The chief towns in the WEST RIDING of Yorkshire are Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax, Wakefield, Barnsley, Dewsbury, Doncaster, and Ripon. Leeds (429), on the River Aire; Bradford (280); Huddersfield (95), and Halifax (105), are the great seats of the woollen and cloth manufactures. Sheffield (381), on the River Don, is the seat of the cutlery trade. Ripon, on the Ure, is a cathedral city. Wakefield (42), also a cathedral city, on the River Calder, was the scene of a victory gained by the Lancastrians over the Yorkists in 1460.

The EAST RIDING contains the towns of Hull, Beverley, and Bridlington. Hull (241) stands on the north bank of the Humber, at the entrance of the little River Hull, and is an important seaport.

The NORTH RIDING contains Scarborough and Whitby, famous sea-side resorts, with Malton, Richmond, and Northallerton in the interior. The Battle of the Standard, between the English and Scottish armies in 1138, was fought near Northaller on. The port of Middlesbrough (although its foundation only dates from 1829) contains over 91,000 inhabitants, and is the centre of the important iron and salt district of Cleveland.

CUMBERLAND is for the most part mountainous, but its northern division includes a plain of some extent, along the Solway Firth and the lower course of the Eden. In the west, along the coast, is a small but highly-productive coalfield. The chief towns are Carlisle, Whitehaven, Workington, Maryport, Cockermouth, Penrith, and Keswick.

CARLISLE (45), the capital, is a cathedral city, on the River Eden. Whitehaven, on the coast, is the chief seat of the coal trade. Workington and Maryport are other coal-exporting ports. Keswick is in the heart of the Lake District.

WESTMORLAND is for the most part mountainous and pastoral, and contains the towns of Kendal and Appleby.

APPLEBY is the county town; but Kendal (14), on the River Kent, which flows into Morecambe Bay, is of larger size, and has woollen and other manufactures. Ambleside is much resorted to on account of the beauty of the scenery.

LANCASHIRE includes the great seats of the cotton manufacture. This branch of industry is pursued through all the southern portion of the county, which includes a valuable coalfield. A small detached portion of the county, known as Furness, lies to the north of Morecambe Bay, and belongs physically to the Lake District.

Manchester (544, or including the adjoining town of Salford, 765), on the Irwell, and Liverpool (685), at the mouth of the Mersey, are the largest towns in England, next to the metropolis; the former is the great centre of the cotton trade, and the latter the chief cotton port. Manchester and Liverpool are cathedral cities. Manchester is connected with the sea by a ship canal, and Liverpool is joined to Birkenhead by a railway tunnel under the River Mersey. Preston, on the Ribble, Bolton, Oldham, Blackburn, Wigan, Rochdale, Ashton-under-Lyne, Warrington, Colne, Chorley, and Lancaster, are all busy cotton towns. Barrow-in-Furness (58), is the port of the rich iron-ore district of North Lancashire, and has the largest steel works in the kingdom. LANCASTER (40), on the River Lune, ranks as the capital of the county. Part of Stalybridge is in this county.

CHESHIRE is chiefly an agricultural county, but includes part of the cotton-manufacturing district.

The cathedral city of CHESTER (36), on the River Dee, is the capital, and in many respects one of the most interesting cities in England. The Cathedral, Roman walls, the Castle, and the picturesque "Rows" are altogether unique. On Rowton Heath, to the west of this city, the troops of Charles I. were defeated by the Parliamentary forces in 1645-a few months after the battle of Naseby. Stockport (79), a cotton town; Macclesfield (35), with silk manufac tures, and Birkenhead (111), with great docks and ship-building yards, opposite Liverpool (with which it is connected by a railway tunnel under the Mersey), are important towns. Nantwich, Middlewich, and Northwich, in the valley of the River Weaver, are famous for their saltworks. The manufacturing town of Stalybridge (26) is principally in this county.

SHROPSHIRE is chiefly agricultural, but includes a small coalfield, and has some iron and other manufactures at Coa.brookdale and elsewhere.

