from a small lake on the E. side of Plynlimmon, after a course of 240 m., through Montgomeryshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire, flows into Bristol Channel). The principal tributaries of the Severn? The Upper and Lower Avon which flow into it on the left (respectively at Tewkesbury, and 8 m. below Bristol); and the Wye (130 m. the most beautiful aud picturesque river in S. Britain; which also takes its rise in Plynlimmon, near the source of the Severn), and the Usk, which flow into it on the right (respectively below Chepstow and Newport). The two principal rivers that flow into Bristol Channel? The Towey into the N.W., and the united stream of the Tone and the Parret, which flow into the S.E. of it. The three principal English rivers that flow into the English Channel? The (Hampshire) Avon, the Exe, and the Tamar.

The political divisions of England (proper), forty in number, are called? Shires or Counties. The six northern counties? Northumberland (between the northernmost part of which and the Tweed is a detached portion of the county of Durham; off the S. part of, and belonging to which, 9 m. S.S.E of Berwick-upon-Tweed, is the peninsula of Holy Island or Lindisfarne, insulated at high water, 7 or 8 m. to the S.E. of which are the rocky islets called the Fern Islands); Durham and York on the E. side; and Cumberland (towards the S.W. of which is the picturesque valley of Borrowdale; amongst the crags at the head of which the Derwent takes its rise, and in which is a mine producing black lead, otherwise called plumbago, graphite, or provincially, wad, greatly superior in quality to any other that has hitherto been discovered, but now nearly exhausted), Westmoreland and Lancashire on the W. side. Chief towns in Northumberland ? Newcastle, on the Tyne; Berwickupon-Tweed (before the Municipal Reform Act a free town,

*Shire, from the Saxon word schyran, to divide (whence, also, our words share and to shear), was originally a division of the kingdom under the jurisdiction of an earl or count (whose authority was intrusted to the sheriff, i. e., shire-reeve); whence the term county is often substituted for shire in Great Britain, and in Ireland always.

nominally independent both of England and Scotland, now joined to Northumberland, and in which justice is administered according to the forms of English law); and Morpeth and Alnwick inland, in the E. of the county. Chief towns in Durham? Durham and Sunderland, on the Wear; and Stockton, on the Tees. The three great subdivisions of Yorkshire are? The N. Riding (in the N. of which are the rich agricultural districts Cleveland and Ryedale), the E. Riding (the S.E. peninsular portion of which—an extensive grazing district-is called Holderness), and the W. Riding. The capital of the whole county? York, at the junction of the three Ridings. Immediately to the S.W. of which (but politically annexed to the N. Riding) is a district (of 86 square miles in extent), formerly under the jurisdiction of the city, called? The Ainsty. The chief towns in the N. Riding? Scarborough and Whitby, on the coast. In the E. Riding? Hull, or more properly Kingston-upon- (the small river) Hull (which flows southward into the Humber). In the W. Riding? Ripon, on the Ure; Leeds, on the Aire; Bradford, W. from Leeds; Halifax and Wakefield, on the Calder; and Huddersfield, W. by S. from Wakefield; and Sheffield and Doncaster, on the Don. The chief towns in Cumberland? Carlisle, on the Eden; Workington, at the mouth of the Derwent ; and Whitehaven (on the coast), S. from Workington. The chief towns in Westmoreland? Appleby, on the Eden; and Kendal, on the Ken (which flows southward into Morecambe Bay). The chief towns in Lancashire? Lancaster, on the Lune; and Preston, on the Ribble ;-Liverpool and Warrington, on the Mersey; Manchester and Bury (pr. Berry), on the Irwell (which flows southward into the Mersey, and which, from the number of mills and factories on its banks, has been aptly styled "the hardest worked river in the world"); Rochdale, Oldham, and Ashton-underLyne, in the S.E.; Blackburn, in the N.; and Wigan and Bolton, in the interior-of the southern part of the county. The north-westernmost part of Lancashire, separated from the rest of the county by Morecambe Bay (between which and the estuary of the Duddon is Walney Island, 9 m. long

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by 1 m. broad) is called? Furness. Of which the principal town is Ulverstone. The four Eastern Counties ? Lincolnshire (consisting of the parts of Lindsey, in the N.; of Kesteven, in the S.W.; of Holland, in the S.E; and of the Isle of Axholme in the N.W., bounded on the E. by the lower course of the Trent), Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex (in the S.W. of which is Epping Forest). The principal towns in Lincolnshire? Lincoln, Boston, and Grantham, all on the Witham. In Norfolk? Norwich, on the Wensum (2 m. above its junction with the Yare); Yarmouth, on (the estuary of) the Yare (called Braydon Water, about 4 m. long, and in some parts a mile broad, which, at its N.E. extremity, receives the waters of the Bure from the N.E. of the county, and at its S.W. extremity the waters of the Waveney, which forms the principal part of the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk); and LynnRegis, at the mouth of the Great Ouse. In Suffolk ? Ipswich, on the Orwell, in the S.E.; and Bury St. Edmund's, on the Larke, towards the N.W. of the county. In Essex? Chelmsford, on the Chelmer; Colchester, on the Colne (between the Blackwater and the Stour); and Harwich, on the estuary of the Stour. The four counties bordering upon Wales? Cheshire, Shropshire (or Salop), Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire. Principal towns in Cheshire? Chester, on the Dee; Birkenhead (opposite Liverpool) and Stockport, on the Mersey; and Macclesfield, S. from Stockport. In Shropshire? Shrewsbury (E. from which is the noted isolated hilly mass called the Wrekin, 1320 ft.), and Bridgenorth, both on the Severn. In Herefordshire? Hereford on the Wye. In Monmouthshire ? Monmouth, on the Wye; and Newport on the Usk. The six southern English counties? Kent (on the S. coast of which, towards Dunge Ness, is an extensive level tract of sheep pasture, Romney Marsh, once an arm of the sea, from which it is now protected by a huge embankment), Sussex, Hampshire (Hants or Southamptonshire, in the S.W. of which is New Forest, the property of the crown, at one time covering the whole space between Southampton Water and the Avon, and still by far the most extensive

