DEVONSHIRE, the British name of which was Dyvnaint, while the inhabitants were called Dyvnonwyn, or inhabitants of low lands, formed a part of the district included in the appellation of Danmonium. During the dominion of the Romans it was included in the district called Britannia Prima; but under the Saxons it was constituted a part of the kingdom of Wessex.

The county of Devon is the second in size of all the English shires, being exceeded by that of York alone. On the north and north-west it is bounded by the Irish Channel, on the west by the rivers Tamar and Marsland-waters, on the south and south-east it has the British Channel, and on the east and north-east it is conterminous with the counties of Dorset and Somerset. Its figure is very hregular, but something like that of a trapezium. Its greatest extent from north to south is about seventy-one miles, and from east to west seventy-two; and its circumference is about 287, including about 1,633,280 acres of land, thirty-three hundreds, 394 parishes, and forty market-towns.

The county of Devon is in the see of Exeter, and included in the western circuit. The assizes are held at the county town, Exeter. The members to the House of Commons returned from this county are, two for the northern division, whose polling places are South Molton, Collumpton, Barnstaple, Torrington, Holsworthy, and Crediton; and two for the southern division, whose polling places are Exeter, Honiton, Newton-IIbbot, Kingsbridge, Plymouth, Tavistock, and Oakhampton. The following towns return two members each, viz. Exeter, Plymouth, the new borough of Devonport, Totness, Barnstaple, Honiton, Tavistock, and Tiverton. The towns of Ashburton and Dartmouth elect one member each; and the boroughs of Plympton, Oakhampton, and Beeralston, have by the reform act been disfranchised. The whole number of members, which was formerly twenty-six, is now reduced to twenty-two.

A county of so great extent as Devonshire must have a diversified and irregular surface. The mountains in the vicinity of Dartmoor rise to 1500 and 1800 feet above the level of the sea. On the south and south-east are extensive wastes, the surfaces of which are covered with rough masses of detached granite and immense rocks. To the north and north-west are large tracts of swampy ground, and many peat bogs of great depth. But that part called the Vale of Exeter, a district the area of which is about two hundred square miles, consists of some very fine land; and though the soils vary considerably, the most prevalent are a strong red loam, foliated clay intersected with veins of ironstone, and a mixture of sand and gravel. The district called the South Hams is frequently termed the garden of Devonshire, from its fertility. It is strikingly diversified by bold swells and luxuriant vales, and in many parts towards the north the scenery is picturesque and romantic. The surface and soil of West Devon are remarkably uniform, the latter consisting of perished slate-stone, rubble, and mud, intermixed with a portion of loamy mould. Here the cultivated lands are all enclosed, and villages and farm-houses are frequent. North Devon, or the country round Biddeforde, Barnstaple, and South Molton, contains much productive land, and is greatly diversified with beautiful scenery.

Although the climate of Devonshire varies much in different districts, still, from its situation between two seas, its immediate exposure to the south-west winds as they blow from the ocean, and the elevated summits of the surrounding mountains, it is upon the whole much milder than that of the other English counties. The winters are exceedingly mild, and proverbially favourable to the cure of pulmonary complaints. The air is generally dry and warm, and the harvest earlier than in any other parts of the west. On the southern coast the myrtle flourishes in the open air unsheltered.

The principal rivers of Devonshire are, the Taw, the Torridge, the Tamar, the Dart, the Teign, and the Exe; and the lesser are, the Tavy, the Plym, the Yealme, the Arme, the Aven, the Otter, the Sid, the Axe, and the Lyn. In some of them, particularly the Tamar and Tavy, the salmon-fishing is valuable. The royalty of the Tavy belongs to the Drake family, who have constructed a very large weir across the river, furnished with traps for taking the salmon on their way down after a flood.* The Exe salmon is esteemed superior to that of any other river in this country. These streams furnish trout in great plenty; and plaise, the torpedo or electric ray, the opah or kingfish, and the sepia or cuttle-fish, are found in and at the mouths of these rivers.