SHREWSBURY (28), on the Severn, is the county town. The batte between the army of Henry IV. and the insurgent forces under Hotspur was fought in its immediate vicinity in 1403. There are coal and ion mines at We lock and Madeley. The other towns are Bridgnorth, Wellington, Ludlow, and Oswestry.

HEREFORDSHIRE is entirely agricultural, and is famous for its hop gardens and its orchards.

The city of HEREFORD (21), its capital, stands on the River Wye, and has an ancient Cathedral. Important cattle and cheese fairs are held in October each year. Leominster, Ledbury, and Ross are small towns in this county. A few miles to the north-west of Leominster is Mortimer's Cross, one of the battle-fields of the Wars of the Roses, A. D. 1461.

MONMOUTHSHIRE is a mining and manufacturing county. It includes a portion of the South Wales coalfield, and has numerous ironworks.

The chef town, Monmouth (5), is on the Wye, at the junction of the small River Monnow, hence its name. At Tredegar (19) are important coal and iron mines. The other towns are Newport (67), a considerable seaport at the mouth of the Usk, Abergavenny, Pontypool, and Chepstow.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE includes the long chain of the Cotswold Hills, and is in great part agricultural. But it possesses two small coalfields-one of them in the Forest of Dean, to the west of the Severn, the other near the Avon, on the south border of the county. The manufacture of woollen cloth is pursued extensively at Stroud and other places near the Cotswold Hills.

GLOUCESTER (48), the capital, on the Severn, is a cathedral city. Chel tenham, Stroud, Cirencester, and Tewkesbury are in this county. Cheltenham

1. The area and population of the Six Western Counties are as follows:

(1) Cheshire, 1.026 sq. m., pop. 814.555-
6) Shropshire, 1,319 sq. m., pop. 239.321.

(3.) Herefordshire, 833 sq. m., pop. 114,401.
(4) Monmouthshire, 578 sq. m., pop. 292.327.
(5.) Gloucestershire, 1.224 sq. m., pop. 634.066.
(6.) Somersetshire, 1,640 sq. m., pop. 508, 104.

is famed for its mineral waters. Tewkesbury, on the Severn, is historically noteworthy on account of the victory gained there by Edward IV. over the army of Queen Margaret, in 1471, three weeks after the battle of Barnet.

Bristol (329), an important port on the Avon, is partly in Gloucestershire and partly in Somersetshire, but has long had the privileges of a county in itself. SOMERSETSHIRE is almost wholly agricultural.

TAUNTON (21), on the River Tone, is the county town. Bath (50), on the Avon, was in the time of the Romans, and still is, famous for its hot mineral springs. Wells is an ancient city, lying at the foot of the Mendip Hills. Frome (10), has some cloth factories; Bridgwater (15) is a port on the Parret, and Yeovil has glove manufactories. Between Bridgwater and Taunton is Sedgemoor, the scene of Monmouth's defeat by the troops of James II. in 1685. Atheney, the temporary retreat of Alfred, was in former ages a marshy tract of ground, lying near the junction of the rivers Tone and Parret, by which it was insulated.

III.-FIVE EASTERN COUNTIES. LINCOLNSHIRE is an agricultural county, and comprises the 3 administrative counties of Lindsey, Kesteven, and Holland.

Its capital, LINCOLN (49), is an ancient cathedral city on the River Witham. Boston (16), also on the Witham, a few miles above its mouth, and Grimsby (63), on the south bank of the Humber, are flourishing ports. Gainsborough (on the Trent), Stamford (on the Welland), Grantham, with an important corn trade, and Louth, are inland towns.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE is an agricultural county. Its northern half, lying within the Fen district, is called the Isle of Ely, from having formerly been insulated by marshes. It now forms a separate administrative county.

The county town, Cambridge (38), is on the Cam, which joins the Ouse, and is the seat of one of the two ancient universities of England. Wisbech, Ely, and Newmarket are in this county. Ely, on the Great Ouse, is a cathedral city.

