Tslands. 
Hundreds, 
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cal divisions, Contains 
CYanate. 
nd marshy. The effects of the violence of 
is no where more icuous than in that part 
coast of Essex called Walton Ness. This pro- 
Geman aptenind sth De St So IS 
it. does, at present ; the ruins ildings having 
discovered at a considerable distance, particular- 
shoal called West Rocks, nearly five miles from 
is left dry at the period of great ebbs. 
a town called Orwell, is traditionally 
reported to have stood ; and the spot where the ruins 
Town, On the coast of Dengey Hundred also, 
is protected from the sea by embankments, 
t, in time past, made great d ions. 
is a sand called Buxey Park, and old 
living have heard their say, 
were boys, Buxey Park was covered 
divisions of this county are both natural and ar- 
Its natural divisions are into continent and 
; the latter are numerous, but not extensive, 
25 meee me penne 
Mersey island, situated at the con- 
rivers Colne and Blackwater, and 
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containing excellent springs, and of a rich and 
i na @ Fains the south <2 county are the 
i ushley, re, New ngland, Potten, 
Foulness, and Wallasea. i ceeteninns to each 
and | a rich soil. Canvey island is in the 
south-west of the county, situated nearly at the mouth 
of the Thames, and surrounded by the branches of that 
river, 
. The artificial divisions of the county are hundreds, 
towns, parishes, and hamlets. There are fourteen hun- 
dreds, and five smaller divisions, called half hundreds, 
viz. Becontree, Chafford, Chelmsford, Clavering, Den- 
,» Dunmow, Freshwell, Harlow, Havering-atte- 
er, Hinckford, Lexden, oF ena es Ten- 
Thurstable, Attlesford, W: , Winstree, and 
towns, Colchester, 
town of Saffron 
Walden... It contains 404 entire parishes, and four 
parts of parishes. There are in it fourteen division- 
al meetings, or : beeen gee ogee antl pet hanna 
Magistrates. It returns eight members to - 
Se two for the county, and two for each of 
the ‘towns. It is in the diocese of London, 
: ies, and fifteen deanries ; is 
in the home circuit, and pays twenty-four parts of the 
land-tax. Its quota to the regular militia is 960 men ; 
to the local militia, 3553. 
_ Essex enjoys, on the whole, a mild climate; for 
though it is exposed to piercing winds from the east, 
especially du the spring months, these winds are 
F 
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or es miles from the ne Thamewsaue 
subject, during autumn, to thick an pg bg 
which are often productive of agues. This disorder is 
not nearly so prevalent or so dangerous as it was for- 
found is still distinguished by the appellation of part 
E X. 203 
merly, before the marshes were so well drained, and Essex. 
the ea so highly cultivated as it is.at present. The ““Y—" 
quantity of rain which annually falls in this county is 
comparatively small, not averaging more than twenty 
pa a By Rata ape e 3 
ere is great vari in Essex,’ y PET soir, 
Tes, have tankeat ein tueusaaeedian pe called dey. 
The district called the Rodings, am » ich contains eight 
contiguous parishes, on the west side of the county, - 
near the borders of Hertfordshire, a 
comes, perhaps, as ,near to clay as any of Essex, 
but which, in fact, is only a strong cb ad This 
district is very fertile, but is proverbial for the badness 
of its roads, and the uncouth manners of its inhabitants. 
In the eastern part of the county the soil for the most 
is of a strong staple, intermixed, however, 
with light dry turnip land. Towards the middle and 
northern part, ing on Suffolk, the soil varies con- 
siderably, some bein nent, with a species of marl be- 
low the surface, at the depth of a foot, or a foot and 
a half, while other parts are of a moist and rather strong 
soil. In the western part, which borders on the river 
Lea, almost every variety of soil is met with, from a 
wet heavy loam, upon brick earth, toa light, thin, ten- 
der soil, upon gravel. Mr Young, in his icultural 
report of this county, divides it into eight districts, in 
respect to soil, viz. the Roding district, where the svil is 
so wet and strong, that only one crop is taken after fal- 
low ; this district, according to him, contains 156 square 
miles; secondly, the district of fertile loam, which Extent of 
stretches along the banks of the Thames, and the shore 
of the German Ocean, and contains 255 square miles; 
and the third, fourth and fifth districts, which lie part- 
ly on the borders of Cambridgeshire, and partly to the 
north of Rochford, consist of strong land, and contain 
222 square miles ; the sixth district, which is a turni 
loam, and stretches from a little to the south of Col- 
chester, past that town, to the borders of Suffolk, con- 
tains 114 square miles; the seventh district is very 
small, it lies in the north western corner of the county, 
the subsoil of this is chalk ; the last district, according 
to Mr Young, consists of miscellaneous loams, and oc- 
cupies nearly the entire centre of the county, besides part 
of the western border of it; it contains 681 square 
miles. From this account of the soil of Essex, it will 
be seen that this is on the whole fertile, possess- 
ing some very rich soil, while scarcely any part of it 
contains soil of a very poor or unimproveable nature. 
Although there are no large rivers in Essex, yet it p;..... 
is well situated in respect of river navigation. The 
Thames forms its whole southern boundary ; the Stour, 
which is navigable to Shoebury, is its northern limit; and 
on the west it has the two navigations of the Stort and 
the Lea. Besides these, the estuary of the Black-wa+ 
ter penetrates 12 miles into the county, and afterwards 
is navigable to Chelmsford. Nearly the whole of the 
county, except those hundreds near the Lea and the 
Thames, which are emphatically styled the Hundreds of 
Essex, is well watered by the many brooks and rivers 
which run through its vales. The Fries rivers, 
which, properl king, belong to this county, are 
the Colne, Syikah, Hees peas Clare: in Suffolk, after 
sing Colchester, empties itself into a creek of the 
Sn, between Mersey island and the main. The Black- 
water, which rises near Saffron Walden, and flowing 
by a and Witham, falls into an arm of the 
sea at Maldon; the Chelmer, which, rising near the 
sourceof the Black-water, fertilizesand beautifiesthemid- 
dle of the county, and passing by Chelmsford, unites at 
Maldon with the former river ; the Crouch, which, after 