The Grand Western Canal, when finished, will connect the south-eastern coast and the Bristol Channel. Its length is about thirty-five miles, traversing through part of this county, and passing the towns of Exeter, Tiverton, Taunton, &c. The Tamar Canal follows the course of the Tamar River, on the southern coast of Devonshire. Its northern extremity is considerably elevated. Its objects are the import of coals, lime, and manures, and the export of agricultural products. It commences in the Tamar River, at Morewellham quay, and terminates atTamarton Bridge. Tavistock Canal follows a north-eastern direction for about four miles and a half in this county. It commences where the Tamar Canal finishes, and reaches the town of Tavistock where it ends. Several of the rivers of Devonshire are navigable for considerable distances.

The mineral waters are numerous, but inconsiderable. They are all chalybeate, the principal of which are those of Gubb’s Well near Cleave, Bella Marsh near King Steignton, Ilsington near Totness, Brook near Tavistock, and Brampton.

The ores of iron, lead, tin, and manganese, are found in considerable quantities in Devonshire; and gold, silver, copper, bismuth, antimony, and cobalt, have been sometimes discovered in small quantities. Ironstone is common in many districts, but it is not of a quality that yields much metal. It is supposed that the inhabitants of this county were in the habit of working the iron, as well as the other metallic mines, before the arrival of the Romans. The lead ore of this county is of many kinds, but principally of a grayish-blue colour. The potters’ or tes-selated ore is of a shining, rectangular, tabulated structure, always breaking into cubical granules; another kind is of a flaky, smooth, and glossy texture, breaking into ponderous fragments; and a third sort is more closely grained, with the fracture sparkling and uneven, and very rich in silver. The tin-works were anciently numerous and valuable; but the Cornwall mines being much more productive, they are now nearly abandoned. Manganese was first discovered about fifty years ago. It is found in large, rugged, irregular masses, and contains a great variety of crystallizations. Native silver has been found in different substances and in various forms. Cobalt, interspersed with numerous filaments of silver, has been found at Samp-ford in great abundance. Antimony of a dark lead colour, full of long, shining, needle-like striae, has been discovered at Chudleigh, Hennock, and South Bovey.

The minerals of Devonshire are numerous. Limestone of almost every description is found in different parts of the county. In the eastern parts it has a good deal the appearance of chalk. In the neighbourhood of South Hams [7:7:746]it is hard, beautifully veined, bears a fine polish, and resembles the Italian marble. In other districts it is manu- ' factured into black marble, variegated with streaks of white; into a flesh colour, having streaks of brown; into a pale red, blue, and indeed into almost every variety of colours. Gypsum is found, but not in abundance, in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, Salcombe-Regis, and Exeter. Fluor spar is produced in great plenty in the mines of Beer-Ferris.

Among the argillaceous substances of the county are fine pipe-clay, found in great abundance at Wear-Gifford; potters’ clay in the Vale of King-Steignton; and slate of an excellent quality near Slapton Sands and East Alwington. The siliceous clay of this county contains quartz crystals of a small size; and flints in great abundance, but particularly in the mountainous tract of Haldon. Freestone of various kinds is dug up in the parishes of Salcombe, Branscombe, and Beer. Whinstone, basalt, and a substance like the Derbyshire loadstone, are found in different parts of the county. Granite is met on Dartmoor, where commences the range which extends into Cornwall.

