‘ Gloueester- 
shire.’ 
= 
Political 
divisions, 
$22 
t 4, and in the lower part. 7 parishes. The 
peer is called Seven Leanxeda Division, and 
contains the following hundreds : Cirencester hundred, 
in which is.only the town of Cirencester: Crowthorne 
and. Minets hundred, containing 19 parishes, but no 
market town: Brightwell’s Barrow hundred, contain- 
ing 12 parishes and two market towns, Fairford and 
Lechlade: Bradley hundred, containing 19 parishes, 
and one market town, Northleach :, Rapsgate hundred, 
containing 11 parishes, but no market town: Bisley 
hundred, containing 7 parishes, and 2 market towns, 
Stroud and Painswick: Longtree hundred, containing 
11 parishes, and 2 market towns, Minchen Hampton, 
and Tetbury :, Whitstone hundred, containing in the 
upper part, 9 parishes, and in the lower part 7 parishes, 
but no market town; Seven hundreds Division lies to 
the south and south-west. of Kifsgate Division. The 
third is the Forest Division, which is bounded on the 
west by the river Wye ;. on the north-west by Hereford- 
shire and Worcestershire ; and on the east, partly by the 
- two former divisions, and partly by the Severn : this di- 
Natural di- 
visions, 
vision contains six hundreds; viz. Botloe hundred, 
which contains 9 parishes and one)market town, New- 
ent: Duchy of Lancaster, which contains 5 parishes, 
but no. market town: Westbury hundred, containing 
6 parishes and one market town, Newnham: Bledesloe 
hundred, containing 3 parishes, but no market town : 
St Briawl’s hundred) which contains 12 parishes and 
two market towns, Mitchel Dean and Colford ; and Dud- 
stone and King’s Barton hundred, which in the upper 
part contains 10 parishes, in the middle part 11, and 
in the lower 5 ; the city of Gloucester is in this hundred. 
The last division of this county is Berkley Division, 
which is bounded by the Severn on the west, part of 
Dudstone and King’s Barton hundred on. the north ; 
Seven hundreds Division on the east, and the Lower 
Avon and Somersetshire on the south: Berkley divi- 
sion is subdivided into 7 hundreds ; viz. Berkley hun- 
dred, the upper part of which contains 19 parishes and 
2 market towns, Berkley and Wotton under Edge, the 
lower part contains 6 parishes, but no market town : 
Grumbald’s Ash hundred, the upper part of which 
contains 11 parishes, and one market town, Wickwar ; 
and the lower part, 10 parishes, and one market town, 
Sodbury : Pucklechurch-hundred, containing 5 parishes, 
but no market town: Barton Rape’s hundred, contain- 
ing 6 parishes, but no market town: and 
Swine’s Head hundred, the upper part of which.con- 
tains 4, and the lower part 5 parishes, but no market 
town : Thornbury hundred, the upper part of which 
contains only the market town of Marshfield; and the 
lower part 5 parishes; and one market town, Thorn- 
bury ; and Hanbury hundred, the upper part of which 
contains 5, and the lower 2 parishes, but no market 
town. Gloucestershire contains one city, Gloucester, 
and part of another, Bristol; it returns eight members 
to Parliament, viz. two for the county, two for Glou- 
cester, two for Tewksbury, and two for Cirencester. 
It is in the province of Canterbury and diocese of 
Gloucester, with the exception of two chapelries, It 
pays 12 parts of the land tax. 
Gloucestershire is naturally divided into three longi- 
tudinal stripes, or districts, which differ materially from 
one another. . The Cotesweld district comprehends the 
whole tract of hill country, from Chipping Camden north- 
ward to Bath, and is often divided into the upper and 
lower Coteswolds, _ Thisis a long tract of high ground, 
for the most part bleak and bare: the. sides. of. this 
tract are extremely beautiful as they sink into the vale, 
from the hills of Stinchcombe and Nibley on the south, 
5 
GLOUCESTERSHIRE) » 
to that of Bredon on the north. The. r- Glo 
hills form a tract connected with and similar tothe 
Coteswold. The second natural division of this county 
is the vale, which comprehends the whole of thelow- Na‘ 
lands from Stratford upon Avon to Bristol: it is usually ‘ 
divided into the Vales of Evesham, Gloucester; and 
Berkley ; but as the Severn and the Avon are ‘the ; 
tural boundaries of it, it might more sropadipebsdien: 
pe we Aer oe and Avon, the former 
comprehending a ow between Tewksbury 
and Bristol, and the latter the lowlands between the 
‘upper Coteswold and the Avon from, Tew 
ksbury to 
Stratford. The last natural division, which is by much 
side of the Severn up to-Gloucester ; and 
the west side of the , till i Herefordshire; 
this natural division is chiefly occupied by the Forest 
.of Dean, once reckoned the princi of the 
English navy, and which, it is said, the Armada was 
expressly commissioned to destroy : it is now thinned 
very much, though a few solitary deer continue to Tun 
wild in its remoter par q add-roewe. senkiow 
different parts of Gloucester- Clim 
The climate of these 
shire varies considerably, though perhaps not so much 
as might have been expected from the difference of their 
elevation, cultivation, and soil, since the climate of the 
Coteswold hills, considering their natural elevation:and 
pe ae is — stnsnne The climate of the 
vale lands is perhaps as genial as that of any district in 
England ; and that of the forest district is by no:means 
‘severe, so that Gloucestershire may justly be re 
as highly favoured in_this respect. The soil of the go, 
Coteswolds is for the most part a shallow calcareous 
loam, on a stratum of rubble; clay is met with in some 
parts, especially on the: declivities. “The soil of the 
vale is uncommonly rich, being either a fine black 
loam, or a red loam of equal fertility...In all parts of 
this district, except where the compact limestone rocks 
are found, a blue clay forms the under soil. In most 
of the forest district, the soil inclines to sand, in gene- 
ral not of a fertile quality: in. the forest of Dean, a 
kind of peaty soil prevails. The principal rivers in River 
Gloucestershire are the Severn, the Thames, and the 
Upper and Lower Avon. The Severn enters the coun- 
ty near Tewksbury, where uniting its: waters with 
ose of the Upper Avon, and pursuing a south-west _ 
course, it traverses a wide vale of uncommon richness 
and beauty. About a mile above Gloucester, it divides 
into two streamis, which reunite a little below the city, 
forming Alney island. Soon afterwards, the breadth 
and depth of the river are much increased by the 
streams that fall into it, and its character becomes more 
bold and picturesque. Near Franiclode it takes a 
northerly direction, forming nearly a semicircle in the 
next ten miles of its course; after this it 
grows wider, till it receives the Wye near 
and the Avon from Somersetshire, thus forming the 
Bristol Channel. In. its passage t _Gloucester= 
shire, it receives the Upper Avon, the Chelt, the Leden, 
the Frome, and the Lower Avon, near Bristol. This- 
river frequently overflows its banks, particularly below _ 
Gloucester ; in.consequence of which, drains, sea-walls, _ 
&c. have been made, which are under the superintend- | 
ance of a society called the commissioners of the sewers, 
‘The Severn is remarkable for its tide, which rolls in 
with an elevation of three or four feet. The Upper © 
Avon. divides a small part of Gloucestershire from 
Warwickshire, at the. north. extremity, and another 
small portion from Worcestershire, near Tewksbury. 
