration the city of Bristol is included; for, though it is a county Cities. of itself, and though a part of it stands within the county of Somerset, yet, in the two last Parliamentary surveys, it is considered a part of the county of Gloucester, within which division the greater portion of it is situated. The most considerable places, and their population, are the following:

Bristol, - 76,433 Minchin Hampton, 3,246 Gloucester, - 8,280 Painswick, - 3,201 Cheltenham, - 8,325 Horsey, - 2,925 Stroud, - 5,321 Dursley, - 2,580 Tewkesbury, - 4,820 Newent, - 2,538 Bisley, - 4,757 Tetbury, - 2,533 Cirencester, - 4,540

The other towns, viz. King's Stanley, Colford, Watton under Edge, Fairfield, Marshfield, Winchcomb, Chipping-Sodbury, Stow on the Wold, and Thornbury, contain each from 1000 to 2000 inhabitants.

The city of Bristol being accurately described in the Encyclopaedia, we refer to that article, and merely add, that, since the publication of that work, a vast improvement has been made on the port. The river Avon, which was formerly nearly dry at low water, has been converted into a floating dock; so that the sharper built ships, which could not approach to the city, can now lie at the wharfs afloat at all times. Several docks have been con-

* See Enumeration of the Inhabitants of Glasgow, with Statistical Tables, by James Cleland. Gloucester-structured, and a new canal formed, over which are handsome iron bridges. The enormous expence of these works was almost wholly defrayed by the citizens; and though the tolls produce but slight dividends on the capital, they have added to the facilities of the navigation, and have increased the beauty of the environs.

The foreign commerce of this county centres almost wholly in Bristol, as Gloucester, from the difficult navigation of the Severn, has but a small share of it. The principal trade is to the West India islands, where the rich capitalists of Bristol have either plantations of their own, or such mortgages on those of others, as secure to this port a large supply of all tropical productions. A considerable branch of commerce is the importation of Merino wool from Spain, which induces the clothiers of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire to depend on this market for the supply of their raw material.

With some parts of North America the direct intercourse is considerable; and the commerce with the Baltic, with the Elbe, and with Holland, as well as with the ports of Spain, Portugal, and Italy, though less than that of Liverpool, is next in order after that port. The slave trade was once carried on from hence to a considerable extent; but, to the honour of the Bristol merchants, it should be remembered, that they had relinquished all participation in it, long before that infamous traffic was abolished by the Legislature.

The internal trade of this county is, however, by far the most important. By the River Severn, which passes through it, it is enabled to maintain a regular intercourse with the potteries and glass manufactories of Worcestershire and Staffordshire; with the salt works of Droitwich; and with those parts of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Shropshire, which furnish the heavy iron goods that would not bear the expence of land-carriage. Though the Severn is only navigable for flat-bottomed vessels, and for those only at spring tides, yet the craft on that river is very considerable; and at Stourport there is a connection with all the numerous canals that traverse the centre of the kingdom. Besides the river Severn, the Wye is navigable for small craft to a considerable distance from its mouth, and facilitates the commercial intercourse with Monmouthshire and Herefordshire.

Several navigable canals have been constructed in this county with the view of promoting its internal communication. The most remarkable of these is the Thames and Severn canal, which communicates with the latter river through the Stroud canal, and with the former river at the town of Lechlade. It was begun in 1783, and finished in ten years. The summit level is 241 feet above the level of the Stroud canal, and 130 feet above the river Thames at the place of its junction. These rises of level are surmounted by locks, admirably contrived and executed; and in one place it passes under the park of Lord Bathurst, through Sapperton tunnel, and, after being buried for the distance of two miles and five furlongs, again emerges near Cirencester. The tunnel is lined with masonry, arched above, and at the bottom has an inverted arch, except in some very few places, where, passing through a solid rock, that expence has been spared. The breadth of the Gloucester canal is 42 feet at the top, and 30 feet at the bottom, and it is constructed for barges, adapted to the locks on the river Thames, as well as to those of the canal. The barges are 12 feet wide, from 70 to 80 feet long, when loaded, carry 70 tons, and draw about four feet of water. This work has, however, been more splendid than beneficial. The expence of its construction exceeded L. 250,000, and the tolls are scarcely more than sufficient to defray the expence of the necessary repairs. In fact, it connects two rivers, the navigation of both of which is bad; but especially that of the Thames, which, before it reaches Oxford, is subject to great expence in horses to draw the barges, which has many shallows where the vessels must be lightened to pass over them, and is liable to frequent impediments, sometimes from a scarcity of water, and sometimes from inundations. The trade which once passed through this canal has been diminished by the opening of the Kennet and Avon, which forms a better medium for the transit of goods from Bristol or Gloucester to London.

