DEVONSHIRE

Is feventy miles from north to fouth, and about fixty from eaft to west, and contains 2488 miles, or 1,592,320 acres. Its houfes are 61,190, and its inhabitants 343,001. This populous county is divided into thirty-three hundreds, named, Axminster, Bampton, Black-Torrington, Braunton, Budleigh, Clifton, Coleridge, Colyton, Crediton, Ermington, Exminster, Fremington, Halberton, Hartland, Hayridge, Haytor, Hemiock, Lifton, Molton, South, Ottery St. Mary, Plymton, Roborough, Shebbear, Sherwill, Stanborough, Tavistock, Tawton, North and Winckley, Teinbridge, Tiverton, Witheridge and Wenford. It has 449 parishes, 15 townships, 2 villages, 3 hamlets, 4 tythings, and 3 precincts.

The air of this county is mild in the vallies, and fharp on the hills; but in general pleafant and healthy. The foil is various; in the western parts coarfe, moorish and barren, and in many places a ftiff clay, which the water cannot penetrate; it is therefore bad for fheep, which are not only fmall, but very fubject to the rot, especially in wet feafons. This part of the county is, however, happily adapted to the breeding of fine oxen, which the Somersetshire drovers purchase in great numbers, and fatten for the London markets. In the northern parts of the county the foil is dry, and abounds with downs, which afford excellent pafture for fheep, and which, being well dreffed with lime, dung and fand, yield good crops of corn, though not equal to thofe produced in the middle parts of the county, where there is in fome places a rich marle for manuring the ground; and in others a fertile fandy foil. In the eastern parts of Devonshire the foil is ftrong, of a deep red, intermixed with loam, and produces great crops of corn, and the best peafe in Britain. There are a few villages called the South Hams, near Torbay, which are famous for an excellent rough cyder, faid to be the best in the kingdom. Moft barren places here are rendered fruitful by a fhell fand, such as that used in Cornwall; and in fituations remote from the fea, where this fand cannot be easily obtained, the turf, or furface of the ground, is fhaved off and burnt to afhes, which is a good fuccedaneum. The fouthern parts of this county being the most fertile, are called the garden of Devonshire.

As this county abounds in fine rivers, falmon is excellent and in great plenty. There are alfo mines of lead and tin, formerly of more value than even thofe of Cornwall; they were farmed at Ico pounds, while the Cornifh mines produced only 100 marks, and had four. ftannary courts, the laws of which

ftill remain, in fome degree in force, though the working of the mines has long been difcontinued. The tinners are not under the lord-lieutenant, but form a militia by themselves. Iron mines have been discovered, as likewife copper mines, with veins of loadftone and filver. Here are likewife quarries of good stone for building, and flate for covering houses, great quantities of which are exported. The chief manufactures are ferges, duroys, druggets, fhalloons, narrow cloths, stuffs, and bone-lace, in which, and in corn, cattle, wool, and fea fish, the inhabitants carry on a confiderable trade.

The principal rivers of Devonshire are the Tamar, the Tavy, the Plym, the Allerey, the Werrington, the Lyd, the Torridge, the Dart, the Teign, the Ex, the Otter, the Syd, and the Axe.

Devonshire is fo called from the antient British names Deunan and Deuffneynt, which fignify deep vallies, the greatest part of its towns and villages being in a low fituation. It contains one city, and forty confiderable towns, feveral of which require particular notice.

