twenty; and its contents 775 miles, or 496,000 acres; it has 8433 houfes, and 41,521 inhabitants. It is divided into 10 hundreds, called Creuddin, Dinllaen, Efionydd, Gaffogion, Ifaf, Ifgwfrai, Maed, Nant Conway, Uchaff, and Uwch Gurfrai, these form 71 parishes, and 4 townships. Caernarvonshire has one city, that of Bangor, and the five market towns, Aberconway, Caernarvon, Pwihelly, Crickieth, and Newin.The county fends one member to parliament, as does the county town of Caernarvon.

From the mountains and lakes, which abound in Carnarvonfhire, the air is cold and piercing, but the extremities of the county, particularly thofe bordering on the fea, are fertile; the population is rapidly increafing, nor is the fituation in general unhealthy. Perhaps few diftricts in the world can produce a record fimilar to that on a tomb-ftone at Aberconway, which in 1637 was placed on the grave of Nicholas Hookes, who was the 41ft fon of his father by one wife, and himself the parent of 27 children. The fummits of the mountains, covered with fnow during nine months in the year, are barren, but between them are many fruitful vallies, and large herds of sheep and goats feed on the hills. The county affords, in all parts, excellent pafture, and produces barley, fowl, fish, and wood. The principal river is the Conway, but fome notice is due to the Seint, a fmall, but very rapid ftream, rifing in the heart of the Snowdonia, and forming the lakes of Llanberis in its paffage, which rather inclines to the fouth weft, till it turns abruptly to the north, to reach the fea beneath the mighty towers of Caernarvon caftle. Its tract, though fhort, is highly romantic, being the most central ftream in the mountainous confines of Snowdon. In the rivers, and the running lakes not only a great abundance, but many unufual fpecies, of fish are taken. Conway is famous for a large black mufcle in which pearls are found; fome of the lakes produce the char, and other alpine fish, and it is affirmed, that in a lake called Lhyn y Kwn breeds a kind of trout with only one eye. Copper and lead ores have been found in various parts of the mountains, and many plants peculiar to the most elevated fituations.

The wonders of this county are its mountains, particularly Snowdon and Pen-maen-mawr. Snowdon forms a clufter of lofty hills rifing one above another, and crowned by that called Klogwyn Karneah y Wydha, efteemed the highest land in Great Britain; whence may be feen England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Ifle of Man. Nature no where exhibits her rude outline more magnificently, than where this peak of the British Atlas elevates itfelf above the castle of Dolbarden on the upper lake of Llanberis.

Pen

Pen-maen-mawr rifes perpendicularly over the fea to an aftonishing height. About the middle of the rock, on the fide next the fea, is a road feven feet wide, at the perpendicular height of 240 feet above the level of the ocean, and as many feet below the fummit of the rock and on the fide of the road next the fea is a wall breaft high, to the building of which the city of Dublin largely contributed. On the other fide of the hill is a narrow footway, over which the rock projecting forms a very extraordinary and frightful appearance to

the traveller below.

Gly der is another very high mountain, on the fea fide, not far from Pen-maen-mawr, and is remarkable for a prodigious heap of ones, of an irregular fhape, on its fummit, many of which are as large as thofe of Stonehenge in Wiltshire. They lie in fuch confufion as to refemble the ruins of a building, fome reclining, and fome lying croffwife; a phænomenon which has never been perfectly accounted for, On the weft fide of this mountain is a very steep and naked precipice, adorned with a vaft number of equidiftant pillars; formed undoubtedly by the hand of nature, but by what process has not been afcertained.

