The principal rivers are the Lea, which, rising some miles beyond Luton in Bedfordshire and entering Hertfordshire at Hidemill, flows south-east to Hatfield and then east by north to Hertford and Ware, whence it bends southward, and passing along the eastern boundary of the county falls into the Thames a little below London, having received in its course the Maram, the Beane, the Rib, and the Stort, which all flow southward in the north-eastern part of the county, the Stort for some distance forming the boundary between it and Essex; the Colne, which, flowing through the south-western part of the county, falls into the Thames at Brentford, having received in its course the Ver, the Bulborne, and the Gade; the Ivel, which, rising in the north-west of the county, soon passes into Bedfordshire. The New River, one of the water supplies of London, made by Sir Hugh Myddelton (1607-13), has its source in some springs near Ware, and runs parallel for many miles with the Lea. The Grand Junction Canal from London to Birmingham traverses the south-west corner of the county, passing by Watford and Berkhampstead. There are mineral springs in the parishes of Chipping Barnet, Northaw, and Watton.

Geologically the county consists of Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks, the greater part being Lower, Middle, and Upper Chalk, which in the south-eastern part of the county are covered by Tertiary deposits belonging to the London basin. Over a large part of the eastern side of the county there are superficial deposits of glacial origin, and on the western side there are traces of the Lower Tertiary beds having formerly extended over a much wider area, outliers of the beds being of not unfrequent occurrence, and the drift deposits on the chalk hills being largely composed of their debris. The vales traversed by the rivers and streams exhibit in the bottoms a rich sandy loam; the sloping sides are covered by loams of inferior quality; and the flat surface of the high ground is generally formed of a loom of reddish hue tending towards common clay, with which it is often confounded.

The climate is mild, dry, and remarkably salubrious. On this account the London physicians were accustomed to recommend the county for persons in weak health, and it was so much coveted by the noble and wealthy as a place of residence, that it was a common saying—“He who buys a home in Hertfordshire pays two years’ purchase for the air.” j r

According to the agricultural returns for 1879, the total area of arable land was 339,187 acres, of which 145,666 acres were under corn crops, 39,443 under green crops, 38,416 under rotation grasses, 97,548 permanent pasture, and 18,111 fallow. The area under woods was 20,714 acres. It will thus be seen that the main produce of Hertfordshire is corn. The principal crop is wheat, which in 1879 occupied 59,363 acres. The varieties mostly grown are white, and they are not surpassed by those of any county in England. Wheathampstead on the river Lea receives its name from the fine quality of the wheat grown in that district. Of barley, which is largely made use of in the county for malting purposes, there were 49,129 acres in 1879, and of oats only 25,779. Little or no rye is grown, and of pease and beans together there were in 1879 only a little over 11,000 acres. Of green crops, turnips and Swedes occupied in 1879 an area of 21,578 acres, while potatoes had only 2576. Vetches are largely grown for the London stables, extending to 8191 acres in 1879. The greater part of the permanent grass is made use of for hay. There are some very rich pastures on the banks of the river Stort, extending from Hertford to Hockeril on the borders of the river Lea, and also near Rickmansworth, where they are watered by the river Colne. The percentage of cultivated area in 1879 was 86’7 instead of 85’1 in 1870; of area under corn crops 37’2 instead of 38’5; under green crops 10 - 1 instead of 11 '5; under rotation grasses 9 - 8 instead of 10 - 2; and of permanent pasture 24 9 instead of 22 Ό. The most common system of rotation is the five-course—turnips or fallow, barley, clover, wheat, oats. In the south-west part of the county large quantities of cherries and apples are grown for the London market. On the best soils nearest to London culinary vegetables are forced by the aid of rich manure, and more than one crop are sometimes obtained in a year.