Exeter, the city alluded to, is fituated on the river Ex, about ten miles from the English Channel. It was probably built at the time the Romans were in poffeffion of Britain; was furrounded with walls, and had fix gates, moft of which are pulled down. The fea flowed up formerly to the very walls of the city, and fhips could load and unload at that called the Water-gate; by the contrivance of fluices and gates, vessels of 150 tons can now come up to the quay. Befides the cathedral, which is a magnificent pile of building; there are eighteen other churches, a few chapels, and five large meeting houses. The city is governed by a mayor, aldermen, recorder, and town clerk, &c. and was incorporated by king John, and erected into a county by Henry VIII. All pleas and civil causes are tried by the mayor, aldermen, recorder, and common council; criminal caufes, and private wrongs, are judged by eight aldermen, who are juftices of the peace. In the north weft corner of the city ftood the caftle, called Rougemont, from the colour of the hill on which it was built, fuppofed to have been founded by the Weft Saxon kings, and afterwards made the feat of the Earls of Cornwall. This caftle was completely ruined in the civil wars, when the city held out against Fairfax, who blockaded it for two months, and nothing but the outer walls now remain. The guildhall is a fpacious and convenient building, built in its prefent form in 1593, and repaired in 1720. The public hofpital was erected by fubfcription, in 1740, for the fick and lame of the city and county of Devon. The trade of Exeter confifts principally in the exportation of coarse woollen goods, manufactured in the counties of Devon, Cornwall,

Cornwall, and Somerfet; thefe goods the merchants of Exeter. buy rough from the loom, mill, dye, finifh, and export them; they chiefly confift of druggets, duroys, kerfeys, and everlastings. The Eaft India Company alfo purchase a quantity of long ells, of which about a fourth part are fhipped at Exeter; the remainder at Dartmouth and Plymouth. For making thefe woollens, about 4000 bags of wool are imported at Exeter from Kent. The reft of the wool made ufe of is the product of Devonshire and the neighbouring counties. Exeter has also a confiderable import trade; fends fhips to the Newfoundland and Greenland fisheries, fupplies the circumjacent country with coals, both from the northern collieries and from Wales: and exports corn, especially oats, to London. In the reign of Henry VII, the city was ineffectually befieged by Perkin Warbeck, and the king in acknowledgment of the bravery of the citizens, prefented them with a fword which he himself wore, to be carried before the mayor in all corporate proceffions. Exeter contains 2836 houfes, and 17,398 inhabitants.

Plymouth, which from a small fishing town, is become one of the most confiderable harbours in the kingdom, is situated on the English Channel, at the conflux of the two rivers Tamar and Plym, which form a harbour capable of receiving a thoufand veffels. It is defended by feveral forts, mounted with nearly 300 guns, and particularly by a ftrong citadel erected in the reign of Charles II. before the mouth of the harbour. This citadel, the walls of which include two acres of ground, has five regular bastions, contains a large magazine of stores, and mounts 165 guns. The inlet of the fea, which runs fome miles up the country, at the mouth of the Tamar is called the Hamoaze; and that which receives the little river Plym is called Catwater. About two miles up the Hamoaze are two docks, one wet and the other dry, with a bafon 200 feet square; they are hewn out of a mine of flate, and lined with Portland ftone. The dry dock is formed after the model of a first rate man of war; and the wet dock will contain five first rates. The docks and bafon were conftructed in the reign of William III. there are conveniencies of all kinds for building and repairing fhips; and the whole forms as complete, though not fo large an arfenal, as any in the kingdom.

Plymouth has alfo fpacious and commodious barracks for foldiers, with houfes for the officers, clerks, &c. In the reign of Edward III, part of this town was burnt by the French; and in the reign of Henry IV. 600 houfes were burnt by the fame enemy. During the civil wars of the feventeenth century, Plymouth adhered to the Parliament, and flood a fiege

of

of the royal army for fome months. At the restoration, Charles II. built a fort between the fea and the town, which defends the harbour. The inhabitants carry on the pilchard fishery, and a confiderable trade to the ftraits of Newfoundland.

Plymouth is governed by a mayor, aldermen, recorder, and town clerk it contains, together with its fuburbs, 4536 houses, and 43,194 inhabitants.

Dartmouth, another confiderable town of this county, fo called from its fituation at the mouth of the Dart, on the English Channel; is faid to have been formerly called Clifton, and is an antient corporation and a borough town. The harbour is fafe and large. The merchants send out veffels to Newfoundland for fifh, which they difpofe of in Italy, Spain, and Portugal; loading back with wine, fruit, oil, &c. Dartmouth is esteemed a great nurfery of feamen, the fifhery employing near 3000 men, a certain number of whom, the owners are obliged, by act of Parliament, to felect from landmen.