A canal, called the Berkley Canal, parallel to the River Severn, but which, by avoiding its sinuosities, shortens the navigation 20 miles, was begun in 1794. Though a valuable improvement, it languished many years, and is yet scarcely completed. The Hereford and Gloucester canal, designed to connect those two cities, passes near Boyce through a tunnel one mile and a quarter in length, between the Severn and Ledbury, to which place, a distance of 17 miles, the rise is 183 feet.

The mineral riches of this county are almost wholly confined to iron; for though veins of lead exist at Sodbury, Deynton, and other places, they are not sufficiently productive of ore to induce the working of them. Iron is abundant in many parts of the county; but the principal forges are on the western side of the Severn, near Lydney, in the forest of Dean; where both charcoal and coal are abundantly produced. On both sides of the Severn coal is worked to a considerable extent. The forest of Dean contains upwards of 120 coal pits, from whence the city of Gloucester and its vicinity is supplied with that necessary. At Kingswood, near Bristol, there are considerable veins, but being at a great depth, the proprietors can scarcely compete with the miners of Monmouthshire, though by many of the inhabitants of the city, the coals of Kingswood are preferred to those brought by water from Newport. The mineral springs in this county, at Clifton, at Cheltenham, at Stow on the Wold, and at Bourton on the Water, are well known, and the two former places, as well by their natural beauties as by their medicinal waters, attract considerable numbers of occasional visitors, who there find all those accommodations which the best watering-places can afford. No part of the kingdom produces better or more abundant stone than is raised from the quarries of Gloucestershire. Limestone of excellent quality extends from Cromhall south-east to Sodbury; and south-west to Aust-Cliff; and the rocks of Clifton yield an excellent stone, from which much lime is made, both for domestic consumption and for ex- portation to the West Indies. Freestone is found on the Cotswold Hills, and near Lidney some grit-stones are raised, which are adapted by the millwrights to their purposes.

Gloucestershire is one of the chief manufacturing counties, and though a greater progress has been made of late years in the northern ones of Lancaster and York, it is still very much distinguished in this particular. The woollen manufacture has been long established, in what are provincially called the Bottoms, a district in the valleys, between the range where the Cotswold Hills, with a less elevation, assume the name of the Stroud Hills. Between the ranges of these hills there are clear and rapid streams, which supply the mills in which the manufactures are carried on. The principal seats of the manufacturies are in the thickly peopled parishes of Bisley, Hampton, Stroud, Painswick, Woodchester, Horsley, Stonehouse, Stanley, Uley, Dursley, and Wotton-under-Edge. Almost the whole process is now performed by machinery except the weaving. The dyers in this district are celebrated for their scarlet, but more especially for their dark-blue colours, the excellence of which is attributed to some peculiar properties in the Stroud water. The greater part of the cloths of this county are dyed in the piece, not in the wool. Those of the superior quality, made from Merino wool, are destined either for the consumption of the kingdom, or for the supply of Russia; and some few are exported to America. The inferior kinds, made of the wool of the Cotswold, the Hereford, or the Southdown sheep, are mostly calculated for the markets of India and China. These are sent to London, white, and the agents of the East India Company select such as suit their demand, which are dyed to the requisite colours, and pressed and packed by their own different tradesmen in the vicinity of the metropolis. Cassimeres of the best quality are also made in this district to a very considerable extent.

In the city of Gloucester and its vicinity there are several considerable manufactories of pins, which, minute as is the article, furnish employment to upwards of 1500 persons. A bell foundry was established there in 1500, which has been continued to the present time, and is a kind of hereditary occupation in a family of the name of Rudhall, who have carried it on for the last hundred and fifty years, and during that period have cast several thousands of bells for different churches.

The vicinity of Bristol is crowded with manufactories of various kinds. The sugar refinery is very considerable, and produces some of the best kinds of white sugar. Glass of all kinds for windows and for domestic purposes, is made there. The copper and brass manufactures are large establishments. Hard white soap is an article of considerable importance; much is sent to London, and a large quantity exported to America and the West Indies. Hats, leather, saddlery, shoes, white-lead, gunpowder, earthenware, salt, snuff, and beer, are made in the city or neighbourhood of Bristol, and form the rudiments of its foreign trade, as well as administer to its domestic intercourse with the western counties, and with Wales.

