BRECONSHIRE, or Brecknockshire, in South Wales, is divided from Radnorshire by the river Wye; its other boundaries are artificial. Its length is twenty-nine miles, the breadth of its southern basis thirty-four, and its circumference rather more than a hundred. It contains nearly 500,000 acres of land, not one half of which is either in a state of cultivation or adapted to it. Its form is irregularly triangular, narrowing towards the northern extremity. It is divided into six hundreds; and contains the county town, Brecon, and three market-towns besides, Crickhowel, Biulth, and Hay. There are inita hundred and eleven parishes, and places paying parochial rates, according to the last returns to parliament respecting these rates.

Breconshire is one of the most mountainous counties in Wales; and the Van, or Brecknock Beacon, is one of the loftiest mountains. Ridges of hills, which form the separation of this from most of the adjacent counties, shelter it in such a manner as to render it temperate. It appears, from observations made in the year 1802, with a rain guage, that 26į inches of rain fell at Brecon. There is a considerable variation not only in the surface of the country, but also in the nature of the strata. In the hundred of Biulth the soil is remarkably argillaceous, and the water does not sink sufficiently deep; in the Vale of Uske, on the contrary, it is too porous to retain the necessary moisture. In general, the soil of the vales consists of a light loam, lying on a deep bed of gravel; the soil of the hills is for the most part argillaceous. The principal river, next to the boundary one of the Wye, is the Uske, which, taking its rise from the black mountain, in the western side of the county, on the border of Caermarthenshire, flows across it through a fine valley to the south eastern angle, passing the town of Brecon. A little to the east of the town of Brecon is a considerable lake, well stored with fish, out of which a rivulet runs to the Wye. The Brecon Canal unites with the Monmouth Canal eight miles and a half from Newport and one mile from Pontypool; it crosses the river Avon, is carried through a tunnel 220 yards in length, passes the town of Abergavenny towards the river Uske, and proceeds parallel with that river to Brecon, being thirty-three miles in length, with sixty-eight feet rise to Brecon. By the fall of this canal from Brecon to the Bristol channel, it appears that Brecon is 411 feet eight inches above the level of the sea.

The agriculture of this county is superior to that of most of the other counties of Wales, and appears to have begun to improve about the middle of the last century, as the Breconshire Agricultural Society was instituted in 1775, being one of the first associations of the kind in the island. The mode of culture in the good soils is conducted in the best manner; but where the land is naturally poor, the tillage is very bad. In the Vale of Uske, the Norfolk rotation is followed with skill and success; and tolerably abundant crops of barley, clover, wheat, and turnips are obtained. The Highland farmers, in general, are too poor to attempt any material improvements. In the vales the farms seldom exceed 150 or 200 acres; the rents are high—in the neighbourhood of Glazbury and Hay nearly forty shillings the cyfair, which is about one third less than the statute acre; the poorest grounds do not let for more than four or five shillings the cyfair.

The principal exports of the county are wool, butter, and cheese. Of the first, a considerable quantity is spun and knit into stockings in the hundred of Biulth, and in different parts of the Highlands; the stockings are bought by hosiers and carried to the English market. Some sheep, a few horned cattle, and a considerable number of swine, are frequently driven to Worcester, London, Bristol, &c. The cattle and horses are small, but the former have been much improved by intermixing the Glamorganshire and Herefordshire breeds; and the latter by the introduction of the Suffolk Punch sort. A considerable number of otters frequent the rivers, the furs of which form another branch of the exports of this county.

The manufactures which formerly existed in this county consisted of flannel, linsey-woolsey, and a coarse kind of cloth worn by the labourers; but of late these have become nearly extinct. The mines of iron and coal have, however, been very much extended; and many forges and foundcries have been constructed, which give employment to a considerable part of the population in that part of the county which is contiguous to Monmouthshire.

The county confers the title of Earl on the Marquis of [7:5:226]Camden. It returns to parliament one member for the county and one for the town of Brecon. It is comprehended in the bishopric of Landaff, and, by a late law, in the Oxford new circuit.

At the three decennial enumerations, the population of the county, and the number of houses, appeared thus:
[table]

Of the families in the last of these years, 4049 were employed in agriculture, 3703 in manufactures, trade, or handicrafts, and 1280 were included in neither of these classes.