WILTSHIRE, an inland county of England, in the western judicial circuit. It is bounded on the north-west and west by Gloucestershire, on the west by Somersetshire, on the south by Dorset and Hanks, and on the east and north-east by the latter county and Berkshire. The length is about fifty miles, and the breadth about thirty-four. It is of an elliptical form, with very irregular indentations on the borders. The area is 1379 square miles, or 882,560 statute acres. The county is divided into twenty-nine hundreds, comprising one city, twenty-three market-towns, and 295 parishes. The whole of the county is in the diocese of Salisbury, and is ecclesiastically divided into two archdeaconries, which are subdivided into ten deaneries.

The population of this county amounted in 1801 to [7:21:891]185,107, in 1811 to 193,828, in 1821 to 222,157, and in 1831 to 240,200, thus shewing a slower progressive increase of the inhabitants than has taken place in any other of the English counties. At the last census the males were 117,622, and the females 122,534. The number of dwelling-houses was 46,281, inhabited by 51,659 families, of whom 25,045 were chiefly employed in agriculture, 15,627 were chiefly employed in trade, manufactures, and handicraft, and 10,987 were not comprised in either of the two preceding classes. At the period in question the number of males twenty years of age was 58,439; the occupiers of land employing labourers were 3387; the occupiers of land not employing labourers, 1239; the labourers employed in agriculture, 24,708; the males employed in manufactures, and in making manufacturing machinery, 3497; male servants twenty years of age, 1161; male servants under twenty years of age, 396; female servants, 7623; employed in retail trade, or in handicraft as masters or workmen, 13,080; bankers, professional and other educated men, 1792; labourers employed in labour not agricultural, 4828; other males twenty years of age, except servants, 4338.

The southern division of Wiltshire is chiefly that extensive tract of unwooded land usually denominated Salisbury Plain. It is an unenclosed country, and has an appearance of desolateness; but bottoms are frequent, and having generally streams of water running through them, the houses and villages are for the most part erected in them, and the district is much more populous than a traveller passing over the plain would suspect. The land, though chiefly used for feeding sheep, is, when brought under the plough, highly productive in turnips, barley, and wheat. There is a tract of rich land between Salisbury Plain and Marlborough Downs; and to the north of these downs the country is well enclosed, and abounds in rich pasture, on which are fed the cows that produce the excellent cheese known by the name of North Wiltshire. The peculiar breed of sheep of this county, which are universally called by its name, are all horned, afford heavy fleeces of moderately fine wool, and are very numerous; on Salisbury Plain they are said to be more than 500,000. The produce of wheat and other grain is estimated to be less per acre than the general average of the contiguous counties. There were anciently several extensive forests in this county; but, although the districts still retain the name either of Forest or chace, they are, with the exception of Savernake or Marlborough Forest, and Cran-boume Chace, almost wholly either in pasture or under the plough.

Wiltshire being an elevated district, many rivers have their sources in it, or water the lands of it soon after their rise. The most important of these are the Thames, the Lower Avon, and the Kennet, all of which are navigable. Besides these, are the tributary streams, the Upper Avon, the Willey, the Nadder, the Bourne, the Stour, and the Brue. The canals which pass from or through this county are the Thames and Severn, connecting those two rivers with each other; the Kennet and Avon, which also unites those rivers. Both of these canals have been most expensive, and hitherto unproductive undertakings, designed to facilitate the intercourse between London and Bristol. The Wilts and Berks Canal, designed to connect the Severn with the Thames, has been a particularly unfortunate concern. The Salisbury and Southampton Canal has been found of some benefit, by supplying the former place with coals, but has been little productive to the proprietors.

