a county occupying almost the very heart of England, and the centre and highest point of the great district of midland table-land. It is bounded on the extreme N. by Derbyshire; N. and N.W. by Staffordshire; W. by Worcestershire; S.W. by Gloucester-

shire; S. and S.E. by Oxfordshire; E. by Northamptonshire; and N.E. and N. by Leicestershire. The county measures 58 miles in greatest length, and 32 miles in greatest breadth, and has an area of 881 square miles, or 563,946 acres. The population in 1851 was 475,013—namely, males, 232,411; females, 242,602; and the number of inhabited houses was 96,731, uninhabited 4596, and building 972; total, 112,299; giving a density of 539 persons and 110 houses to a square mile, 1·2 person to an acre, and 4·9 persons to a house. In 1801 the population was only 206,798; in 1811, 228,906; in 1821, 274,482; in 1831, 326,645; in 1841, 401,703. Between 1801 and 1851, therefore, the increase of the population has been at the enormous rate of 130 per cent. This was mainly owing to the rapid development of the manufacturing towns of Birmingham and Coventry, and the creation of the fashionable watering-place of Leamington, which in 1801 was a mere village, but in 1851 was a thriving town of upwards of 15,000 inhabitants. In 1851 the births in Warwickshire were 19,610 (of which 1112, or about 1 in 174 were illegitimate); and the deaths, 13,025, giving an excess of births over deaths of 6585. The average death rate for the ten years, 1841-50, was 23 in the thousand. The marriages in 1858 were 4463, of which 3892 were celebrated according to the rites of the Church of England.

The county, which originally formed part of the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, was in 1836 transferred to the see of Worcester, in which it is now comprised. There are about 260 benefices in the county. In 1851, there were in the county 593 places of worship, affording 208,713 sittings. Of these 278, affording 123,624 sittings, belonged to the Church of England; Roman Catholics, 26 places, 6577 sittings; Independents, 64 places, 21,938 sittings; Baptists, 50 places, 15,830 sittings; various branches of Wesleyan Methodists, 133 places, 25,213 sittings; Society of Friends, 7 places, 1564 sittings; Unitarians, 10 places, 4504 sittings; Presbyterians, 1 place; Mormons, 5; Irvingites, 3; Jews, 1; and miscellaneous sects, 12.

The Education Returns showed a total of 1101 day schools, with 51,161 scholars; 27,385 males and 23,776 females. Of these schools 337 were public (with 34,295 scholars) and 764 private (with 16,868 scholars). 210 of the public day schools were supported by religious bodies, and of these 162 belonged to the Church of England. There were 19 collegiate and grammar schools, and 73 other endowed schools. Of the former class the principal schools are those at Rugby, King Edward the Sixth's School, Birmingham, and the grammar school, Coventry. The Sunday schools in 1851 numbered 418, with 49,411 scholars, 24,867 males and 24,544 females), and 5113 unpaid and 332 paid teachers. 224 of these schools, with 24,571 scholars, belonged to the Church of England; and next stood the Wesleyans, with 76 schools and 8021 scholars. The 12 literary institutions in existence in 1851 have received several additions to their number, and the Free Libraries Act has within the present year been put into operation in Birmingham, a rate of nearly L400 annually being levied on the town for the establishment and maintenance of libraries and museums.

The "Judicial Statistics" issued annually from the Home Office, show that the police force of Warwickshire amounts to 595 men, maintained at a total cost of L39,435. These amounts include Birmingham, which has a force of 366 men, costing L24,892. The number of crimes ascertained by the police to have been committed in 1859 was 2658, and the number of persons apprehended for these offences was 896. The number of thieves and other persons known to be living by dishonest means is 7800,—males, 5200; females, 2600. Warwickshire is included in the Midland Circuit, the assizes being held at Warwick, the county town, near which has been lately erected a large jail, on the