Generally · speaking, the quantity of stock kept is small. Not much attention is paid to the breeds of cattle, but among cows the Suffolk variety is the most common. The number of cattle in 1879 was only 31,754, or an average of 9’3 to every 100 acres under cultivation, the average for England being 11’9, and for the United Kingdom 21Ό. Of these the number of cows in milk or in calf was 11,802. The numberof horses in 1879 was 15,022,oran average of 4 - 4 to every 100 acres, the average for England being 4 - 5 and for the United Kingdom 4 , 1. The horses used for agricultural purposes are chiefly Suffolk punches. The number of sheep in 1879 -was 171,133, or an average of 50 ∙4 to every 100 acres under cultivation, the average for England being 75 - 3, and for the United Kingdom 68 - 0. The principal kinds are the Southdown and Wiltshire, and a cross between Cotswolds and Leicesters. · Pigs in 1879 numbered 30,404, or an average of 8 ’ 9 to every 100 acres under cultivation, the average for England being 7 - 2, and that for the United Kingdom 6 ’ 7.

In Hertfordshire the number of resident proprietors is very large, which circumstance, as well as the proximity to London, has doubtless greatly aided the development of agricultural enterprise. The average extent of the farms is about 200 acres, and the modern improvements are everywhere adopted.

According to the return of owners of land for 1872-73, the soil was divided among 12,387 proprietors, holding land the gross annual rental of which was £1,163,192. Of the owners 77 per cent, held less than one acre, and the total annual value for the county was £2, 17s. 3⅛d. per acre. There were only eight proprietors who held upwards of 4000 acres, viz., Marquis of Salisbury, Hatfield, 13,389; Abel Smith, Watton, 10,212; Earl Cowper, Panshanger, 10,122; Earl of Verulam, Gorhambury, St Albans, 8625; Earl Brownlow, Ashridge Park, 8551; Lord Dacre, The Hoo, Welwyn, 7100; Charles C. Hale, King’s Walden, 6558; and Earl of Essex, Cashiobury Park, Watford, 6157. W. R. Baker, Bayfordbury, comes next with 3911 acres.

The staple trade of the county is in corn and malt, most of which is sent to the metropolis. There are numerous flour-mills, as well as breweries, tanneries, tile-works, and coach factories, but the principal manufactures are paper, silk, and straw plait.

Hertfordshire is so much intersected by railways that no place in any part of the county is more than 5 miles distant from a station. On the eastern border there is the Great Eastern, with branches to Hertford and Buntingford. The middle of the county is traversed by the Great Northern, with branches from Hatfield to Hertford, Luton, Dunstable, and St Albans, and from Hitchin to Royston, and thence to Cambridge. The Midland passes through St Albans, with branches to the Great Northern and London and NorthWestern. The London and North-Western traverses the southwestern corner.

The county comprises 8 hundreds, and the municipal boroughs of Hertford and St Albans. The principal towns are the municipal and parliamentary borough of Hertford (municipal borough, 7169), the city of St Albans (8298), Hitchin (7630), Watford (7461), Bishop Stortford (6250), Hemel-Hempstead (5996), Ware (4917), Berkhampstead (4083), Tring (4045), Barnet (3720). For parliamentary representation the county is an undivided constituency, and returns three members, while one member is returned for the borough of Hertford. Hertfordshire is in the south-eastern circuit. There were formerly two courts of quarter sessions, one for the county and one for the liberty of St Albans, which liberty had also a separate commission of the peace, but the county and the liberty are now amalgamated, though prisoners are tried both at Hertford and St Albans. The jail for the county is at the latter city. The county is divided into fifteen petty sessional divisions, and for some purposes into two divisions, those of Hertford and the liberty of St Albans. The boroughs of Hertford and St Albans have commissions of the peace. Ecclesiastically the county is in the diocese of St Albans, and contains 138 civil parishes, townships, or places, as well as parts of other parishes extending into adjoining counties. The total population in 1871 was 192,226, of whom 93,244 were malesand 98,982 females. The population in 1861 was 173,280. Since the first census in 1801 it has increased by 94,833, or 97 per cent.

History and Antiquities.— Previous to the Roman invasion the Celtic inhabitants of Hertfordshire, as of the other parts of South Britain, had been subdued by the Belgae. In 54 b.c. Cassivelaunus, the chief of the Cassii, led an army to oppose Caesar, but he was defeated, and his capital Verulam, near the present town of St Albans, taken. At Verulam and Berkhampstead traces of ancient British works may yet be seen; and it has been conjectured that British stations existed at Royston, Braughing, and various other places in the county. Numerous British coins have been found at Verulam. Three principal British roads or trackways crossed the county: Watling Street passed through its south-west corner, in a northwest direction by St Albans to Dunstable; Ermine Street entered the south-east corner at Little Hookgate, whence it proceeded by Gough’s Oak and Broxbourne Bury to Ware, holding thence much the same course as the present road by Buntingford to Royston; Icknield Street, from Dunstable to Royston, crossed the north-west corner. There are numerous barrows at Royston, and along the range of chalk hills at the northern edge of the county. Hertfordshire was the scene of an important part of the struggle carried on against the Romans by Caractacus about 44 A.υ.; and during the rebellion of Boadicea the Romans were defeated on the road from Verulam to Colchester, and Verulam itself was taken and devastated by the Britons. The shire was included within the Roman province of Flavia. Among the Roman stations within its limits were the capital Verulamium, which the Romans rebuilt and fortified; Forum Diance, not far from Dunstable; Ad Fines, supposed to have been near Braughing, where there are remains of a vallum with fosse; and probably others at Royston and Bishop Stortford. Watling Street and Ermine Street were causewayed as Roman roads, and other branch roads traversed the county in various directions. Roman antiquities have been found at Verulam, Braughing, Royston, Wilbury Hill (where there are remains of an ancient camp), Cheshunt, Hemel-Hempstead, and Bishop Stortford. After the conquest of England by the Anglo-Saxons, Hertfordshire was included partly in Mercia and partly in Essex. It was the scene of frequent contests between the Saxons and the Danes. In 896 the Danes, having anchored their vessels in the Lea near the town of Ware, laid siege to Hertford, whereupon Alfred the Great, by dividing the stream into three channels, stranded their vessels and compelled them to retreat to the Severn. After the battle of Senlac in 1066, William the Conqueror, in order to force the earls to hurry home from London to their earldoms, crossed the Thames at Wallingford and marched into Hertfordshire, where at Berkhampstead an attempt was made by the abbot of St Albans to stop his course by cutting down the trees; and at a meeting of nobles held at the town he took an oath to rule according to the ancient laws and customs of the country. The subsequent events of historic importance connected with the county are the capture of Hertford castle by the revolted barons under the French dauphin, December 6, 1216; the battle between the royalists and the armies of the White Rose at St Albans, May 22, 1455, in which Henry VI. was wounded and taken prisoner; a second battle near St Albans, 17th February 1461, in which the earl of Warwick was defeated by Queen Margaret; the defeat near Barnet of the earl of Warwick by Edward IV., 14th April 1471; and the arrest by Cromwell of the high sheriff of the county as he was proceeding to St Albans for the purpose of proclaiming by order of Charles I. that all the Parliamentary commanders were rebels and traitors.