NORFOLK is the only one of the eastern counties that possesses any considerable manufactures; but by far the larger portion of the county is agricultural. Wild fowl and sea birds flock to the "Broads" of Norfolk in enormous numbers.

The ancient city of NORWICH (112), its capital, was an early seat of woollen manufacture, which it still retains. Norwich stands on the River Wensum, immediately above its junction with the Yare. Yarmouth (51), at the mouth of the Yare, is the chief English herring port. Off the coast are the famous Yar. mouth Roads, a much frequented roadstead, Lynn, or King's Lynn (20), which also possesses considerable trade, is at the mouth of the Great Ouse; and in its neighbourhood is Sandringham, the King's residence.

SUFFOLK, divided into the administrative counties of East and West Suffolk, is entirely agricultural.

Its chief town, IPSWICH (67), stands on the River Orwell, a few miles above its mouth. Bury St. Edmunds, Lowestoft, and Sudbury are the other principal

1 The areas and population of the Five Eastern
Counties are as follows:-

(1.) Lincolnshire, 2.762 sq. m., pop. 498,781.
(2.) Cambridgeshire, 820 sq. m., pop. 190,687.

(3) Norfolk, 2,118 sq. m., pop. 460,040,
(4.) Suffolk, 1,475 sq. m., pop. 384,198.
(5.) Essex, 1,542 sq. m., pop. 1,085.576

towns. Lowestoft is a seaport, situated at the most easterly extremity of Great Britain, and is an important station of the herring fishery.

ESSEX is also chiefly agricultural.

Its county town is CHELMSFORD (13), on the Chelmer. Colchester (38), on the Colne, has oyster fisheries. Harwich is an important packet station for passengers and goods to and from the continental ports on the opposite side of the North Sea. Stratford is a part of East London. Saffron-Walden, Brain tree, and Maldon are all small inland towns.

IV. NINE SOUTHERN COUNTIES.1

KENT is chiefly an agricultural county, but it contains numerous seaports, some of which, from their proximity to the coast of France, were early of historical importance, and several are still important packet stations or favourite watering-places.

The county town is MAIDSTONE (34), on the River Medway; but Chatham, Woolwich, and Dover are of larger size. Chatham (41), which lies near the mouth of the Medway, is an important naval arsenal--the second in the kingdom. It adjoins Rochester, an ancient cathedral city, and Strood-the three forming really but one town. Woolwich, the great military arsenal of England, is on the south bank of the Thames, below London. Dover is at the southeast corner of the island, immediately opposite to the coast of France; a few miles west of it is Folkestone, also a seaport of ancient date. Dover and Folkestone are now the chief packet stations for the continent, steamers running regularly from Dover to Calais and Ostend, and from Folkestone to Boulogne. Canterbury (25), on the River Stour, is an ancient cathedral city-the ecclesiastical metropolis of England—and surpasses any other place in Kent in historic dignity. It was here that the Saxon king, Ethelbert, in A.D. 597, embraced Christianity, on its re-introduction into Britain by the agency of Augustine.

Along the shores of Kent (beginning at the eastern suburbs of London) there occur in succession the following places :-Greenwich, Woolwich, Gravesend, Rochester and Chatham; Sheerness and Queenborough (on the Isle of Sheppey), Whitstable, Margate, Ramsgate, Sandwich, Deal, Dover, Folkestone, and Hythe.

Margate and Ramsgate are popular watering-places on the eastern coast of Kent. Opposite Deal are the Goodwin Sands, between which and the shore is the much-frequented roadstead called the Downs.3

1. The areas and population of the Nine Southern Counties are as follows:

(1) Kent. 1555 sq. m., pop. 1.351.849. (2) Surrey, 758 sq. m., pop. 2,008,923. (3) Sussex, 1,458 sq. m., pop. 605,052. G) Berkshire, 722 sq. m., pop. 254.931. (s) Hampshire, 1.621 sq. m., pop, 798.756. (6) Wiltshire. 1,351 sq. m., pop. 273.845. Dorsetshire, gƐo sq. m., pop 202.562. (8) Devonshire, 2,586 sq. m., pop. 660.444. (9) Cornwall, 1.349 sq. m., pop. 322,957. 2. Canterbury and York are each the seat of an archbishopric. But Canterbury ranks first in point of dignity, The Archbishop of York is a primate of England; the Archbishop of Canterbury is primate of all England.