Warwickshire separate system, in lieu of the former prisons at Coventry and Warwick, which were conducted on the principle of association. Birmingham has a borough jail of its own. There are three reformatory institutions in the county—one capable of receiving 100 boys, at Saltley, near Birmingham; one for boys at Weston, near Leamington; and one for girls near Coventry. The reformatory at Stretton-upon-Dunsmore—the parent of all institutions of its class—has been abandoned. Warwickshire forms a county court division of itself, but is included in the Birmingham and Nottingham district of the court of bankruptcy. For political and petty-sessions purposes, the county is divided into north and south; the former (north) including the Hundreds of Henningford: divisions—Atherstone, Coleshill or Birmingham, Solihull, and Tamworth (part of which town is in Warwickshire, though it is usually reckoned with Staffordshire); Knightlow Hundred: divisions—Kirby and Rugby. The latter (south) comprises Barlichway Hundred: divisions—Alcester, Henley-in-Arden, Smitherfield, and Stratford-upon-Avon; Kington or Kineton Hundred: divisions—Brailles, Burton Dassett, and Warwick; Knightlow Hundred: divisions—Kenilworth and Southam. These divisions are again subdivided into petty-sessions districts, in which justice is administered by 147 acting magistrates. The county returns ten members to parliament—two each for the northern and southern divisions, and two each for Birmingham, Coventry, and Warwick.

The industry of Warwickshire is partly agricultural and partly manufacturing,—the latter predominating in the northern, and the former in the southern division. Besides the vast and varied works in metal and hardware carried on at Birmingham (described under the head of that town), there are extensive ribbon factories at Coventry, which is also one of the chief seats of the watch trade, although both in this manufacture and in that of ribbons the city has recently considerably declined; and in the hope of restoring its ancient prosperity, efforts are being made to introduce the trade of cotton-weaving, to which the habits of the artisans are well adapted. At Warwick and Atherstone there are important manufactories of hats. The ribbon trade is carried on extensively at Chilvers Coton, Foleshill, Bulkington, and Nuneaton; and in the neighbourhood of the last named place and of Bedworth there are important collieries. Comb-making is practised to a considerable extent at Kenilworth, and that town is likewise famous for its extensive tannery establishments. The manufacture of hardware and agricultural tools is also carried on at Sutton Coldfield. At Studley and Alcester there are manufactories of needles and fish-hooks.

The rivers of Warwickshire, though numerous, are unimportant, and, with the exception of a portion of the Avon, are not navigable. The principal streams are the Avon, which rises at Naseby in Northamptonshire, and flows thence for nearly 60 miles through Warwickshire, sweeping westward by Brownsover, Rugby, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, and thence by Stoneleigh, Warwick, Barford, Charlecote, and Stratford to Harvington. There are also the Sowe, the Itchen, the Leam, the Tame, the Stour, the Arrow, the Swift, the Blythe, the Bourne, and the Anker. But although poor in navigable rivers, Warwickshire is admirably supplied in regard to railways and canals; and to the abundance of these means of communication much of its prosperity is attributable. The Warwick and Birmingham Canal commences at Birmingham, and is continued past Solihull and Knowle to Warwick, where it joins the Warwick and Napton Canal, and terminates in the Oxford Canal at Napton. The Birmingham Canal opens up a water communication with the north of England; the Birmingham and Worcester connects the former with the Severn, and during its course forms a junction with the Dudley Canal, which opens up the south Staffordshire district. The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal connects the Warwickshire and West Warwickshire districts with the Avon at Stratford. There are also the Fazeley, the Coventry, the Ashby-de-la-Zouch, the Oxford, and the Grand Junction Canals, which either commence in this county, or run through it during some portions of their course. The county is likewise traversed by a gigantic network of railways, all having their centre at Birmingham, or branching from trunk lines which have their termini in that town. The Oxford and Birmingham (Great Western) passes Solihull, Knowle, Warwick, Leamington, and thence turns southward, leaving the county close to Banbury. It has branches to Rugby, and from Hatton to Stratford-upon-Avon. The London and North Western line runs from Birmingham across the county to Coventry and Rugby, with connecting lines to Kenilworth, Warwick, Nuneaton, Stamford, and Leicester, and by the Trent Valley Railway from Rugby to Stafford. The Midland line joins the London and North Western line at Hampton, and by another branch connects itself with the Derby line near Coleshill, and thus forms a junction with the Trent Valley at Tamworth. The western side of the county is supplied by the Birmingham and Gloucester line; the north-west by the South Staffordshire and the Stour Valley; and the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton (which throws out a branch to Stratford), runs alongs the south-west. A railway is also in progress from Birmingham to Sutton Coldfield. Coach roads to all parts of the kingdom intersect the county at various points; but they are now very little used excepting as means of local communication.

