an inland county of England, on the borders of South Wales. It is bounded on the N. by Shropshire, N.E. by Worcestershire, N.W. by Radnorshire, W. by Brecknockshire, S. by Monmouthshire, and S.E. by Gloucestershire. The county is circular in shape, indented in some places by spurs of the adjoining counties; and it had several detached parts, but each of these was incorporated by the Act 7th and 8th Will IV., with the county in which it was situated. The greatest length of the county is, from near Ludlow to near Monmouth, 40 miles; and the greatest breadth, from the foot of the Malvern Hills to Clifford, 35 miles. The area of the county, according to the census commission, is 534,823 statute acres. It is divided into 11 hundreds, and 221 parishes; and it is a bishop's see.

The soil of the county is generally a mixture of murl and clay, but contains calcareous earth in various proportions in different parts. Towards the western part, the soil is tenacious, and retentive of water; the eastern side is principally a stiff clay, in some places of a red colour. In the south, some of the soil is a light sandy loam. The subsoil is almost universally limestone; in some parts the old red sandstone, and a species of marble, beautifully variegated with red and white veins, and capable of receiving a high polish. When the soil does not rest on limestone, as near the city of Hereford, it is sometimes a siliceous gravel, and occasionally fuller's earth and yellow ochres are found. The surface is highly picturesque. It may be described as a rich plain, undulating in long ridges, as if it had been rippled by a subterranean convulsion. Coppices of ash and oak clothe the sides of the hills, and fringe their crests; and the low lands are wooded by pear and apple trees, grouped in orchards, and scattered over the fields. Whether in May, when the fruit trees are white with blossom, or in September, when they are laden with yellow fruit, the county deserves its title of "The Garden of England."

The county is purely agricultural, and at the commencement of the century stood second amongst the agricultural counties of England. It produces wheat and barley of fine quality; indeed "Leicester breed" and "Woolly ale," were famous as early as the days of Camden. Hops and cider are among the staple products of the county. The hop vines, unlike the method practised in Kent, are planted in rows, and the soil is ploughed. The orchards are planted in every kind of soil, and without regard to aspect; but it has been ascertained that a western aspect is the least favourable, as the westerly winds, sweeping over the Welsh mountains, bring cold, fog, and what is termed "blue mist." The crops of apples, generally large, is enormous every fourth year, and very often the branches of the trees would break down under the weight of produce, if they were not propped up. As much as twenty hogsheads of cider have been made from a single acre of orchard, but the average yield is twelve hogsheads an acre. Much fine timber is grown in the county, and many a spreading oak which has sheltered and adorned these inland fields, aids in forming the sides of the noble war ships which bear the British flag throughout the world. A large quantity of bark is stripped annually.

Herefordshire is famous for its breed of cattle. The breed is athletic in form, and of a bright-red colour, with white, or mottled faces, and remarkably silky hair. The Hereford cattle produce the finest beef; yet they feed more cheaply than the Devon or Durham cattle. The county was at one time famous for a small white-faced breed of sheep without horns, known as the Rylands sheep, from the district in which they were chiefly bred. The characteristic of the breed was the silky pile and delicate texture of the fleece; but in crossing the Rylands sheep with the Leicesters, to make them more robust, the fleece has been deteriorated. Indeed, the original Ryland breed is nearly extinct, at least in the pure form; it has been succeeded in the upper part of the county by Shropshire downs, and in the lower, by the Cotswolds, with their various crossings. The horses used in the county are generally of a good stamp, especially in the northern part, where they are reared for the saddle and coaching in other parts of the kingdom.

Herefordshire has made great progress in farming during the last twenty years. Turnip and green crop husbandry, with the consequent improved rotation of crops, is now the general practice. The average yield of wheat may be safely estimated at from 28 to 30 bushels an acre, whilst in an important district, of which Ross may be considered the centre, and where the old red sandstone formation predominates, a yield of 40 bushels is by no means extraordinary, and in some instances even 50 bushels have been obtained. The stiff tenacious clay in other parts of the county resists improvement, and has disappointed the hopes of many enterprising agriculturists; but, nevertheless, even in those parts, there is a very marked difference in the results of farming at the present time as compared with those of a quarter of a century ago. Generally speaking, the farming of the county will bear comparison, not indeed with every county, but with England and Scotland as a whole. Many of the breeders of cattle in this county are famous throughout the kingdom for the number, size, and excellence of the animals with which they regularly supply the metropolitan and other markets. Two agricultural exhibitions, and several fairs are held in the year at Hereford, and at each of them the quantity of fine cattle driven in for show and sale, fills every street of the city, and excites the admiration of judges from all parts of the kingdom.

There are no manufactures, properly speaking, within the county. The excellence of the wool has stimulated attempts to make woollen goods at Hereford, but they have failed. Some coarse woollens are made at Leominster and Kingston, but the quantity is very small.

The climate of the county is good, though variable. It is more rainy in this county than in the more eastern parts of England, and at times there are damp fogs, which moisten the earth, and may be one cause of its great verdure. We learn from the Registrar-General's report, that diseases of the respiratory organs are unknown in the county, and that it ranks high in point of longevity. Fuller says that in his time, "many aged folk, who in other counties are properties of the chimneys or confined to their beds, are here found active in the fields." An amusing instance of the salubrity of the climate, and the stamina of the people, was given by Sergeant Hoskins when King James I. visited the county; he assembled ten women of the united age of 1000 years, who danced the morrice dance for the entertainment of his Majesty.