Coal of various sorts is found in Devonshire. That procured at Bovey-Heathfield, and thence called Bovey coal, is a singular production. Its strata extend about nine miles in a southern direction, the uppermost of which rises to the surface, and is from eighteen inches to four feet thick, but increases in thickness downwards, until the lowermost stratum of coal is sixteen feet thick. This stratum lies on a bed of clay, under which is a sharp green sand, from which rises water of a vivid green colour, abounding in sulphur and vitriol, and as warm as some of the Bath springs. The exterior parts of this coal, which lie nearest the clay, have a great mixture of earth, and are generally of a dark-brown colour. The veins which lie nearer the centre are more compact and solid, and in colour and weight are like common pit-coal. That stratum called the wool-coal is a vein sometimes of chocolate colour and sometimes of black coal, consisting of a number of lamina? or thin splinters, which divide like whalebone, and it is generally dug out in pieces of three or four feet in length. The fire made of this coal is more or less lasting, according to the veins from which it is extracted. The basis of this coal is supposed to be vast assemblages of trees, which have, at various distant ages, been washed by torrents from the neighbouring hills; and on which, from time to time, intervening beds of clay and sand have been deposited. Pyrites, in globular balls of various sizes, are obtained in different parts of the county. The outward coat is of a brown rusty colour, composed of very minute angular crystals; and the inside is a very solid substance of sulphur and iron, not radiated.

A society for the improvement and encouragement of agriculture was established in Devonshire in the year 1791, and has been of considerable service in spreading a knowledge of the most improved modes of practice adopted in other parts of the kingdom. The forest of Dartmoor contains considerable tracts, capable of much improvement; and the land in the Vale of Exeter, which is the best in the country, is cultivated witiι wheat, barley, beans, peas, and some little flax. The pasture lands are chiefly appropriated to supply the dairy; but in some parts considerable attention is paid to breeding sheep and cattle. Orchards, and apple trees in hedges, are common in most of the farms; oats, turnips, and potatoes, are also cultivated in many districts. In West Devon two thirds of the inclosed lands are employed alternately in raising corn and the grasses; red clover, rye-grass, and sometimes white clover and trefoil. Irrigation is common, and so is also peat-burning. In North Devon the soil is productive, the orchard grounds are extensive, and the inclosures tolerably large. The farms in Devonshire are held generally by a lease of three lives, or for ninety-nine years. As the lives drop, new ones are put in on payment of an adequate sum. Landed property seems to be more regularly divided in this county than in most others, there being very few large freeholds; and the inhabitants live sociably and independently upon their own moderate-sized tenements. Their principal manures are lime, sea-sand, seaweed, and dung.

Besides the productions of Devonshire which it has in common with other counties, its cider deserves notice. It is traditionally said that the planting of orchards commenced between ιwo hundred and three hundred years ago, at Buckland Priory. A great quantity of cider is now manufactured, and it is in general of a good quality, but differs according to the districts in which it is made; that of the neighbourhood of Exeter and the contiguous places being the most esteemed.

In these parts also a considerable quantity of butter is made. The average produce from each cow is about a pound a day. Cattle and sheep are bred and fattened here in great numbers. The fish which abound in the rivers and on the coast of Devonshire, besides the home consumption, afford considerable exports to the Bath and London markets. The oyster-beds in the neighbourhood of Lympstone are said to be a hundred acres in extent.

Devonshire cows are celebrated throughout the island. When in a state of the greatest purity, they are distinguished by a high red colour, without any white spots; by a light dun ring round the eye; by being fine in the bone and clean in the neck; by the horns being of a medium length, bent upwards; by the tail being small and set on very high; by being thin skinned and silky in handling; and by the property of feeding at an early age. The North Devon variety is in high estimation for the fineness of the grain of the meat; and the superiority of the oxen over most other breeds, in possessing more activity, being better calculated for labour, and having more blood, is generally admitted. The ox is in perfection about the fifth year of his age, and is much used for team-work. The native horses are small, but hardy, and much accustomed to the pack-saddle. The breed of sheep is various; mostly of the Dorsetshire kind as to weight of carcass and length of wool, but characterized by a great variety of heads, some having horns, some having none, and others having nobs.

