GLOUCESTERSHIRE, one of the English counties on the western side of the kingdom. On the north-east it is bounded by Warwickshire, on the north-west by Worcestershire; Oxfordshire and Berkshire bound it on the east, Wilts and Somerset on the south, and Hereford and Monmouth on the west. The greatest length is seventy miles, and the greatest breadth thirty-five. Its area, including its rivers, is 1718 square miles, or 1,099,520 acres.

The number of inhabitants at each of the four decennial censuses has been as follows, viz. :—in 1801, 250,809; in 1811, 285,514; in 1821, 335,843; and in 1831, 386,700. In this enumeration the city of Bristol is included; for, though a part of it stands within the county of Somerset, yet in each of the parliamentary surveys it is considered as a part of the county of Gloucester, within which division the greater portion of it is situated. The most considerable places, and their population, are the following:
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The foreign trade of this county is considerable, and centres chiefly in Bristol. Latterly, however, Gloucester has enjoyed a considerable share of it. This has been chiefly owing to the completion of a broad and deep canal parallel to the Severn, which admits vessels from sea to reach Gloucester. The principal trade from Bristol is to the West Indies, but both places maintain intercourse with America, Portugal, Spain, and other foreign territories, and import much wine, Merino wool, oil, and other commodities.

The internal trade of this county is, however, by far the most important. By the river Severn, which passes through it, it is enabled to maintain a regular intercourse with the potteries and glass manufactories of Worcestershire and Staffordshire, with the salt works of Droitwich, and with those parts of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, and Shropshire, which furnish the heavy iron goods that would not bear the expense of land-carriage. Though the Severn is not navigable except for flat-bottomed vessels, and for these only at spring tides, yet the craft on that river is very considerable; and at Stourport there is a connection with all the numerous canals which traverse the' centre of the king[7:10:586]dom. Besides the river Severn, the Wye is navigable for small craft to a considerable distance from its mouth, and facilitates the commercial intercourse with Monmouthshire and Herefordshire.

Several navigable canals have been constructed in this county with the view of promoting its internal communication. The most remarkable of these is the Thames and Severn Canal, which communicates with the latter river through the Stroud Canal, and with the former river at the town of Lechlade. It was begun in 1783, and finished in ten years. The summit-level is two hundred and forty-one feet above the level of the Stroud Canal, and a hundred and thirty feet above the river Thames at the place of its junction. These rises of level are surmounted by locks, admirably contrived and executed; and in one place it passes under the park of Lord Bathurst, through Sapperton tunnel, and, after being buried for the distance of two miles and five furlongs, again emerges near Cirencester. The tunnel is lined with masonry, arched above, and at the bottom has an inverted arch, except in some very few places, where, passing through a solid rock, that expense has been spared. The breadth of the canal is forty-two feet at the top and thirty feet at the bottom, and it is constructed for barges adapted to the locks upon the river Thames, as well as those of the canal. The barges are twelve feet wide, from seventy to eighty feet long, and when loaded carry seventy tons, and draw about four feet of water. This work has, however, been more splendid than beneficial. The expense of its construction exceeded L.250,000, and the tolls are scarcely more than sufficient to defray the expense of the necessary repairs. In fact, it connects two rivers, the navigation of which is bad; but especially that of the Thames, which, before it reaches Oxford, is subject to great expense in horses to draw the barges; it has many shallows where the vessels must be lightened to pass over them, and is liable to frequent impediments, sometimes from a scarcity of water, and sometimes from inundations. The trade which once passed through this canal has been diminished by the opening of the Kennet and Avon, which forms a better medium for the transit of goods from Bristol or Gloucester to London. The Hereford and Gloucester Canal, designed to connect these two cities, passes near Boyce through a tunnel one mile and a quarter in length, between the Severn and Ledbury, to which place, a distance of seventeen miles, the rise is a hundred and eighty-ţhree feet.

