COUNTERSCARP 



COUNTY 



521 



tin- earliest known account we have is by Huchald, 

 a l''lemi-li monk, wlio died in 030. The earliest 

 existing specimen of part music is an English OIK; 

 &rtit or roiinil, written ly a monk of BMtdingin 

 I _'_'! i to words beginning ' Sinner is icuinen in,' tlie 

 MS. of which i> in tin- British MII-IMIIII. Tlie Poly- 

 phonic schools of composition in Flanders, England, 

 Cermany, and Italy, of the four SUIT lint,' cen- 

 turies, reaching their culmination in Palestrina, 

 were based pre-eminently on counterpoint. Bach 

 K however, usually considered its greatest master. 

 There is an enormous nuinher of treatises on the 

 subject in most European languages ; it will l>e 

 snllicient to n-fer to that of Sir F. A. G. Ouseley, 

 based on Cheruhini, and to the primers published 

 by Novello & Co. 



Counterscarp is that side of the ditch of a 

 fort which is nearest to the besiegers ; the other 

 side being culled the f.sw//y> or scarp. 



4'oiintrrsiun, in military affairs, is a watch- 

 word used to prevent unauthorised persons passing 

 a line of sentries whose orders are to stop any one 

 unable to give it. It is fixed each day by the 

 commanding officer, but may be changed at any 

 moment if necessary, and is only communicated to 

 those entitled to know it. 



Coilllter-teiior, the highest adult male voice, 

 the same as Alto (q.v.). See also CONTRALTO, 

 TENOR. 



Country-dance (Fr. contre-danse, of which 

 the English term is a corruption ), a dance in which 

 as many couples can take part as there is space to 

 accommodate them ; the gentlemen being ranged 

 at the commencement on one side, and tlie ladies 

 on the other. The dancers are constantly changing 

 places, leading one another back and forward, up 

 and down, parting and uniting again. ' Sir Roger 

 de Coverley' is the best known example. See 

 DANCING. 



County (derived from Fr. comte ; Lat. comi- 

 tatus)is now the recognised subdivision of the three 

 kingdoms for judicial and local government pur- 

 poses. 



History. The term 'county' corresponds with 

 shire ( Saxon, scir, from sciran, ' to divide ' ), a 

 word which, however, it has now to a great extent 

 superseded. It means a division of a kingdom 

 immediately superior to the hundred, and its first 

 use was in connection with the assignment of juris- 

 diction for judicial business. Some counties, such 

 as Essex, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex, were 

 ancient Saxon kingdoms, but other counties or 

 shires were formed by the sulxlivision of Mercia, 

 Wessex, Northumbria, and the other Saxon king- 

 doms. The shire represented in its constitutional 

 machinery either the national organisation of the 

 several divisions created by West Saxon conquest, 

 or that of the early settlements which united in 

 the Mercian kingdom as it advanced westwards, or 

 the rearrangement bv the West Saxon dynasty of 

 the whole of England on the principles already at 

 work in its own shires. The division of England 

 into shires, which was begun before the time of 

 Alfred, was probably not completed till the Danes, 

 Angles, and Saxons were united into one kingdom 

 under Edgar. In the government of the shire there 

 were two officers, the ealdorman and the scir-gerefa, 

 or sheriff. The ealdorman ( the prtnceps of Tacitus, 

 the satrapa of Bede, the dux of the Latin chron- 

 iclers, ana the comes of the Normans) was originally 

 elected by the Witan, but in course of time the office 

 tended to become hereditary, though in all cases 

 down to the Norman Conquest the consent of the 

 king and the Witan was necessary to each fresh 

 nomination. The ealdorman shared with the 

 sheriff and the bishop the administrative functions 

 of the county in the shire-moot. The sheriff was 



the representative of the king alone, and was the 

 chief judicial officer of the shire, on whom was 

 imposed the duty of executing the law and acting 

 as steward of the royal demesne. Each county or 

 shire comprised a number of hundreds, and just in 

 the same way as the hundreds had their moot, BO 

 each county or shire had its moot, which was 

 attended by the representatives of the hundreds 

 and townships, and by a representative body of 

 witnesses to give validity to its proceedings. 

 According to the laws of Eugar, the shire-moot was 

 held twice a year. After tne Conquest the shire- 

 moot continued to be held in each county, but it- 

 independence was much interfered with by the 

 exercise of the royal prerogative. Between the 

 reigns of Henry I. and Henry III. these courts 

 began to meet more frequently, and eventually as 

 county courts, or sheriff's courts, met once a month, 

 and continued to be held, though under varying 

 conditions, until comparatively modern times. 



Constitution. The organisation of a county in 

 England comprises the following officers : ( 1 ) A 

 lord-lieutenant, who is the military representative 

 of the crown, and whose duty it is to select persons 

 for the commission of the peace; (2) a custos rotu- 

 lorum (keeper of the records); (3) a sheriff; (4) a 

 coroner; (5) justices of the peace, qualified by an 

 estate in possession of 100 a year, or in reversion 

 of 300 a year, or by two years' assessment to the 

 inhabited house duty at 100. All the justices for 

 a county hold the general and quarter sessions as 

 prescribed by law. A single justice may act in 

 petty sessions. (6) A clerk of the peace, who is 

 appointed by the custos rotulorum, but may be 

 removed by the justices ; ( 7 ) a county treasurer ; 

 (8) a surveyor, and other minor officers. The 

 duties that now belong to the county justices are 

 mainly of an imperial character, and relate to the 

 maintenance of the militia, to the local administra- 

 tion of the criminal law, and to the carrying out 

 of certain matters connected with parliamentary 

 representation, licensing, assessment, appeals, and 

 so forth. 



County Councils. By the Local Government Act, 

 1888, all duties purely relating to matters of local 

 government in England and Wales that were per- 

 formed by the justices in quarter sessions were 

 transferred to county councils which were newly 

 established by the act. These councils are elected by 

 the inhabitants of the county, who are enrolled as 

 ' county electors ' for the purpose. A county elector 

 may be a man or woman, but must be of full age 

 and not subject to any legal incapacity, and must 

 not have been in receipt of parocliial relief. Such 

 a person must have been an occupier of some build- 

 ing or land in the county for a certain term, and 

 must have paid all rates due and complied with 

 certain conditions as to resilience, xc. For the 

 purposes of the establishment of county councils in 

 England and Wales what are termed administra- 

 tive counties are formed. Of these there are sixty, 

 and the number of county councillors and county 

 aldermen for each county council is as follow-, 

 the aldermen forming one-fourth of the total in 

 each case, viz. : England Bedford, 68; Berks, 68; 

 Bucks, 68; Cambridge (exclusive of the Isle of 

 Ely), 64; Cambridge (Isle of Ely Division), 56; 

 Chester, 76 ; Cornwall, 88 ; Cumberland, 80 ; 

 Derby, 80 ; Devon, 104 ; Dorset, 76 ; Durham, 96 ; 

 Essex, 84; Gloucester, 80; Hereford, 68; Herts, 

 72 ; Hunts, 52 ; Kent, 96 ; Lancaster, 140 ; Leices- 

 ter, 72; Lincoln (Holland), 56; Lincoln (Keste- 

 ven), 64; Lincoln (Lindsev), 76; London, 137; 

 Middlesex, 72; Monmouth, 64; Norfolk, 76; 

 Northampton (exclusive of the Soke of Peter- 

 borough), 68; Northampton (Soke of Peter- 

 borough), 40; Northumberland, 80; Notts, 68; 

 Oxford, 76; Rutland, 28; Salop, 68; Somerset, 



