maritime and agricultural county, in the eastern district of England, is bounded on the N. by Norfolk, W. by Cambridgeshire, S. by Essex, and E. by the German Ocean. Its length in a direct line from east to west is 56 miles; its breadth from north to south 32. It has nearly 50 miles of sea-coast on the eastern side. The area is 1481 square miles. It contains 947,681 statute acres, and 499 parishes. It is in the seas of Norwich and Ely, and in the Norfolk circuit.

Suffolk presents a gently undulating and diversified surface, but there is not an eminence worthy of particular mention in the county, and, excepting the Fens in the Mildenhall district, is not low. The woods are of small extent, and are not generally of luxuriant quality. The streams are numerous, though by no means large. The principal rivers are the Orwell, Gipping, Deben, Yare, Alde, Blyth, and Lark. There are also the Waveney, Little Ouse, and Stour; but these are border rivers, the two former separating the county from Norfolk, and the latter dividing it from Essex. There are a great number of fine springs and rivulets intersecting almost every part of the county. The turnpike roads in every part of the county are excellent, and so are most of the cross-roads.

The Eastern Counties, the Eastern Union, and the East Suffolk Railways, run the entire length of the county. In the summer season sea-bathing attracts a considerable number of visitors to the shore at Lowestoft, Southwold, Aldeburgh, and Felixstowe, where every accommodation for such visitors is provided. The soil is so exceedingly variable, that it is difficult to define the localities of each. The heavy land district constitutes what is known as central Suffolk. The eastern Sands, extending from the mouth of the Deben to Yarmouth, is very light, and much of the district, from Beyton to Mildenhall, and from Newmarket to Brandon, consists of a blowing sand on a light chalky clay. The Fen district occupies the extreme north-west corner of the county, and is of very small extent. The quantity of pasture-land is much reduced. Formerly Suffolk sent large quantities of butter to the London market, now both butter and cheese are imported to supply the demand and consumption in the county itself. The rotation and manner of cultivation in the heavy land district is—first year, fallow, tares, beet, or turnips; second year, barley; third year, half clover, half peas, or beans alternately; fourth year, wheat. There is much variation in the course of cropping among the small farmers, but on the best cultivated farms this may be taken as the general course. On the light land a different course of management is adopted, but it is generally farmed on the four-course system. Thorough draining is much practised in the county. Beet-root has in some measure superseded the growth of carrots. Sainfoin and trefoil are cultivated in the sand district between Thetford and Newmarket. Flax has attracted much attention, but has made but little progress. Lucerne is grown on a small scale, and chicory has also been introduced. A few hops are cultivated, but only in two or three places in the county.

Suffolk takes a high rank as an agricultural county, but of late years a much smaller proportion of its population than formerly has been dependent upon agriculture for their subsistence. At the census in 1851, the returns relating to occupations refer to individuals, whilst those for 1811, 1821, and 1831 refer to families. It is not easy, therefore, to exhibit the proportion which the agricultural, commercial, and miscellaneous bore to each other at each of the decennial periods; but a gradual increase in the number of persons employed in trades, manufactures, and handicraft, has been going on in this county during the last quarter of a century. In 1851 the returns relating to those employed in agriculture and connected with land were—land proprietors, 428; farmers, 5637; farm bailiffs, 581; farm-servants (indoor), 645; agricultural labourers (outdoor), 42,783.

The draught-horses peculiar to the county are known by the name of Suffolk ponies. They are excellent workers, are in great demand, and sell at high prices. Suffolk cows are generally considered to fill the pail better than any other kind. On the light soils extensive breeding flocks of sheep are kept, generally Down ewes, a little cross with the Norfolk to increase their size. There are but few Leicester flocks, and fewer still of pure Norfolk.

The net rental of landed property in Suffolk is estimated at £912,062. The property is much divided, and there are no estates so large as to create a decided political preponderance; and it is said that there is in Suffolk a larger number of proprietors occupying their own lands than in any other county. On the heavy lands, farms seldom exceed 300 acres in extent, and are generally much smaller. On the light lands they vary from 300 to 1500. There are but few large farms, though there are many large farmers, men holding several farms, but more than half the farms in Suffolk range between 50 and 300 acres.

The following peers derive their titles from places in this county:—Earls of Suffolk, Orford, Easton, and Stradbroke; Viscount Brome, and Barons Rendlesham and Worsingham. The Dukes of Norfolk, Grafton, and Hamilton and Brandon; the Marquises of Hertford and Bristol; Lords Thurloe, Calthorpe, Huntingfield, and Henniker, also have seats in the county.

There are but few manufactures in the county; for although the cloth trade, introduced by the Flemings, at one time flourished, and nearly every labourer's wife was engaged at her spinning-wheel, the occupation has now entirely died out. Agricultural implements are perhaps more extensively manufactured in this than in any other county in England. Stays are made on a large scale at Ipswich. Silk winding and straw-plaiting give employment to large numbers at Sudbury, Lavenham and Hadleigh. A few are employed in the manufacture of lace, and a smaller number in the preparation of flax. Along the coast there is a great number of fishermen, and at Lowestoft many vessels are equipped. The herring fishery is an important one to that district. The fish are dried in houses erected on purpose in the town. At an earlier period of the year the same persons are engaged in the mackerel fishing, and the fish are transmitted by rail to the London market.