Among the objects of antiquarian interest may be mentioned the cave of Royston, rediscovered in 1742, doubtless at one time used as a hermitage, and containing rude carvings of the crucifixion and other sacred subjects; Waltham cross, in the Pointed style of architecture, (restored in 1833), erected to mark the spot where rested the body of Eleanor, Queen of Edward I., on its way to Westminster for interment; and the Great Bed of Ware referred to in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, for many years shown to visitors at the Crown Inn of that town, and in September 1864 put up to auction at the Saracen’s Head for 100 guineas andbought in. The principal monastic buildings are the noble pile of St Albans abbey, founded about 793 in honour of the first Christian martyr of Great Britain; the remains of Sopwell Benedictine nunnery near St Albans, founded in 1140; the remains of the priory of Ware, dedicated to St Francis, and originally a cell to the monastery of St Ebrulf at Utica in Normandy; and the remains of the priory at Hitchin built by Edward II. for the White Carmelites. Among the more interesting churches may be mentioned those of Abbots Langley and Hemel-Hempstead, both of Late Norman architecture; Baldock, a handsome Gothic building supposed to have been erected by the Knights Templars in the reign of Stephen; Royston, formerly connected with the priory of the canons regular; Hitchin, built in the 15th century on the site of an older structure, with a fine porch in the Perpendicular style and an altarpiece by Rubens; Hatfield, dating from the 13th century; Berkhampstead, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, with a tower of the 16th century. The ruins of secular buildings of importance are the massive remains of Berkhampstead castle, Hertford castle, Hatfield palace, the slight traces at Bishop Stortford, and the earthworks at Anstie. Of the numerous mansions of interest only a few can be mentioned :—the Rye House, erected in the reign of Henry VI., tenanted by Rumbold, one of the principal agents in the plot to assassinate Charles II.; Moor Park, Rickmansworth, at one time the property of St Albans abbey, granted by Henιy VII. to John de Vere, earl of Oxford, for some time in the possession of Cardinal Wolsey and subsequently of the duke of Monmouth, who built the present mansion, which, however, after it was sold by the duchess of Monmouth to Mr Styles, was cased with Portland stone, and received various other additions at a cost of £150,000; Knebworth, the seat of the Lyttons, originally a Norman fortress, rebuilt in the time of Elizabeth in the Tudor style, and restored in the present century; Hatfield House, the manor of which was granted to the abbey of St Ethelred at Ely by King Edgar, and with the palace was made over to Henry VIII., from whose reign it remained a royal residence until the time of James I., who exchanged it for the palace of Theobalds with Sir Robert Cecil, afterwards earl of Salisbury 7 , by whom the present mansion in the Elizabethan style was erected, being founded in 1611; Panshanger House, now the principal seat of the Cowpers, a splendid mansion in the Gothic style erected at the beginning of the present century; Cashiobury House, the seat of the earls of Essex, supposed to derive its name from the old British tribe Cassii, and the manor of which was formerly held by the abbot of St Albans, rebuilt in the beginning of the present century from designs by Wyatt, somewhat resembling those of Windsor Castle; Gorhambury House, formerly the seat of the Bacons, and the residence of the great chancellor, but rebuilt by the Grimstons. Among the eminent persons connected with the county were Nicholas Brakespeare (Pope Adrian IV.), Francis Bacon, Sir John Mandeville, William Cowper, Charles Lamb, and Lord Lytton.

The old histories of Hertfordshire by Cox, Salmon, and Chauncey have been superseded by the splendid work of Clutterbuck, 3 vols, folio, 1815-27, and the laborious compilation now in course of publication by John Edwin Cussans.

Hertford, a town of England, capital of the above county, is situated in a sheltered valley on the river Lea, and on the Great Northern and Great Eastern Railways, 26 miles north of London by rail· It is somewhat irregularly built, but is neat, clean, and well-paved. The principal buildings are the shire-house or town-hall, erected on the site of the former edifice, and finished in 1771; the corn exchange, erected in 1858; the church of All Saints recently restored, a cruciform structure of the 14th century, with a square tower surmounted by a spire; the new church of St Andrews, occupying the site of the old one; the brick edifice which occupies the site of the ancient castle, and includes some portions of the old building; and the infirmary. The county jail has lately been sold under the provisions of the new Prisons Act. There are a large number of educational institutions, including the preparatory school for Christ’s Hospital, London; Hale’s grammar school for boys, the Cowper Testimonial school for boys, the Abel Smith Memorial school for girls, and the Green Coat school for boys and girls of poor parents who have never received alms. The town depends for its prosperity chiefly on agriculture. The trade is principally in wheat and wool, and a large quantity of malt is made for the London breweries. There are also breweries, iron foundries, and flour and oil mills. The population of the municipal borough in 1871 was 7169, and of the parliamentary borough 7894. The area of the municipal borough is 864 acres, and of the parliamentary borough 1123 acres.

The name Hertford is identified by Bede with Herudford, meaning red ford, but more probably it is a corruption of Hereford, meaning army ford, and indeed it is spelt in this way by Saxon authorities and in some monastic charters. In 673 a council was convened at Hertford by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, at which two Saxon kings attended. The castle was erected about 905 by Edward the Elder, who at the same time rebuilt the town, which had in all probability been devastated by the Danes. Its custody and the government of the town were given by William the Conqueror to Peter de Valoignes. Subsequently it was surrendered to the crown. In the reign of John it was captured by the revolted barons headed by the dauphin of France. By Edward III. the castle was made the occasional prison of John II. king of France and David king of Scotland. Hertford is recorded as a borough in Domesday. It received its first charter from Queen Mary in 1554, and this was renewed and modified by Elizabeth, and confirmed and extended by James I. and Charles II. The borough sent two members to parliament from the reign of Edward I. to the 50th of Edward UI., when the privilege was suspended until the reign of James I. Since the Reform Act of 1867 it has returned only one member....