of our English forests; and off the S.E. coast of which is Portsea Island, separated from the mainland by a channel so narrow that it is bridged over), Dorsetshire (on the coast of which are the so-called isles of Portland and Purbeck: Purbeck a peninsula; and Portland, insular only at certain times of the tide, and connected with the mainland by a remarkable pebbly ridge, 9 m. in length, called the Chesil Bank), Devonshire (the greater portion of the southern part of which is occupied by an extensive and elevated bleak plateau of rugged and irregular surface, known by the name of Dartmoor; and belonging to which, 10 m. N.N.W. from Hartland Point, is the rocky granite island called Lundy Isle), and Cornwall (between the two southern peninsulas of which the Horns of Cornwall-terminating respectively in the Land's End and Lizard Point, is Mount's Bay, so called from its remarkable, fortified, pyramidal, granite rock, St. Michael's Mount, 230 ft. in height, and about a mile in circuit, joined to the mainland by a causeway, which is covered by the sea at high water; and 30 m. W.S.W. from which is the group of the Scilly Isles, about 140 in number, most of them uninhabited,-between which and the mainland is a dangerous rocky ledge called the Wolf). Of towns in Kent there are on the Thames ? Deptford, Greenwich, Woolwich, and Gravesend. On the Medway (which, rising in the N. of Sussex, flows quite through Kent into the estuary of the Thames)? Maidstone, Rochester, and Chatham (continuous with Rochester). And (at the entrance of the estuary of the Medway) in (the N.W. extremity of) the Isle of Sheppey, formed by an arm of the sea called the Swale? Sheerness. Four miles to the N.E. of which-kept floating upon a sandbank—is the Nore light; whence the estuary of the Thames to the North of Sheppey is called? The Nore. The principal inland city in the N.E. of Kent? Canterbury on the (small river) Stour. And on the coast of the Isle of Thanet, the northeasternmost portion of the county (a delta, bounded on the S. and W. by the Stour and its branch the Nethergong)? Margate and Ramsgate. And on the E. coast of Kent the principal towns are? Deal, Dover, and Folkestone. Princi

pal towns in Sussex? Lewes (9 m. N.E. from Brighton, on a small stream called the Ouse) and Chichestsr (15 m. E.N.E. from Portsmouth), inland; and Brighton and Hastings on the coast. In Hampshire? Portsmouth on (the S.W. extremity of) Portsea island (at the entrance of its famous harbour), and Winchester and Southampton on the Itchen (which flows southward into Southampton Water). And in the Isle of Wight (at the western extre-` mity of which is a cluster of pointed pyramidal rocks called the Needles) separated from the mainland of Hampshire by the Solent and Spithead ? Newport, inland; and Ryde and Cowes (a short way to the E. of which is Osborne House, the marine residence of the Queen) on the coast. In Dorsetshire? Dorchester, on the Frome (which flows into Poole Bay); and Weymouth and Poole, on the coast (of the Bays, respectively, to the N. of the Isles of Portland and Purbeck). In Devonshire? Exeter on the Exe; Plymouth with Devonport its suburb, on Plymouth Sound (the harbour of which is protected by a stupendous Breakwater, 1700 yards in length, and 16 broad at the top; 14 m. S.S.W. of which is the famous Eddystone lighthouse); and Torquay, on the N. side of Torbay. In Cornwall? Launceston on the Tamar; and Falmouth and Penzance, seaports. Where is Gloucestershire (in which is the Dean Forest, which once covered the principal part of the county to the W. of the Severn)? In the S.W. of England, on both sides of the lower Severn. Chief towns? Gloucester, on the Severn; Bristol with Clifton its suburb, on the Avon, 8 m. from where it disembogues into Bristol Channel); and Cheltenham (8 m.) to the N.E. of Gloucester. Somersetshire (in which, at the confluence of the Tone and the Parret, is a marshy tract of about 100 acres, formerly the isle of Athelney)? S.W. from Gloucestershire, on the S. side of Bristol Channel. Chief towns? Bath, on the Avon (12 m. above Bristol); Wells (19 m. S.W. from Bath) and Taunton (on the Tone). Wiltshire (towards the S. of which is an undulating, upland, grassy tract, known by the name of Salisbury Plain, whence, as from a common centre, radiate most of the hilly ranges of southern and