The antiquities of the county are a circular intrenchment, about 80 feet in diameter; on the outfide of which are standing twelve rough ftone pillars, from five to fix feet high; which are inclosed by a ftone wall; and near the wall, on the outfide, are three other fuch rough pillars, ranged in a triangular form. This work, called Y Meineu-hirion, is fuppofed to have been an ancient British temple; and near it are feveral monuments, confisting of vaft heaps of ftones, which, according to tradition, are the fepulchral records of ancient Britons, who fell in a battle fought here against the Romans, The remains of Segontium are yet diftinguishable on a planted hill near the exit of the upper lake of Llanberis; nor ought Caernarvon castle to be forgotten, which was built by Edward I., and where the firft prince of Wales defcended from an English king, was born, The apartment is fmall and dark, its length being less than twelve, its breadth lefs than eight feet. The castle walls are feven feet nine inches thick, having within their substance a gallery, with narrow flips for the discharge of arrows.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE. ́

THE name of this county is taken from its principal town, and that derives its appellation from the river Cam. It is about 52 miles in length, 26 in breadth, 130 in circumference, and contains 686 miles, or 439,040 acres. It is divided inta

the

the fourteen hundreds of Armingford, Chesterton, Cheveley, Chilford, Fleudifh, Longftow, Northftow, Papworth, Radfield, Staine, Staploe, Thriplow, Wetherley, and Whittlesford. To these are to be added, the town and univerfity of Cambridge, and the portion of the county diftinguished by the name of the Ifle of Ely, and the aggregate gives a population of 89,346 perfons, and makes the number of dwelling houfes 16,451.In the whole district are 161 parishes, 7 hamlets, 6 townships, 9 towns, and 2 extra-parochial demefnes.

The town and univerfity of Cambridge contain 1,733 houses, and 10,087 inhabitants, and the Ifle of Ely of the former 6,137, of the latter 32,599.

Befides Cambridge and the city of Ely, the principal towns are Newmarket, Royton, Linton, Wifbeach, Caxton, Merth, and Soham; Royston is partly fituated in the county of Herts.

The Ifle of Ely has been recovered by fkill and labour from a ftate of general inundation. It forms part of a large tract called Bedford Level, which Francis Ruffel, Earl of Bedford, began to drain in the reign of Charles I., and which William Earl of Bedford, with other affociates, in his undertaking, perfected in the timé of Charles II. It confifts of fenny land, divided by innumerable channels, with a few elevated fpots. All these low lands are naturally bogs, though converted into rich meadows, or fertile corn fields: the air is unhealthy, and the water brackish, and notwithstanding all the exertions of toil and ingenuity, the lands are fill fubject to inundations. The fouth-weft part of the county is more elevated, and the air more pure; the fouth-eaft part is open and healthy, and but thinly inhabited. The foil is alfo very different: in the Ifle of Ely, though hollow and fpungy, it affords excellent pafturage; in the uplands to the south-caft, it produces great plenty of bread corn, and barley.

Two rivers water this county, the Oufe and the Cam. The Ouse, a sluggish ftream, adds not to the beauty of the land through which it paffes, till it is loft in the great marshes which abound on the eastern coaft of the kingdom. The Cam is compofed of two branches, of which one bears the claffic name of Granta; they unite near Cambridge, and then run nearly northward, till the Oufe receives them a little below Ely.

The reprefentatives returned to parliament from this county are fix; two knights of the fhire, two members for the town, and as many for the University of Cambridge.

Of this univerfity, an account will be given in another part of this work. Next to it, the principal local diftinctions of the county are the celebrated races of Newmarket, the resort of the

gay, the diffipated, the thoughtlefs, and the profligate, yet fupported on liberal principles by royal donations, and the fubfcrip tions of the nobility; and the no lefs celebrated fair of Sturbridge, held in a corn-field half a mile fquare, where commerce and induftry pour forth their accumulated ftores, while idlenefs and revelry collect alfo their votaries, in promifcuous affociation.

CARDIGANSHIRE

Is about 40 miles in length, 20 in breadth, and 100 in circumference, and its area is computed at 726 miles, or 464,640 acres. It contains five hundreds, namely, Geneur Glyn, Ilar, Moyddyn, Pennarth, and Troedyror; which form 63 parishes, 36 townships, 3 hamlets, and 1 town. The principal towns are Cardigan, Lhanbeder, Aberystwith, and Tregannon; the first three join in returning a Burgefs to Parliament, and the county fends one knight. The number of houses in Cardiganfhire is 9040, of inhabitants 42,956.