Devonshire was long a manufacturing county for thin woollen goods; but the trade has of late years rapidly declined. The greater part of the woollen trade with Spain was carried on from Exeter; but scarcely a vestige of it now remains, and that little is chiefly with Bilboa. The only article now demanded is a species of serges, known by the name of long ells, which are spun and woven at Collumpton, Crediton, North Tawton, and in the villages surrounding those towns, but are dyed and finished for the East India Company in and near London. Of late years the manufacture of linen goods, and the spinning of linen yarn by machinery, has been introduced on the streams which had previously been applied to work fulling-mills. The riots of the Luddites in Nottinghamshire drove some capitalists from that county to Tiverton, where machinery upon a prodigious scale is in activity, producing lace and lace-net, for which there is a great demand in France, Germany, Italy, and most parts of the Continent. The great manufactory is, however, in the King’s Dock-Yard at Plymouth, where all the stores for building and equipping ships of war are prepared; and much private shipbuilding is carried on in other ports of the county.

Among the British antiquities of Devonshire are the numerous cairns on the eminence called Hall-down-hill, a cromlech at Drew-Stcignton, and at a little distance from [7:7:747]it a logan or rocking-stone. Several remains of British houses are scattered over Dartmoor.

The ancient castles, now in ruins, are Berry-Pomeroy, built by Ralph de la Pomeroy, who came to England with the conqueror; Compton Castle; Rougemont Castle, formerly the seat of the West Saxon kings, in the vicinity of Exeter, and, according to tradition, built by Julius Caesar; the castle of Oakhampton, which stood about a mile southwest of the town; Plympton Castle, which was the residence of Richard de Rivers, earl of Devon, in the reign of Henry 1. The same person was also in possession of Tiverton Castle, the ruins of which may still be seen, and of Totness Castle, which appears to have been erected by Judhael de Totnais, to whom the manor was given by the conqueror.

The remains of the abbeys and monasteries of Devonshire are those of Buckfastleigh, near Ashburton; Buckland Abbey, on the eastern banks of the river Täy; Dunkeswell, near Collumpton; the Cistercian Abbey at Axminster, which is the property of Lord Petre; Hartland Abbey, which forms part of the present house of Paul Orchard, Esq.; the ruins of a priory of Benedictines at Moodbury; and Tor Abbey, forming a portion of the modern seat of G. Cary, Esq.

The venerable and magnificent cathedral of Exeter demands the first notice among the ancient specimens of ecclesiastical buildings. The variety of the styles discovered in this edifice proves that it was erected at various periods. It is supposed that the part called St Mary’s Chapel is the ancient Saxon church, erected prior to the year 868. It is likely that the first considerable cathedral was planned by Bishop Warlewart, before the year 1138. At Bishop’s Seighton is a church in the early Saxon style. Teignmouth church is a specimen of the earliest building of the Normans.

The island of Lundy belongs to this county. It is rather more than three miles in length, about one in breadth, and contains 2000 acres of land, of which only 400 are under cultivation.

The principal noblemen’s and gentlemen’s seats are, Ugbroofce, near Chudleigh, the beautiful seat of Lord Clifford; Saltram, the seat of Earl Morley, the largest mansion in the county; Mount Edgcumbe, that of the earl of the same name; Nutivele, the beautiful seat of Sir Thomas Fuller Drake; Castle Hill, that of Lord Fortescue; Clovely-Court, that of Sir James Hamlyn, Bart.; Bicton, that of John Lord Rolle; Powderham Castle, the principal seat of the Courtenay family; Escot House, that of Sir John Kennaway, Bart.; Haldon House, that of Sir Laurence Palk, Bart.; and Werrington, a seat of the Duke of Northumberland.

The number of inhabitants in this county is stated in some doubtful accounts to have been 248,000 in the year 1700, and 272,000 in 1750. By the more accurate returns of the four decennial censuses, the numbers appear to be as follows, viz. 343,001 in 1801, 383,308 in 1811, 439,040 in 1821, and 494,400 in 1831. The annual value of the real property of the county, according to the assessment of the year 1815, amounts to L. 1,897,515.

See Polwhele’s History of Devon, and Beauties of England and Wales.