The population of this county at the six decennial periods of enumeration was found to amount in 1801 to 214,404; in 1811 to 233,965; in 1821 to 271,541; in 1831 to 296,317; in 1841 to 315,073; and in 1851 to 337,215. At the census in 1851 the males numbered 166,308, and the females, 170,907.

The number of inhabited houses in 1851 was 69,282; the uninhabited were 3107; and those building, 449. The annual value of the real property of the county, as assessed for the purposes of the property-tax in the year 1813, was £1,127,404; in 1851, it was £1,834,252. The annual value of real property rated to the poor was, in 1850, £1,366,648.

The towns of this county containing more than 2000 inhabitants, with their population in 1851, were the following:—Ipswich, 32,914; Bury St Edmunds, 13,900; Lowestoft, 6781; Sudbury, 6043; Woodbridge, 5161; Beccles, On looking at returns as to the social condition of the people in Suffolk, some curious facts present themselves for notice. Only 40 per cent. of the population are attendant upon the services of the Church of England; but 86 per cent. of the marriages in the county are celebrated according to the rites of the Establishment. The births are 1 in 32 of the population, and 8 per cent. of the births are classed as illegitimate. The deaths are 1 in 51 of the population, the proportion in all England being 1 in 46, and in Norfolk 1 in 48. The criminal returns exhibit a great increase of crime during the century. In 1801 the criminals were 51 in each 100,000 of the population, and in 1821 they were 93, in 1841, 157; and in 1851 the proportion was 168. The population increased 56 per cent.; crime more than 300 per cent. in the half-century. Pauperism is the plague spot of the county. In 1851, of every 10,000 persons 153 were paupers; whilst in Great Britain only 65 in every 10,000 were so classed. One out of every 12 persons in this county is a pauper, and the average cost of relief during the five years ending 1852 was £142,688 per annum. The educational returns of this agricultural district are almost as discouraging. In 1851 there were 143 parishes, nearly one-third of the entire number of parishes in the county, in which, if there was a school, it was only a dame's school; 90 of these were entirely without a school. In the hundreds of Hoxne and Resbridge only 8 per cent. of the males attended school; and in a large number of the schools throughout the county the average time of a child's attendance is less than 2 years. Out of 1219 indoor paupers in Suffolk 10 only could read and write well; nearly 80 per cent. of the felons are without education, and 46 per cent. of the men and 52 per cent. of the women who are married are unable to sign their names to the marriage registers. In 1851 there were 20 literary and mechanics' institutes, having 2689 males and 119 females as members. The libraries contained 33,296 volumes. The attendance upon religious worship at the same period was found to range from 58 per cent. in the Hundred of Resbridge to 27 per cent. in the Hundred of Mutford. There were 895 places of worship, with 239,403 sittings.

Amongst the antiquities of the county, the foremost place must be given to the Roman castle at Burgh, the walls of which are still standing. There are several churches in Suffolk, portions of which lay claim to Saxon antiquity, as the Tower of Flixton, near Bungay. Norman architecture is of very frequent occurrence in the churches of the county. Several of these also display magnificent wooden roofs which exhibit a combination of boldness, picturesque effect, and geometrical skill. Of ancient monastic buildings, in which Suffolk was once so prolific, the remains are but few. The gateways of Bury Abbey attest the grandeur of this wealthy establishment, and at Butley, Sibton, Herringfleet, Bungay, and Leiston are more or less picturesque remains of former monastic splendour. Of castellated architecture, Orford, with its polygonal keep 90 feet in height; Framlingham, a mere shell of a proud fortress; Bungay Castle, with its massive ruins, as well as those of Wingfield and Mettingham, recall the stern magnificence of feudal times. Suffolk is especially rich in examples of domestic architecture. Helmingham, Hengrave, Melford, Kentwell, Parham, Flixton, Wenham, and Roos Halls are fine monuments of the taste, splendour, and hospitality of our wealthy ancestors.

The civil government of the county is peculiar. There are four sessional divisions in the county, named after their respective chief towns, Beccles, Woodbridge, Ipswich, and Bury. Each of these divisions has from time out of mind been considered a county by itself: Beccles has its own sessions, levies its own rate, repairs its own bridges, and pays the whole of its own charges; and Bury, Ipswich, and Woodbridge divisions do the same. Three boroughs, Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich, and Sudbury, have separate commissions of the peace and courts of quarter sessions. There are county gaols at Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, a county-house of correction at Beccles, and borough prisons at Ipswich and Sudbury. The county is divided into twenty-one hundreds, besides the liberty of the borough of Ipswich, and is also sub-divided into the Geldable portion and the liberties of St Etheldred, St Edmund, and Duke of Norfolk. The liberty of St Edmund formerly returned a grand jury at the assizes distinct from that returned for the rest of the county; that privilege was abolished in 1837, and the assizes have since that period been held in the spring at Bury St Edmunds, and in the summer at Ipswich.

Suffolk returned sixteen members to Parliament prior to the passing of the Reform Bill, but Aldborough and Dunwich were disfranchised by that Act, and Eye reduced to one member. Sudbury has since been deprived of its privilege, on the ground of corruption. The county is divided, for electoral purposes, into two divisions, the eastern and the western. Each division returns two members. The polling places for the eastern division of the county are—Ipswich, Needham, Woodbridge, Framlingham, Saxmundham, Halesworth, Beccles, and Lowestoft. For the western division the places for polling are—Bury St Edmunds, Lavenham, Stowmarket, Wickham Brookes, Mildenhall, and Hadleigh. Two members are also returned for each of the boroughs of Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds.