Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/610

 598 ENGLAND 345 m. ; from the South Foreland to the Land's End, 317 m. ; and from the Land's End to Ber- wick, 425 in. ; making a total perimeter of 1,087 m., but following the sinuosities of the coast the perimeter is about 2,000 m. The area of England is 50,922 sq. m. ; that of Wales 7,398 sq. m. The divisions of England are very ancient, the counties being substantially the same now as they were ten centuries ago, though a few have been made in later times. Each county is subdivided into hundreds, and the hundreds into parishes. London is the metropolis of the United Kingdom, and among the other principal places are Liverpool, Man- chester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Bradford, Stoke-upon-Trent, Newcastle, Hull, Portsmouth, Brighton, Southampton, and York. The following table shows the population of the counties in 1861 and 1871, and the county towns : COUNTIES. POPULATION. COUNTY TOWNS. 1861. 1871. Bedford... 185,265 176,103 166,597 175,950 505,153 869,323 205,293 839,877 584,531 188,651 509,018 404,644 485,502 123,659 173,294 64,297 783,675 2,428,744 237,402 411.997 2,205,771 174,670 435,422 227,727 343,028 298,784 172,266 21,859 240,876 444,725 481,495 746,584 836,271 880,686 863,648 561,728 60,809 249,455 307,601 240,359 40,377 244,804 1,507,511 146,256 196.445 175.870 186,363 561,131 362.098 220,245 880,538 600,814 195,544 685,045 466,427 534.820 125,364 192,725 68,672 847,507 2,818,904 268.764 486,163 2,588.882 195,391 438,511 243,896 886,959 819.956 177.956 22,070 248,064 463,412 543.837 857.333 84S.479 1,090.270 417.407 633.902 r.. r ).005 257.202 338,843 269.505 43.796 291,589 1,831,223 Bedford. Reading. Aylesbury. Cambridge. Chester. Bodmin. Carlisle. Derby. Exeter. Dorchester. Durham. Chelmsford. Gloucester. Hereford. Hertford. Huntingdon. Canterbury. Lancaster. Leicester. Lincoln. Brentford. Monmouth. Norwich. Northampton. j Newcastle- J upon-Tyne. Nottingham. Oxford. Oakham. Shrewsbury. Bath. Winchester. Stafford. Ipswich. Guildford. Chichester. Warwick. Appleby. Salisbury. Worcester. Beverley. York. Northallerton. Ripon. Berks Buckingham Cambridge Cheshire Cornwall Cumberland Derby Devon Dorset Durham Essex Gloucester. . . Hereford Hertford Huntingdon Kent Lancaster Leicester Lincoln Middlesex Mon mouth... . Norfolk Northampton Northumberland Nottingham . . . Oxford Rutland Salop (Shropshire)... Somerset Southampton (Hants, Hampshire) Stafford... Suffolk Surrey .... Sussex Warwick Westmoreland. . . Wilts Worcester York: East Riding City . North Riding West Riding Total 18,949,930 21,487,688 Wales, which was incorporated with the Eng- lish monarchy in the time of Edward I., is divided into 12 counties, with an aggregate population in 1861 of 1,111,795, and in 1871 of 1,216,420. The aggregate population of England and Wales in 1871 was 22, 704, 108, of whom 11,040,403 were males and 11,663,705 females. The number of marriages registered in 1871 was 190,015 ; births, 797,143 ; deaths, 515,096; the mortality being thus a little less than 22*7 per 1,000, and the natural increase 282,047, or 12'9 per 1,000 nearly. The increase of the population in England and Wales from 1861 to 1871 was 2,637,884, or 13'15 percent,, being an average annual increase of 1-24 per cent. The most important rivers are the Med- way, Thames, Stour, Orwell, Great Ouse, Nene, Welland, Witham, Humber (with its branches the Trent and Ouse), Tees, Wear, Tyne, and Tweed, flowing into the North sea ; the Esk, Eden, Lune, Kibble, Mersey, Dee, Severn, Avon, Taw, and Torridge, which empty on the W. coast ; and the Tamar, Exe, Frome, Avon (Hampshire), and Southampton water, which flow into the English channel. Many of these have broad estuaries and are navigable by large vessels. The English lakes, though few, are famed for their beauty. The picturesque dis- tricts of Westmoreland and Cumberland, in which are TJllswater (9 in. long, and from to 2 m. wide), Windermere, the largest lake in England (10 m. long, and from 1 to 2 m. wide), Bassenthwaitewater, Derwentwater, Butter- mere, Ennerdale water, &c., are favorite sum- mer resorts. The seacoast is much broken, and abounds in fine harbors and roadsteads. On the east are the estuaries of the Medway, Thames, and Humber, and the Wash, into which empty the Great Ouse, Nene, Witham, &c. ; on the west the broad Solway frith, between England and Scotland, Morecambe bay, the Bristol channel, and the estuaries of the Dud- don, Kibble, Mersey, Dee, and Severn ; and on the south Mount's bay, Falmouth harbor, Ply- mouth sound, Tor bay, the estuary of the Exe, Weymouth bay, Poole harbor, the Solent and Southampton water between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Chichester harbors. Near the entrance of Dover strait into the North sea are the well known anchor- age grounds called the Downs, opposite the towns of Deal and Sandwich. The E. coast presents an alternation of sandy beaches and chalk cliffs, hollowed out in many places into caves, and with several high promontories. The Atlantic tides form a strong current, sweep- ing S. along this coast, and continually wearing away the limestone cliffs and headlands ; the encroachments of the sea have already buried large tracts of land. A submarine forest has been traced along a great part of the coast of Lincolnshire. On the sandy portions of the seaboard the opposite phenomenon is observed ; portions of land have here been gained from the water, the town of Nor- wich, which is now near the centre of the E. division of Norfolk, having stood in the 13th and 14th centuries on an arm of the sea. The S. coast, from the South Foreland to be- yond Folkestone, is characterized by lofty chalk cliffs, which are continually diminishing in height. It then gradually subsides into Rom-