On the coaft of Cardigan the fea has made great encroachments, even within the memory of man, and tradition speaks of a well inhabited country, ftretching far into the Irish channel, which has been carried off by the fea. Of an extensive tract formerly celebrated for a hundred towns, nothing now remains but two or three miferable villages, and a good deal of ground in high estimation for barley, which is the regular crop without change or intermiffion. Sea weed is the manure made ufe of, and the quality of the grain is fuch, that it is fent to the adjacent counties for feed corn. For at least fixty years, it is faid, crops of barley have been annually taken from it, without any caufe for complaining of a diminished produce. This county may be properly divided into two districts, the lower and the upland. Of the lower diftrict the higher grounds are in general a light fandy loam, varying in depth, from a foot to four or five inches, the fubftratum a flaty kind of rock, producing, when judiciously treated, good crops of turnips, potatoes, barley, and clover; the ground in the vallies is very deep, and, with fome exceptions, dry, yielding good crops of hay for many years, without furface manure, which is fcarcely ever thought of until it is exhausted and becomes mofly, and then it is turned up. The climate is much more mild than the midland counties of England. In this part of the country fnow feldom lies long. Oats and butter are the chief articles of export. The foil of the upper district is various, owing to the unequal surface; in the vallies it is chiefly a ftiff clay, with a mixture of a light loam. Barley and oats are the principal grain of the county. Wheat is commonly fown, but in a lefs proportion than the other two.

The

The worst parts fupply pafture for vaft herds of cattle and flocks of fheep, of which this county is fo full, that it has been called the nursery of all England fouth of Trent. It abounds in river and fea fish of all kinds, and the Tivy is famous for plenty of excellent falmon. Coals and other fuel are scarce; but in the north parts of the county, particularly about Aberystwith, are feveral rich lead mines, the ore of which appears often above ground. These mines were discovered in 1690, fome of them yield filver, and fuccefsful iron and tin works have been eftablished.

The rivers are, the Rhydol, which rifes in Cardiganfhire on the south-western border of Montgomeryshire, being one of the principal rivers produced in that wild and rocky district, which forms the bafe of the great mountain Plimlimmon. Its course is fouthward, till it receives the Monach's torrent at the Devil's Bridge, and it then flows directly to the weft, turning a little. northward as it reaches the fea, beneath the walls of Aberystwith. The faith, which takes its origin in the ridge of high bare mountains, which divides Cardigan hire from Radnorfhire, confiderably to the fouth-east of Plimlimmon; its fhort courfe inclines first to the fouth-weft, but turns abruptly to the north-west, and at laft flows almost directly northward to Aberyft with, where it meets the sea; the Evion, a small river scarcely worthy of mention were it not for the highly pleafing and romantic valley which it creates as it defcends to the sea, and the neat inn of Aberevion, close to its bridge; and the Tivy, the most confiderable river in Cardiganshire, pervading great part of the county, and feparating it from Caermarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, rising from a lake among those mountains which form the barrier of Radnorfhire, it flows fouthward to Tregaron, but turns towards the weft before it reaches Llanbeder; near Newcastle it inclines rather northward, and actually fronts the north, when it approaches the fea, after paffing under the arches of the old bridge of Cardigan.

The Tivy becomes a placid ftream foon after it emerges from its native mountains, and continues fo in its paffage througìn the plain of Cardiganfhire, except when it is fwelled by floods. The monaftic remains of Stata Florida Abbey grace the early part of its course, before it reaches the ancient town of Tregaron; it then enters the wild uninterefting plain in which Llanbeder is fituated, gradually confining itfelf within steep banks fringed with wood as it approaches Newcastle. Soon after it becomes fuddenly engulphed within two piles of high rocks, from which it acquires the rapidity of a furious cataract, precipitating itself in a fall, which has acquired the title of the falmon leap.

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