The rivers of the county are the Ledden, the Lugg, the Arrow, the Frome, and the Wye. The Ledden rises at Hadlow and flows by Ledbury into the Severn near Gloucester. The Lugg rises in Radnorshire, enters the county on the N.W., and flows by Leominster and Hereford into the Wye near Mordiford. The Arrow also rises in Radnorshire and flows by Kingston and Monkland into the Lugg. The Frome rises in the N.E. of the county, and also flows into the Lugg at Mordiford. The far-famed Wye—"thou wanderer through the woods"—enters the county near Clifford Castle, the birth-place of Fair Rosamond, flows by Hereford and Ross, and traverses in many a bold and silvery curl the whole breadth of the county. Though all the other streams, except the Ledden, are tributaries of the Wye, it is for all practical purposes an considerable river. Its sinuosities have created sandbanks and rapids, and it is liable to sudden floods, owing to the large and mountainous surface which it drains. The Wye is navigated by barges within this county; these are towed by Herefordshire.

men whose efforts in the difficult parts of the stream are painfully laborious. Attempts have been made to substitute horses for men, but the latter have successfully resisted the innovation, content to labour as mere beasts of burden. The Wye is famous for its salmon; and in former times, the fish were so abundant that the apprentices of Hereford were protected by a special clause in their indentures, from being compelled to eat salmon more than twice a-week. The clause is quite unnecessary now, Wye salmon, owing to its scarcity, having become a delicacy even at the tables of the rich. The Wye, as we have already stated, is imperfectly navigable; but when moderately swollen by rain, heavily laden barges are tracked up, or shoot down with the current. The Lugg is also navigated by barges between Mordiford and Lugwardine-bridge, a short distance. The remaining means of inland navigation consist of a canal from Hereford to the Severn near Gloucester; and another canal from Leominster to the Severn at Stourport. Hereford is the terminus of three lines of railway, one connecting it with Shrewsbury, Gloucester, and Newport, on the Bristol Channel; and another line to Worcester is projected.

The earliest known inhabitants of Herefordshire were the Silures. Under Caratacus, the Silures resisted the Romans so obstinately, that the Emperor Claudius commanded that a war of extermination should be made against them. The Silures were the last people of Britain who submitted to the Saxons. The Danes sailed up the Wye in the year 912, and seized the Bishop of St David's, who then resided at Archdench; and King Edward paid £40 (a great sum in those days) for the bishop's ransom. The Normans conquered the county without much difficulty, and colonized it in order to repel the incursions of the Welsh. For many centuries Herefordshire was separated from Wales by a tract of land called the Marches, a kind of debatable ground, alternately possessed by the English and Welsh, but at length incorporated with the county in the reign of Henry VIII. In the wars of the Roses, Herefordshire took up arms for the House of York; and an army of 25,000 men, raised in the county, totally defeated the forces of Edward VI. at Mortimer's Cross, near Leominster. During the battle three suns appeared in the sky, a rare phenomenon in this country, though common in the Alps and other mountains; and, in consequence, Mortimer took a sun for his crest. In the Parliamentary struggle Hereford sided with the king, and was thrice besieged; twice it surrendered to the Parliamentarians, but it resisted the Scotch.

The antiquities of the county are numerous and highly interesting. A line of Roman and British entrenchments extends from the Malvern Hills to Conwall Knoll. A British earthwork of great strength is known as the Herefordshire beacon. Offa's Dyke, a great ditch 100 miles long, may still be traced in many parts of the county. It was cut by Offa the Saxon, to check the incursions of the Welsh, who had continually harassed the kingdom of Mercia, of which Herefordshire formed a part. The Roman road called Watling Street traverses the county from Leintwardine to Longtown, thence passing into Monmouthshire; a second Roman road enters the county from Gloucester at Ross; and a third enters the county from Worcester near Frome and terminates at Kenchester. Several of the baronial castles, with which the county was thickly studded in earlier times, still exist in a ruined state; chief amongst them are Bredwardine, Clifford, and Goodrich. There are also some remains of the stately ecclesiastical edifices which formerly adorned the county, but the work of destruction has been so thoroughly done, that their ruins exhibit few features of interest.

According to the religious census of 1851, there were in the county 426 places of worship, having in all 69,575 sittings. Of these places of worship, 243 were Church of England, 20 Independent, 16 Baptist, 120 Methodist, and 5 Roman Catholic. The educational census gives 489 public day-schools, with 41,295 scholars; and 794 private day-schools, with 14,923 scholars.

The population was, in 1821, 336,190; in 1831, 387,398; in 1841, 431,495; and in 1851, 458,805. This is a sparse population as compared with that of the adjoining counties. Herefordshire is represented in parliament by seven members—three returned by the county, two by the city of Hereford, and two by the borough of Leominster.

The towns of the county are Hereford, Leominster, Ledbury, Ross, Bromyard, and Woollo. The towns in Herefordshire are generally worse built than in any other English county, and more nearly approach to those of their adjoining Welsh neighbours. In the villages the buildings are still worse.