3. Some of the ports on the Kentish and Sussex coasts had peculiar privileges granted them in the later Saxon and Early Norman times, from the im portance of their position with reference to the opposite shores of the continent. The CINQUE PORTS, as they were called-originally five in number-were Sandwich, Deal, Dover, Hythe, and Ronney, all in Kent. Three others, Rye, Winchelsea, and Hastings, in the adjoining county of Sussex, were afterwards added. DOVER, DÉAL, and HASTINGS are now the most considerable of the Cinque Ports, the harbours of the others having become choked up by sand These ports were bound by charter to provide a certain number of ships for the defence of the coast.

SURREY includes part of the metropolis situated to the south of the Thames, but by far the greater part of the county is agricultural.

GUILDFORD (16), the county town, is on the Wey, an affluent of the Thames; Croydon is really a suburb of London. Richmond and Kingston, riverside resorts on the Thames, are in this county. Kingston was important in Saxon times, and seven of our Saxon kings were crowned there. Runnymead, where the Great Charter was signed by King John, at the instance of his armed barons (A D. 1215), is within the north-western border of Surrey, immediately adjoining the south bank of the Thames, and near the small town of Egham,

SUSSEX comprises the administrative counties of East and West Sussex, and is agricultural. It includes an extensive line of coast lying along the English Channel. From Beachy Head westward this coast is backed by the range of chalk hills called the South Downs.

LEWES (11), on the Ouse, is the county town, and gave its name to a battle fought in the vicinity between Prince Edward (afterwards Edward I.) and the rebellious barons, during the reign of Henry III. (A. D. 1264). Brighton (123), on the coast, is a large and flourishing watering-place and pleasure resort, attracting vast numbers of visitors from the metropolis. Eastbourne and

Hastings, also on the coast, are watering places and lie further east. A few miles west of Hastings (near Bulverhithe, on the shore of Pevensey Bay) is the place where William the Conqueror landed in 1066; the small town of Battle, to the north-west of Hastings, marks the scene of the engagement which, a few days afterwards, transferred the dominion of England from Saxon to Norman hands. Shoreham and Worthing are on the coast, to the west of Brighton. Chichester, still further west, is a cathedral city.

BERKSHIRE is an agricultural county.

READING (72), its capital, stands at the junction of the Kennet with the Thames. It is famous for its biscuits. Windsor Castle, the chief royal residence of the sovereign of England, is on the south bank of the Thames. Abingdon, Maidenhead, Newbury, and Wantage are in this county. Two engagements between the armies of Charles I. and the Parliament occurred near Aewbury, in 1643 and the following year. Wantage is distinguished as the birthplace of Alfred the Great.

HAMPSHIRE is an agricultural county.

It possesses two important seaports-Portsmouth (189), the chief naval arsenal of England, and Southampton (105), an important packet station; but WINCHESTER (21), an ancient cathedral city, in the fertile valley of the Itchen, is the capital. Winchester was the chief city of the West Saxon kings, and continued to be regarded, in early Norman times, as the capital of the kingdom. Andover, Lymington, and Basingstoke are small towns. Bournemouth is a charming seaside resort, built on the shores of a beautiful bay, and sheltered by fine woods. The Isle of Wight, called the "Garden of England," lies to the south of Hampshire, and forms a distinct administrative county. Ryde, Ventnor, and Cowes are favourite seaside resorts and yachting stations. Newport, on the Medina, 5 miles south of Cowes, is the capital of the island and a great tourist resort. Osborne was a favourite residence of the late Queen, and is now a school for naval cadets.

1. Near Newport is Carisbrooke Castle, at one time the prison of King Charles I.