The mineral riches of this county are almost wholly confined to iron; for, though veins of lead exist at Sodbury, Deynton, and other places, they are not sufficiently productive of ore to induce the working of them. Iron is abundant in many parts of the county; but the principal forges are on the western side of the Severn, near Lydney, in the forest of Dean, where both charcoal and coal are abundantly produced. On both sides of the Severn coal is worked to a considerable extent. The forest of Dean contains upwards of a hundred and twenty coal pits, whence the city of Gloucester and its vicinity are supplied with that necessary article. At Kingswood, near Bristol, there are considerable veins, but these being at a great depth, the proprietors can scarcely compete with the miners of Monmouthshire, though by many of the inhabitants of the city the coals of Kingswood are preferred to those brought by water from Newport The mineral springs in this county, at Clifton, at Cheltenham, at Stow-on-the-Wold, and at Bourton-on-the-Water, are well known; and the two former places, as well by their natural beauties as by their medicinal waters, attract considerable numbers of occasional visitors, who there find all those accommodations which the best watering-places can afford. No part of the kingdom produces better or more abundant stone than is raised from the quarries of Gloucestershire. Limestone of excellent quality extends from Cromhan south-east to Sodbury, and south-west to Aust-Cliff; and the rocks of Clifton yield an excellent stone, from which much lime is made, both for domestic consumption and for exportation to the West Indies. Freestone is found on the Cotswold Hills, and near Lydney some gritstones are raised, which are adapted by the miíl-wrights to their purposes.

Gloucestershire is one of the chief manufacturing counties; and though a greater progress has been made of late years in the northern counties of Lancaster and York, it is still very much distinguished in this particular. The woollen manufacture has long been established in what are provincially called the Bottoms, a district in the valleys, between the range where the Cotswold Hills, with a less elevation, assume the name of the Stroud Hills. Between the ranges of these hills there are clear and rapid streams, which supply the mills in which the manufactures are carried on. The principal seats of the manufactures are in the thickly-peopled parishes of Bis)ey, Hampton, Stroud, Painswick, Woodchester, Horsley, Stonehouse, Stanley, Uley, Dursley, and Wotton-under-Edge. Almost the whole process is now performed by machinery except the weaving. The dyers in this district are celebrated for their scarlet, but more especially for their dark-blue colours, the excellence of which is attributed to some peculiar properties in the Stroud water. The greater part of the cloths of this county are dyed in the piece, not in the wool. Those of the superior quality, made from Merino woo), are destined either for the consumption of the kingdom or for the supply of Russia; and some few are exported to America. .The inferior kinds, made of the wool of the Cotswold, the Hereford, or the Southdown sheep, are mostly calculated for the markets of India and China. These are sent to London white, and the agents of the East India Company select such as suit their demand, which are dyed to the requisite colours, and pressed and packed by their own different tradesmen in the vicinity of the metropolis. Cassimeres of the best quality are also made in this district to a very considerable extent.

In the city of Gloucester and its vicinity there are several considerable manufactories of pins, which, minute as is the article, furnish employment to upwards of fifteen hundred persons. A bell foundery was established there in 1500, which has been continued to the present time, and is a kind of hereditary occupation in a family of the name of Rudhall, who have carried it on for the last hundred and fifty years, and during that period have cast several thousands of bells for different churches.

The vicinity of Bristol is crowded with manufactories of various kinds. The sugar refinery is very considerable, and produces some of the best kinds of white sugar. Glass of all kinds, for windows and for domestic purposes, is made there. The copper and brass manufactures are also large establishments. Hard white soap is an article of considerable importance; much is sent to London, and a large quantity is exported to America and the West Indies. Hats, leather, saddlery, shoes, white lead, gunpowder, earthen ware, salt, snuff, and beer, are made in the city or neighbourhood of Bristol, and form the rudiments of its foreign trade, as well as administer to its domestic intercourse with the western counties, and with Wales.

The agriculture of Gloucestershire partakes of very different characters, according to the elevation of the land. On the eastern side of the county, a district of 200,000 acres, extending over the Cotswold Hills, is provincially distinguished by the name of stone brash land. This tract of country is very undulating, but none of the summits’ rise to a great height, so that the whole is cultivated. In the intervals between the ridges of hills there are gene-- [7:10:587]rally beautiful rivulets, by which the inhabitants are enabled so to irrigate their meadows as to produce early grass for their young lambs. The hills, whatever be the surface, have uniformly a calcareous basis, which admirably adapts them for the growth of sainfoin. In no part of England is that valuable grass cultivated to so great an extent, or with such bountiful results. It has been an article of very ancient cultivation, and in this soil has the property of producing hay for twenty successive years. It requires, however, great care in the first laying down, and that all other grasses, as well as weeds, be eradicated; after which, as it draws its nourishment from a great depth, it has little or no tendency to exhaust the soil on the surface. In process of time it becomes choked by other grasses, when the land is again returned to the arable state. It is the practice of the best farmers to have one seventh part of their land constantly bearing sainfoin. The remaining six portions of the farm are divided pretty nearly in equal proportions between turnips, barley, clover or rye-grass, wheat, peas, and oats. The principal dependence for producing fertility is' the large flocks of sheep which are bred here, and which are usually folded as a dressing for the turnips. It is a common practice to pare the soil, and burn it, that the weeds may be destroyed, and that the ashes may furnish manure. The crops of barley are moderately good. Wheat is sown at very early periods, sometimes in August, but it seldom produces even a moderate crop if sowed later than September or early in October. The average produce of that grain does not exceed sixteen bushels to the acre, and it is not of the best quality. The soil is more congenial to the production of peas than to any other crop, and hence they form an important article of cultivation. The sheep of this district, for whose food, as the enumeration of the crops shows, the principal provision is made, are of a peculiar breed, without horns, the wool rather long, and not of a very fine quality. They are said to be indigenous to these hills, but have of late been improved by crossing with other races. The Southdown sheep have recently been bred here, and are gradually acquiring a preference, as they do wherever they are introduced on soils of an inferior quality. Few parts of England have been more improved in cultivation within the last forty years than the Cotswold Hills. They have, however, in spite of this improvement, but a cold and barren appearance, owing to their being nearly destitute of trees, and to the want of verdant hedges; for the fences are almost uniformly stone walls, about four feet and a half in height. The farms are generally large, from three hundred to twelve hundred acres; and the homesteads, as well as the cottages of the labourers, being usually situated in the valleys, and therefore not in sight at a distance, the face of the country has a poor and depopulated aspect. The depth of the soil is scarcely more than five inches: sometimes, however, it is very tenacious, but the experience of the natives has taught them, that even the most clayey soils do not require frequent ploughings. At each ploughing, considerable quantities of stone-rubble are brought to the surface.

To the westward of the Cotswold Hills, and inclining to the northwards, the rich vales of Evesham, Gloucester, and Berkley, are spread. The agricultural system which is practised, though it has some variations, is generally similar, J. lie vale of Evesham, a considerable part of which is in Worcestershire, is watered by the river Avon, and is highly productive in corn, pasture, and fruits. On the arable lands, the most general rotation is a clean fallow; then barley or oats; next beans or clover; and, lastly, wheat. The wheat is generally sown in November or December, the produce is commonly abundant, and the gram is of the best quality. The district is well wooded. The hedge-rows are filled with elm, oak, ash, and maple trees, and the apple and pear trees are abundantly scattered in the fields, as well as in large orchards near the villages. Cider and perry form very valuable portions of the produce of each farm. The proportion of arable land is small; the rich pastures feed numerous cows; and butter and cheese are the articles on which many farmers almost wholly depend.