This county has long been one of the chief districts for the manufacture of fine cloths. That branch of industry is now however confined to the western part of it. The populous towns of Bradford, Trowbridge, Devizes, Warminster, Chippenham, Westbury, Melksham, Calne, and the villages surrounding them, are chiefly maintained by making cloths and cassimeres of fine quality, the wool for which used to be imported from Spain to Bristol; but of late years the fine wools of Saxony have in a great measure supplanted those of Spain in this country. The fine woollen trade still employs more than 1000 males above twenty years of age at Trowbridge, about 600 at Bradford, 200 at Westbury, and some at Melksham, Chippenham, and Heytesbury. Some fine cutlery ware and steel work is made at Salisbury, but those fabrics are much reduced by their rivals at Sheffield and Birmingham. Wilton, which gave its name to a description of carpets, has still some remains of its former trade.

Few counties present so many objects of antiquarian research as Wiltshire. Among those of British origin are the Wansdike, a fortification of earth traversing the whole county; the druidical masses of stone at Stonehenge and Avebury; the numerous barrows, or tumuli, which are to be seen on a great number of spots on the downs; and the earthen ramparts supposed to have formerly enclosed the towns of the ancient Britons. Among the Roman antiquities are many of the roads constructed by that people, their fortified encampments, and the ruins of several of their castles, especially those of Marlborough, Devizes, Malmesbury, and Old Sarum. The monastic remains, especially at Malmesbury, present very interesting subjects of study to the antiquary. Besides these vestiges of antiquity, tesselated pavements, coins, urns, fragments of sculpture, daggers, shields, and ornaments of British, Roman, Saxon, and Norman fashion, have been discovered. The cathedral of Salisbury, though not of such an age as to be classed among antiquities, is an object of great admiration on account of the elegant design and scientific execution of the structure. The beautiful spire is much admired for its height and its proportions, and, though in a valley, may be seen at a great distance rising above the surrounding hills. It is said to be the loftiest in England, rising from the floor of the church to the height of 400 feet.

The peers deriving their titles from places in this county are the duke of Marlborough, the marquises of Lansdowne and of Salisbury, Viscount Bolingbroke, and Barons Arundel and Methuen. No county has undergone so great changes by the parliamentary reform bill as Wiltshire. By that law the county is divided for election purposes into north and south. The elections for the northern division are held at Devizes; and the other polling places are Melksham, Malmesbury, and Swindon. The elections for the southern are at Salisbury; and the other polling places are Warminster, East Everley, and Hindon. Each of these divisions returns two members. By the reform bill the following boroughs, each of which returned two members, have been disfranchised; viz. Old Sarum, Ludgershall, Hindon, Great Bedwin, Heytesbury, Wooton-Basset, and Downton; and the following towns, which chose two each, have now but one; viz. Westbury, Wilton, Malmesbury, and Calne. No new boroughs were created in the county, but the following places retain their ancient privileges of electing two members each; viz. Salisbury, Chippenham, Cricklade, Devizes, and Marlborough. The towns and the population exceeding 4000 persons are, Trowbridge, 10,863; Bradford, 10,102; Salisbury, 9876; Westbury, 7324; Warminster, 6115; Melksham, 5866; Calne, 4795; Chippenham, 4333.

Among a great number of seats belonging to noblemen and gentlemen, the most remarkable are Longleat, the marquis of Bath; Bowood, marquis of Lansdowne; Tottenham Park, Lord Aylesbury; Wardour Castle, Lord Arundel; Fontbill Abbey, Mr Morrison; Wilton, earl of Pembroke; Stourhead, Sir R. C. Hoare, Longford Castle, earl of Radnor; New Park, Thomas Estcourt, Esq.; Dinton House, William Wyndham, Esq.; Corshatn House, Lord Methuen; Wilbury House, Sir C. W. Malet; Charlton Park, earl of [7:21:892]Suffolk; Stoke Park, Joshua Smith, Esq.; Bradley, duke of Somerset; and Ramsbury, Sir Francis Burdett.^[1. See the Ancient History of South Wiltshire, by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart.; Aubrey’s lntroduction to the Survey and Natural History of North Wiltshire; the Beauties of Wiltshire displayed in Statistical, Historical, and Descriptive Sketches, by John Britton; Davis’s View of the Agriculture of the County of Wilts. ]