The natural features of Warwickshire are remarkable rather for quiet beauty than for picturesque character or rugged grandeur. There are few elevations worthy of being called hills, yet the entire surface is gently undulated; and though there are scarcely any woods remaining, almost every district is so well timbered, chiefly with oaks and elms, that the county presents the appearance of being richly wooded. There still exist at Lord Aylesford's seat at Packington the remains of the famous forest of Arden, which even yet contains numerous oaks, for size and beauty unsurpassed in the kingdom. Coal, iron, limestone, and freestone are amongst the minerals of the county, and the coalitie formation occasionally yields some rare fossils. In the new red sandstone at Coton End, near Warwick, there have been discovered the fossil remains of an extinct species of animal, which Professor Owen has described as a gigantic batrachian reptile of the frog or toad family. He has bestowed on this species the title of Labyrinthodon. The new red sandstone spreads over the greater part of the county, occupying the whole of the northern and central portions, with the exception of the coal-fields, to be hereafter mentioned. On the south it meets the lias, at a line drawn across the county from a point a mile south of Dunchurch, through Long Itchington, and thence to Friz Hill, a little to the south of Stratford-upon-Avon. At Kenilworth, and thence to Coventry, the soil rests upon a sandstone rock. Generally throughout this tract there is an abundance of gravel. The course of the lias may be traced from the neighbourhood of Edge Hill, where its upper beds of black shale, with bands of blue and grey limestone, overlie the marlstone. At Harbury its lower beds are composed of blue clay and shale, traversed by beds of limestone. The total thickness of the lias, in the midland counties, is 500 feet. The Warwickshire coal-field stretches from the east of Tamworth, along the borders of Leicestershire to Nuneaton, and then on each side of the road to within 2 miles of Coventry. The coal measures preserve a breadth of about 3 miles. Large masses of compact "greenstone," known as Hartshill stone (from the place where they are quarried) are found in this district, and are largely used for mending roads. The agriculture of Warwickshire is not in so advanced a state as it should be, considering the great facilities afforded by the streams for irrigation, and by the canals for the carriage of manures. A large part of the county, especially in the southern division, is devoted to grazing. The sheep in greatest request are the long-woolled, generally crossed with the Southdown. The cattle chiefly bred are Herefords and short-horns, the long-horn indigenous to Warwickshire having nearly disappeared. In some places, however, attention is being again paid to its breeding, and prizes are offered for this breed at local cattle shows, though it is doubtful whether it will ever regain its ancient popularity. The breeding and fattening of pigs is not carried on to a great extent. The average rental of land throughout the county is £1.5s. 6d. per acre, the average of England being 19s. 2d. In the neighbourhood of Birmingham £4.4, and even £5 an acre is, in some instances, given for land, used chiefly for market-gardens, or as "accommodation" land for the reception of cattle. Leases are not common, nor are the farms small; as a rule they range from 300 to 500 acres. Labourers' wages are high, as compared with many other counties. In the valley of the Tame, near Birmingham, they are about 13s. per week and two quarts of beer daily. In other districts they are 12s. to 13s. weekly, and men in the house are paid from £10 to £12 per year. Labourers' cottages let at from 1s. to 1s. 6d. weekly. There is very little waste land; and the commons, once remarkably numerous, are now almost entirely enclosed, and cultivated or used for grazing. The largest enclosed common, not put to these uses, is the chase or park of Sutton Coldfield, extending over 3500 acres, and composed of tracts of woodland and moorland, interspersed with numerous pools. This chase belongs to the inhabitants of Sutton, to whom it was given, in the reign of Henry VIII., by a native of the town, Vesey, bishop of Exeter, to which see it formerly belonged. In connection with the natural history of the county, it should be mentioned that mineral springs, in considerable numbers, exist at Leamington, and are held in much repute.

