668 



ENGLAND. 



Origin of 

 thcpraent 



oivifion in- 

 to counties. 



Counties in 



Alfred's 



time. 



Geography 

 in the Nor- 

 man period. 



etahire, Somersetshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and 

 Berkshire: it was founded by C'erdic. in the year 019, 

 and ended in tin- year 828. 



Northumberland, which comprehended the countie* 



: c. -i.- hi it-, Yorkshire, Durham, ( unilx-rUnd, Wtt- 



inoreland. Northumberland, acid Scotland, us far as the 



l-'rith i' Forth, was founded by Ida, in the year 547, 



and terminated in the year S. 



I-M \, or the kingdom of the East Saxons, compre- 

 hended the counties of Essex, Miildlesex, and part of 

 I lertlordshire : it wa- founded l>y Erchewin, in the year 

 .ind ended in the year 827. 



Mcrci.i, which comprehended ( iloucestershire, Here- 

 foriUhirc, \\ orcestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, 

 IkiitlaiuNhirr, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Hun- 

 tingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxford- 

 shire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Shroj)shire, Notting- 

 hamshire, Cheshire, and the remainder of Hertford, 

 shire, was founded by Cridda, in the year 582, and ter- 

 minated in the year 827- 



The present division of Kngknd into counties or 

 shires, owes its origin to Alfred: these department-: 

 were denominated counties, because each of them, in 

 the time of the Saxons, was governed by a count, who 

 by that people was styled ealdonnan, or alderman ; an 

 appellation w Inch seems to have been derived from the 

 age of the persons who were first honoured with this 

 title : after the Danish conquest, the appellation Earl, 

 from the Danish Jarl, was substituted instead of Eal- 

 donnan. At first the government and management of 

 the county was exercised by the Earl himself; but, in 

 process of time, the dignity and title becoming heredi- 

 tary, the government of the county devolved upon the 

 Earl's deputy (who is. still called in Latin Vice-Comes), 

 to whom the name of Shire-reeve, Shrieve, or Sheriff, 

 was given : tliis word signifies the manager of the shire 

 or tlivision, (the Saxon word shire evidently being 

 connected, in etymology and meaning, with the modern 

 word share) : reeve seems to be the same as the Scotch 

 word grim-, which is still applied to the manager of a 

 colliery, or to the person who governs and superin- 

 tends the reapers during harvest. 



According to the division of England by Alfred, it 

 contained but 32 counties, Durham and Lancashire be- 

 ing included in that of Yorkshire ; Cornwall in De- 

 vonshire ; Rutland in Northamptonshire ; Monmouth- 

 shire was deemed part of Wales ; and Northumberland, 

 Westmoreland, and Cumberland, were subject to the 

 Scots. 



During the Norman period of English history, there 

 were few alterations of consequence in the geography 

 of England ; Cumberland and Westmoreland, indeed, 

 were wrested from the Scots, but their possession was 

 still precarious and uncertain ; the provinces north of 

 the Humber, which, after the extinction of the Danish 

 kingdom of Xorthumbria, had for some time preserved 

 a dubious independence, were gradually subdued and 

 incorporated with the monarchy: but Northumberland, 

 liable to the inroads and devastation of the Scots, espe- 

 cially in its northern parts, was still, frequently, only a 

 nominal part of the monarchy. 



The division of Wales into its present counties, took 

 place at a comparatively late period of our history : 

 long l>efore the conquest of that country, indeed, by 

 Edward the First their princes did homage to the 

 crown of England , but by that monarch, who may 

 justly be gtiled the conqueror of Wales, the line of their 

 ancient princes was abolished, and the title of Prince of 

 Wales was given to the king of England's eldest son. 

 8 



In the 10th of Edward I. the statute of Rhudhlan was Sortfctta. 

 passed, by which it was declared, that the territory of ^TY**** 

 Wales, with its inhabitant^, which had been formerly nc JJJ *", 

 subject to the king by feudal right, was entirely an- Kdwnd I. 

 nexed to the crown of the kingdom of England, as part 

 of that monarchy. Notw ith*tanding this statute, how- 

 ever, Wales retained many of iu peculiar privileges 

 and immunities, which were not abolished till the reign 

 (if Henry VII J. 15y the statute '.!7th of that monarch, 

 chapter 26, A.D. 1535, entitled, an " act for laws and 

 ju-tice to lie ministered in Wales, in like form as it ii 

 in this realm," it is enacted, that the dominion of Wales 

 shall be for ever united to the kingdom of England ; 

 that all Welshmen born, shall have the same privilege 

 and liberties as the rest of the king's subjects ; that 

 lands in Wales shall be inheritable, according to the Eng- 

 lish tenures and rules of descent ; (before the passing 

 of this act, their lands were divided equally among all 

 the male issue, and did not descend to the eldest son 

 alone) ; that the laws of England, and no other, shall 

 be used in Wales ; besides several other regulation-. 

 and enactments of inferior moment and interest 



Henry VIII. also passed another statute in the 34th 

 year of his reign, chapter 2b', by which the statute al- 

 ready mentioned was confirmed, and farther regulations 

 added : by this statute, some peculiar privileges were 

 granted to the Welsh, particularly that there should be 

 courts within the principality itself, independent of the 

 process of Westminster Hall But this statute claims 

 our attention, at present, in a more direct and especial 

 manner, as being that which gave to the counties of 

 Wales, and to the adjoining counties of England, the 

 names and extent which they still retain. By this 

 act the marches, or intermediate lands between Eng- 

 land and Wales, were divided into new counties, or 

 annexed to old counties. The new counties that were \ C w coun- 

 now formed, were Monmouth, which was declared an ties formed, 

 English county, Brecknockshire, Denbighshire, Mont- :! .' Henry 

 gomeryshire, and Radnorshire in Wales. The English V 1II- 

 counties that were augmented by annexation, were 

 (iloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire. The 

 Welsh counties which were augmented, were Cardigan- 

 shire, Caermarthenshire, Glamorganshire, Merioneth- 

 shire, and Pembrokeshire. 



The next inferior division of the territory of England Division in- 

 is into trethings, trithings, or tridings ; lathes, and \ Trith- 

 rapes. Trething, trithing, or triding, is an appelktion V?*" or R 

 evidently derived from the circumstance that the coun- 

 ty to which it is applied, is divided into three parts ; 

 this appellation is now corrupted into riding, and oc- 

 curs only in Yorkshire. The terms lathes and rapes I-thes and 

 are not of such evident and certain etymology or mean- 

 ing ; though there can be no doubt, that though not 

 exactly synonymous with trithings, or the third part 

 of a county, they signify a larger division of it than 

 hundreds. Kent is the only county which is divided 

 into lathes ; and Sussex the only one that is divided 

 into rapes. It does not appear that any appropriate 

 officer under the sheriff' was appointed to either of these 

 divisions : the trithings, however, were anciently go- 

 verned by a trithing-reeve A large division, s< me- 

 thing similar to trithings rapes, or lathes, exists in the 

 county of Lincoln : this county is divided into three 

 districts, each of which, like the large divisions of 

 Yorkshire, Kent, and Sussex, contains several hun- 

 dreds Perhaps, also, the shires, which arc found in 

 some of the northern counties, though now merely no- 

 minal, were originally larger divisions of a similar 

 nature; such as Halkrnshire, which comprehends the 