The vale of Gloucester is in the form of an arc, of which the river Severn may be said to form the chord. It is protected from the cold northerly and easterly winds by the Cotswold and Stroud Hills, and hence is well adapted for the growth of fruit trees. Though there are now no vineyards, William of Malmesbury, in the twelfth century, said that “no county in England has more numerous or richer vineyards; or which yields grapes more abundantly or of better flavour, as the wine is but little inferior to that of France in sweetness.” The apple and pear trees of the district yield, however, most profusely, liquors which, in the estimation of the inhabitants, are far preferable to any wine from foreign countries. The soil of this vale is generally of a rich sandy loam, on a very retentive and tenacious subsoil of clay. Fallowing is deemed indispensable on all the arable lands, which are thrown in very high ridges, about eight yards in breadth, with furrows between them, from twenty-four to thirty inches deep. Barley, oats, clover, beans, and wheat yield most abundant crops, and of the best quality. The greater part of the land is, however, in permanent pasture, receiving no other manure than the feces of the cattle that are grazed on it, and, in some instances, the rich sediment deposited by occasional inundations. The meadows feed numberless cows, and the dairies, besides the cheese, the name of which is derived from this county, furnish large quantities of butter, fatten many calves, and, with the whey and buttermilk, rear and fatten great numbers of swine. The swine are of a peculiarly large breed, and the market for them at Gloucester is by far the most considerable in the kingdom. The fattening of them does not, however, wholly depend on the dairy, but large quantities of oil-cake are applied to that purpose. The cheese denominated Gloucester has long enjoyed great celebrity both at home and abroad. It is usually made in the summer months, from May to October inclusive. The number of cows belonging to individuals seldom exceeds from thirty to forty. The uniformity of the quality is such that the factors, who are the middlemen, contract for the whole produce of the dairies without examining it, knowing the value of the cheese from the quality of the land on which the cows are pastured.

The vale of Berkley is separated from that of Gloucester by a natural intersection, and, like it, is bounded to the westward by the river Severn. Its surface is more irregular, but though the undulations are numerous, they are not excessive. The hills are covered with beech trees, and the face of the district is both rich and picturesque. The soil is uniformly fertile in a very extraordinary degree. Nearly the whole is rich pasture or orchard, and the arable land does not form one seventh part of the valley. The soil is a rich fat loam, occasionally mixed with a prolific clay, and generally resting on a retentive subsoil. The dairy farms are of smaller extent than in the adjoining vale, but they far excel them in the proportional quantity of the cheese which they yield, and the quality is also much superior. The cheese commonly denominated double Gloucester is almost wholly made in the vale of Berkley, and in the neighbourhood is known by that name. It is usually made in the months of May, June, and July in dairies, where, later in the summer, a thinner kind is manufactured. Its excellence depends upon attention to its management, as well as on the quality of the land on which the cattle are fed. The quantity of cheese made in this vale is about 1200 tons annually, and each cow is estimated to yield 350 pounds.
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The western side of the Severn is principally occupied by the forest of Dean. It abounds with excellent oak and beech trees, and produces abundance of cider, especially one kind called Stire-cider, which is highly valued. The forest formerly contained 43,000 acres, but has been diminished by several royal grants; it is, however, now a most important district, on account of the large ship-timber which it produces. It abounds with coal and with iron ore, and the miners are regulated by peculiar courts.

The most remarkable curiosities of this county are the Roman antiquities at Woodchester, which have been accurately described by that indefatigable antiquary Lysons; the Roman roads, which traverse it in various directions; the numerous antique coins which have been frequently found in the fields; the vestiges of ancient fortifications, and the ruins of monastic edifices.

This county has long conferred the title of duke on various members of the royal family, or in ancient times on those connected with that of the reigning prince. It gives titles also to Marquis Camden, Earl of Berkley, Earl Bathurst, Lord Sherborne, and Lord Segrave. For election purposes it is formed into the eastern division, the polling-places of which are Gloucester, Stroud, Tewkesbury, Cirencester, Camden, Northleach, and Cheltenham; and the western, the polling-places of which are Wotton-under-Edge, Newent, Newenhatu, Çoleford, Sodbury, Thornbury, and Dursley.

Two members for each are returned to parliament from Bristol, Gloucester, Cirencester, and Tewkesbury; and one for each from Cheltenham and Stroud; making, with four for the county, fourteen in all. ' The seats of noblemen and gentlemen are very numerous, but the most remarkable of these are Badminton, the Duke of Beaufort’s; Berkley Castle, Ix>rd Segrave’s; Oakley Grove, Lord Bathurst’s; Sherborne, Lord Sherborne; Tolworth, Lord Ducie; King’s Weston, Lord de Clifford; Hengham Court, Sir William Guise’s; Fairford, Mr Raymond Barker; Whitcombe Park, Sir William Hicks; Gatcombe Park, Mr Ricardo; and Blaze Castle, Mr Harford’s-