The agriculture of Gloucestershire partakes of very different characters, according to the elevation of the land. On the eastern side of the county, a district of 200,000 acres, extending over the Cotswold Hills, is provincially distinguished by the name of stone brash land. This tract of country is very undulating, but none of the summits rise to a great height, so that the whole is cultivated. In the intervals between the ridges of hills, there are generally beautiful rivulets, by which the inhabitants are enabled so to irrigate their meadows, as to produce early grass for their young lambs. The hills, whatever be the surface, have uniformly a calcareous basis, which admirably adapts them for the growth of sainfoin. In no part of England is that valuable grass cultivated to so great an extent, or with such bountiful results. It has been an article of very ancient cultivation, and in this soil has the property of producing hay for twenty successive years. It requires, however, great care in the first laying down, and that all other grasses, as well as weeds, be eradicated; after which, as it draws its nourishment from a great depth, it has little or no tendency to exhaust the soil on the surface. In process of time it becomes choked by other grasses, when the land is again returned to the arable state. It is the practice of the best farmers to have one-seventh part of their land constantly bearing sainfoin. The remaining six portions of the farm are divided pretty nearly in equal proportions between turnips, barley, clover, or rye-grass, wheat, peas, and oats. The principal dependence for producing fertility is the large flocks of sheep which are bred here, and which are usually folded as a dressing for the turnips. It is a common practice to pare the soil, and burn it, that the weeds may be destroyed and the ashes furnish manure. The crops of barley are moderately good. Wheat is sown at very early periods, sometimes in August, but it seldom produces even a moderate crop if sowed later than September or early in October. The average produce of that grain does not exceed sixteen bushels to the acre, and it is not of the best quality. The soil is more congenial to the production of peas than to any other crop, and hence they form an important article of cultivation. The sheep of this district, for whose food, as the enumeration of the crops shows, the principal provision is made, are of a peculiar breed without horns, the wool rather long, and not of a very fine quality. They are said to be indigenous to these hills, but have been of late improved by crossing with other races. The Southdown sheep have recently been bred here, and are gradually acquiring a preference, as they do wherever they are introduced on soils of an inferior quality. Few parts of England have been more improved in cultivation within the last forty years than the Cotswold Hills. They have, however, in spite of this improvement, but a cold and barren appearance, owing to their being nearly destitute of trees, and to the want of verdant hedges; for the fences are almost uniformly stone walls, about four feet and a half in height. The farms are generally large, from 300 to 1200 acres, and the homesteads, as well as the cottages of the labourers, being usually situated in the valleys, and, therefore, not in sight at a distance, the face of the country has a poor and depopulated aspect. The depth of the soil is scarcely more than five inches: sometimes it is however very tenacious, but the experience of the natives has taught them, that even the most clayey soils do not require frequent ploughings. At each ploughing, considerable quantities of stone-rubble are brought to the surface.

To the westward of the Cotswold Hills, and inclining to the northwards, the rich vales of Evesham, Gloucester, and Berkley, are spread. The agricultural system which is practised, though it has some variations, is generally similar. The Vale of Evesham, a considerable part of which is in Worcestershire, is watered by the River Avon, and is highly productive in corn, pasture, and fruits. On the arable lands, the most general rotation is a clean fallow; then barley or oats; next beans or clover; and, lastly, wheat. The wheat is generally sown in November or December, the produce is commonly abundant, and the grain is of the best quality. The district is well wooded. The hedge rows are filled with elm, oak, ash, and maple trees, and the apple and pear trees are abundantly scattered in the fields, as well as in large orchards, near the villages. Cider and perry form very valuable portions of the produce of each farm. The proportion of arable land is small; the rich pastures feed numerous cows; and butter and cheese are the articles on which many farmers almost wholly depend.