The history of Warwickshire, its antiquities, its historical associations, and the famous men to whom it has given birth must be very briefly sketched. At the time of the Roman invasion the county was inhabited partly by the Cornavi, and partly by the Wigantes or Wiccii. Under the Romans it formed part of the province of Flavia Caesarisani. Roman roads, Ikenield Street, the Foss Way, and Watling Street, passed through parts of the county; and Roman remains are still perceptible at Alcester, Mancetter, Chesterton, and other places. At Castle Bromwich there is a large tumulus, supposed to be of the British period. Under the Saxons, the county was included in the kingdom of Mercia, whose rulers occasionally resided at Warwick, Tamworth, and Kingsbury. Under Alfred it passed into the dominion of the West Saxons. After the Conquest, the powerful families, the Newburghs, Beauchamps, and Nevilles, who held the earldom of Warwick, involved the county in all the great civil wars recorded in English history. In the troubles in Henry the Third's reign Kenilworth stood a long siege by the royal forces; in the Wars of the Roses, the city of Coventry warmly embraced the Lancastrian, and the town of Warwick the Yorkist cause; and in the war between Charles the First and his parliament, Warwickshire was torn by the contending factions, who made special head in the neighbourhood of Birmingham. Charles slept at Aston Hall, near that town, on his march through Warwickshire in 1642, and two days afterwards the first great battle of the civil war was fought on the borders of the county at Edge Hill. Swords and other weapons, used in the battle, are still occasionally turned up by the ploughshare. It would be impossible to furnish within our space a notice of the monastic and other ecclesiastical and castellated buildings formerly existing in this county, and in many cases still traceable by their ruins. At the period of the dissolution of the monasteries, Warwickshire contained fifty-seven religious houses, in which all the principal orders of the Roman Church were represented. The chief remains are Maxstoke Priory, Stoneleigh Abbey, the priory at Warwick (now a dwelling-house), and Kenilworth Priory. Of the castles the most famous are Warwick (see Warwick) and Kenilworth, the latter memorable for the princely manner in which its then owner, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, entertained Queen Elizabeth there. The ruins of Kenilworth, both for beauty and extent, are justly accounted amongst the most beautiful in the kingdom. Maxstoke Castle (inhabited) is externally a remarkably perfect specimen of the fortified residences of the period of the fourteenth century; internally it has been greatly modernised.

Of celebrated men of letters, born in or closely connected with Warwickshire, it must be sufficient to mention our greatest poet and dramatist, William Shakespeare; the most eminent English antiquary (next to Camden), Sir William Dugdale; the famous Dr Priestley; and the almost equally famous printer, Baskerville. Of soldiers, statesmen, and divines, the names must be sought in the history of the country.

The titles of nobility derived from the county are Earl of Warwick, Earl of Coventry, Lord Leigh (Stoneleigh), and Lord Arden (in the peerage of Ireland). It may be observed under this head, that of families holding knightly rank, before the commencement of the sixteenth century, there now exist only ten,—namely, Shirley of Evington; Compton of Compton Wyniate (Marquis of Northampton); Chetwynd of Grendon; Feilding of Newnham Paddox (Earl of Denbigh); Staunton of Longbridge; Ferrers of Baddesley Clinton; Mordaunt of Walton; Biddulph of Birdingbury; and Skipwith of Harborough. Of gentle families extant at the same period there remain only four,—namely, Shuckburgh of Shuckburgh; Throckmorton of Coughton; Gregory of Styvechale; and Greville of Warwick Castle (Earl of Warwick). (See Noble and Gentle Men of England, by E. P. Shirley, M.P., 1839.)

The principal seats of noblemen and gentlemen are—Warwick Castle; Compton Verney, Lord Willoughby de Broke; Combe Abbey, Earl Craven; Compton Wyniate, Marquis of Northampton; Packington Hall, Earl of Aylesford; Guy's Cliff, Hon. C. Bertie Percy; Walton Hall, Sir C. Mordaunt, Bart., M.P.; Arbury, Mr Newdegate, M.P.; Merevale Hall, Mr W. S. Dugdale; Hams, Right Hon. C. B. Adderley, M.P.; Maxstoke Castle, Mr W. Fetherston Dilko; Stoneleigh Abbey, Lord Leigh; Charlecote, Mr Lucy; and Aston Hall, lately the residence of the son of the celebrated James Watt, and now used as a public place of recreation.

The market-towns in Warwickshire with populations (in 1851) of more than 2000, are,—Warwick, 10,973; Aleceter, 2027; Bedworth, 3012; Kenilworth, 3140; Leamington, 15,692; Nuneaton, 4859; Rugby, 6317; Stratford, 3372; Coventry, 36,208; and Birmingham, 232,841. (J.T.B.)