The county returns two members to Parliament, Exeter, Plymouth, Dartmouth, Barnstaple, Tiverton, Afhburton, Oakhampton, Totnefs, Berealfton, Plympton, Tavistock, and Honiton, return each the like number, making the whole reprefentation of the county 26 members.

The other confiderable towns are Crediton, Biddiford, Topfham, Axminster, Bampton, Newton-Abbot, Lyfton, Bowe, Bradninch, Brent, Kingsbridge, Dodbrook, Chudleigh, Chumleigh, Cullumpton, Comb-Martin, Culliton, Hartland, Hatherly, Holdfworthy, Ilfracomb, Modbury, Morton, Sidmouth, South Molton, Torrington, Chegford, Sheep Wash, and Teignmouth or Tinmouth.

Before the account of this county is terminated, it is fit to notice the excellent harbour of Torbay, the great rendezvous for the British navy as a defence against wefterly winds; and celebrated for being the place where William III. landed, on the 6th November 1688. The Eddiftone rocks and lighthoufe also claim particular notice. Thefe rocks lying in the English Channel, nearly in the full way from the Start to the Lizard, and being covered at flood tide, though dry at ebb, muft, without a fufficient beacon, ever be fatal to mariners. On the fummit of the largest rock, therefore, a light-house has been erected. to ferve as a beacon, or fignal, to avoid the danger. The first light-house was erected in 1696; and, after refifting many violent ftorms, was blown down on the 27th November 1703, when the projector, who then happened to be in it, and all his attendants, perished. The corporation of the Trinity-house erected another in 1709, and, to support the

expence,

expence, laid a duty on all veffels paffing; it was burnt in 1755, and rebuilt by Mr. Smeaton in 1759; this erection was alfo burnt in 1770, and rebuilt in 1774. The building, as now conftructed, confifts of four rooms, one over the other, and at the top, a gallery and lantern. The ftone floors are flat above but concave beneath, and are kept from preffing against the fides of the building, by a chain let in to the walls. Portland stone and granite are united together by a strong cement, and let into horizontal fteps by dovetails on the fouth-weft. The ingenious architect discovered that Portland ftone was likely to be destroyed by a marine animal, and as the working of granite was very expenfive and laborious, the external part only was conftructed with this, and the internal part with the other. To form a frong and broad base, and a strong bulk of matter to refift the waves, the foundation is one entire folid mafs of ftones to the height of 35 feet, engrafted into each other, and united by every means of additional strength. It is about 80 feet in height.

DORSETSHIRE.

THE prefent name of this county is derived from the Saxon Douretta, which fignifies a people living by the water or fea fide. It is that diftrict which, in the time of the Romans, was inhabited by the Durotriges; a name purely British, compounded of Dour, water, and Trig, an inhabitant. It is defcribed by five divifions, namely, Blandford, Bridport, Dorchefter, Shafton, and Sherborne, which contain the following hundreds and liberty: Barrow, Beer, Coombfditch, Hafilor, Pimperne, Robarrow, Rufhmore, Winfrith, Beaminster, and Redhone, Eggarton, Godderthorne, Whitechurch, Canonicorum, Culliford, Tree, George, Puddle-town, Tollesford, Uggefcombe, Knowlton, Badbury, Cogdean, Cranborne, Loofebarrow, Sixpenny Handley, Upwimborne, Brownfell, Buckland and Sturminster, Newton-Caftle, Cerne, Totcombe and Mod-barrow, Redlane, Sherborne, Whitway, and Yetminster, and the liberty of Gillingham. Thefe include 268 parishes, 9 towns, I township, 8 tythings, 1 hamlet, and 3 extra-parochial jurifdictions. The area of the county is computed at 1129 fquare miles, or 722,560 acres, and it contains 22,262 houses, and 115,319 people.

This county is, for the most part, hilly; the foil is in general fhallow, over a chalky bottom, but in fome of the vallies very rich. The number of fheep is estimated at upwards of 800,000, of which 15,000 are annually fold and fent out of the county. Great advantages are derived from the fheep, not only from