The vale of Gloucester is in the form of an arch, of which the river Severn forms the chord. It is protected from the cold northerly and easterly winds by the Cotswold and Stroud hills, and hence is well adapted for the growth of fruit trees. Though there are now no vineyards, William of Malmesbury, in the twelfth century, said, "No county in England has more numerous or richer vineyards; or which yields grapes more abundantly or of better flavour, as the wine is but little inferior to that of France in sweetness." The apple and pear trees of the district yield, however, most profusely, liquors which, in the estimation of the inhabitants, are far preferable to any wine from foreign countries. The soil of this vale is generally of a rich sandy loam, on a very retentive and tenacious subsoil of clay. Fallowing is deemed indispensable on all the arable lands, which are thrown in very high ridges, about eight yards in breadth, with furrows between them, from twenty-four to thirty inches deep. Barley, oats, clover, beans, and wheat, yield most abundant crops, and of the best quality. The greater part of the land is, however, in permanent pasture, receiving no other manure than the feces of the cattle that are grazed on it; and, in some instances, the rich sediment deposited by occasional inundations. The meadows feed numberless cows, and the dairies, besides the cheese, whose name is derived from this county, furnish large quantities of butter, fatten many calves, and, with the whey and butter-milk, rear and fatten great numbers of swine. The swine are of a peculiarly large breed, and the market for them at Gloucester is by far the most considerable in the kingdom. The fattening of them does not, however, wholly depend on the dairy, but large quantities of oil-cake are applied to that purpose. The cheese denominated Gloucester has long enjoyed great celebrity both at home and abroad. It is usually made in the summer months, from May to October, inclusive. The number of cows belonging to individuals seldom exceed from thirty to forty. The uniformity of the quality is such, that the factors, who are the middle men, contract for the whole produce of the dairies without examining them, knowing the value of the cheese from the quality of the land on which the cows are pastured.

The vale of Berkley is separated from that of Gloucester by a natural intersection, and, like it, is bounded to the westward by the river Severn. Its surface is more irregular, but though the undulations are numerous, they are not excessive. The hills are hung with beech trees, and the face of the district is both rich and picturesque. The soil is uniformly fertile in a very extraordinary degree. Nearly the whole is rich pasture or orchard, and the arable land does not form one-seventh part of the valley. The soil is a rich fat loam, occasionally mixed with a prolific clay, and generally resting on a retentive subsoil. The dairy farms are of smaller extent than in the adjoining vale, but they far excel them in the proportionate quantity of the cheese they yield, and the quality is also much superior. The cheese, commonly denominated double Gloucester, is almost wholly made in the vale of Berkley, and in the neighbourhood is known by that name. It is usually made in the months of May, June, and July, in dairies, where, later in the summer, a thinner kind is manufactured. Its excellence depends on attention to its management, as well as on the quality of the land on which the cattle are fed. The quantity of cheese made in this vale is about 1200 tons annually, and each cow is estimated to yield 350 pounds.

The western side of the Severn is principally occupied by the forest of Dean. It abounds with excellent oak and beech trees, and produces abundance of cider, especially one kind called Stire-cider, which is highly valued. The forest formerly contained 43,000 acres, but has been diminished by several royal grants; it is, however, now a most important district on account of the large ship timber which it produces. It abounds with coal and with iron ore, and the miners are regulated by peculiar courts.

The most remarkable curiosities of this county are the Roman antiquities at Woodchester, which have been accurately described by that indefatigable antiquary Lysons; the Roman roads, which traverse it in various directions; the numerous antique coins which have been frequently found in the fields; the vestiges of ancient fortifications, and the ruins of monastic edifices.

This county has long conferred the title of Duke Chief Pa- on a member of the royal family. It gives the title miles and of Marquis of Camden to the family of Pratt, that Seats of Earl Berkeley to the family of Berkeley, and that of Baron Shireborne to the family of Dutton. The number of noblemen and gentlemen's seats in this county is very considerable. The most remarkable are Badminton, Duke of Beaufort; Barnsley Park, Mr Musgrave; Batsford Park, Lord Redesdale; Berkeley Castle, (late) Lord Berkeley; Blaze Castle, Mr Harford; Corse Court, Mr Dowdeswell; Dodington Park, Mr Codrington; Fairford, Mr Raymond Barker; Gatcombe Park, Mr David Ricardo; High Meadow House, Lord Gage; Highnam Court, Sir William Guise; King's Weston, Lord de Clifford; Lydney Park, Mr Bragge Bathurst; Misserden Park, Sir Edwin Sandys; Oakley Grove, Earl Bathurst; Randcomb Park, Bishop of Durham; Rodborough, Sir George Paul; Seizin Court, Sir Charles Cockerell; Sherborne, Lord Sherborne; Stowell Park, Mr Penrice; Toddington Hall, Mr Gloucester-shire Tracy; Totworth Court, Lord Ducie; Whitcombe Park, Sir William Hicks; Williamstrip Park, Mr Beech.

See Rudge's Gloucestershire.—Marshall's Rural Economy of Gloucestershire.—Rudden's History of Gloucestershire.—Bigland's Gloucestershire.—Fosbrook's Gloucestershire.—Lysons's Gloucestershire Antiquities.—Brayley and Britton's Beauties of England and Wales. (w.w.)