ESSEX, a county of England, is bounded on the south by the river Thames, on the east by the German Ocean, on the north by the counties of Suffolk and Cambridge, and on the west by Hertfordshire and Middlesex. Its surface contains 1473 square miles, according to the last measurement of the Board of Ordnance. The population has not increased in this county at the same rapid rate as that of the other counties of England, having been 226,437 in 1801, 252,473 in 1811, 289,424 in 1821, and 317,200 in 1831. As the surface is about 942,720 acres, there is nearly one person to every three acres; but if the rivers and large estuaries be deducted from the calculation of extent, the population may be stated as still more dense.

Essex may be considered as a mere agricultural county; for though, from the near approach of one part of it to the metropolis of the kingdom, there are some manufactories established, which find both their raw materials and their consumption in London; and though in one district of the county there are remains of the once extensive manufactories which were brought from Flanders to this island; the number of persons occupied in them bears but a very small proportion to that part of the population which depends on agriculture. The former manufactures of Colchester baizes for the Spanish and American markets have wholly disappeared, and those for woollen goods at Bocking, Halsted, and Coggeshall, are nearly extinct; all having removed to the northern parts of the kingdom. On the eastern side of the county, in the vicinity of the metropolis, are several large distilleries, and some establishments for bleaching and printing calicoes. There are also manufactories of sal-ammoniac, of Prussian blue, of iron liquor for calico-printers, and Some other chemical preparations. There is a considerable trade in corn, and much barley is malted for the great breweries and distilleries. The only other commerce is that of supplying the inhabitants with foreign and domestic articles of luxury.

Although nearly half the county is bounded by the sea, or by navigable rivers, it carries on no foreign commerce; and what vessels belong to it are employed either in conveying to London the produce of its agriculture, or in the oyster fishery, which occupies a considerable tonnage and many seafaring persons. The oysters are bred both in the river Coln and in the Crouch; in the former they are protected by the seignorial rights of the corporation of Colchester, and in the latter by the proprietor of that river, Sir Henry Mildmay. The spawn is deposited in the months of April and May; and it is said the shell about it begins to form within twenty-four hours. The fishermen are forbidden to dredge for them at this season. In the month of July the dredgers separate the small oysters from the stones on which the spawn was deposited, and on which they have grown, and lay them down in the channels of the river till they grow of a size fit for consumption, which is determined by a gage kept for that purpose by the water-bailiff of Colchester. The stones or other substances to which the young oysters had adhered are again thrown into the water whence they were taken, as it is apprehended the accumulation of the ouse at the bottom of the river would otherwise generate such an increase of muscles and cockles as Va∙w destr ° y t ^ ie b ree d of oysters. The number of vessels o different sizes employed in this branch of industry, from θ∏ to forty tons burden, amounts to nearly three hundred, an the quantity of oysters caught, varying in different years, is from 18,000 to 24,000 bushels. The larger description of vessels are employed during part of the year on θ shores of Hampshire and Dorsetshire in dredging for the native oysters, which are afterwards deposited in the beds of Essex and Kent, in order to fatten for the London market. The uncertain produce of the breeding grounds in Essex makes it necessary to have recourse to the more distant coasts to obtain the requisite supply.

From being almost wholly an agricultural county, the far greater part of the inhabitants of Essex are found in villages. The principal places, with their population, according to the late census, is as follows:
[table]

Besides these, the towns of Witham, Dunmow, Harlow, Pritdewéll, Finehingfield, Sible-Hedingham, Hornehurch, and Thaxted, each now contain more than 2000 inhabitants.

The face of the county is generally very beautiful; it is well enclosed, and for the most part displays good verdant pastures; the hills, none of which rise to great heights, are cultivated to the tops; and there are abundance of trees, especially oak and chestnut, which give a rich appearance to the view. There is no county in England in which the proportion of waste land is so small. The forests and wastes can indeed scarcely be considered as utterly uncultivated, and the whole of them do not amount to more than 14,000 acres, including the two forests of Epping and Hainault. These belong to the crown, though the inhabitants of many surrounding parishes have the right of pasturing their cattle upon them. The king has an unlimited right to keep deer on all the enclosed woods, and the occupiers of land in the various parishes included within the ancient boundaries of the forests have a right to feed horses and cows, but not other cattle. The numerous common rights have led to considerable devastation of the timber of these forests, and occasioned no small injury to the property of the crown; but plans have lately been adopted for preserving the trees, and converting a part into a nursery for growing timber for the royal navy. The vicinity to navigation makes these forests well deserving of being appropriated to this purpose. ’

That part of Essex which lies on the banks of the Thames, and on the shores of the ocean, is a rich alluvial soil on a subsoil of very tenacious clay. It produces, with good cultivation, most abundant crops of wheat, beans, oats, and clover. It is found necessary to the cultivation to fallow very frequently, and repeated ploughings is a practice very generally adopted. The swing plough is much used, and sometimes a wheel plough drawn by two, and occasionally by three horses abreast, which are guided with long reins by the ploughman. In fallowing it is common to plough the land six or seven times, and it is not unusual with the best cultivators to plough it eight or even ten times. After the summer fallow, by which the soil becomes completely pulverized, and rendered as fine as a garden, it is sometimes the practice to sow wheat in the autumn; but it is more common to let it remain throughout the winter, and then, after a spring ploughing, to sow barley or oats. The rotation of crops which usually succeed to a fallow is, 1. barley or oats; 2. clover, red or white, mostly the former; 3. wheat; 4. beans, twice hoed at [7:9:370]least; 5. wheat. After this course the land is again fallowed. The whole produce of the course of crops is said to depend on the accuracy and skill exercised in the process of fallowing.

There is in this district some land adapted for turnips, and the rotation on such soils is usually, 1. turnips; 2. oats or barley; 3. clover; 4. wheat; 5. beans; 6. wheat. These courses are occasionally varied, tares being introduced when the clover fails, and peas being sometimes substituted for beans. The best cultivators often omit the second crop of wheat, and fallow again after the beans. A rotation which is sanctioned by some very skilful agriculturists is the following: 1. fallow; 2. barley or oats ∙, 3. clover; 4. beans; 5. wheat; 6. tares or peas; 7. wheat. In this case the manure is laid on the clover ley for the bean crop. In the district we are describing all the farms have a portion, more or less extensive, of rich marsh land, on which oxen are fed, which supplies hay for winter consumption, and is consequently the source whence the manure is derived. The best wheat that is brought to the market of the metropolis is raised in the part of Essex of which we are speaking, and which is usually denominated the hundreds. It has the convenience of water-carriage to London; the rent of land is comparatively low, and it is of extraordinary fertility; but it suffers from a scarcity of good water. It is, especially in the autumn, a very ague-ish county; and though of late the roads have been much improved, they are still in such a state as, added to its insalubrity, prevents the gentry from residing on their estates.

The middle part of Essex rises above the level of the marshy lands, but partakes, in a considerable degree, of their unhealthiness. Around the town of Colchester, for a considerable distance, the soil is a dry loam, well calculated for turnips; and then the most general system adopted is the four-course husbandry of Norfolk, viz. turnip, barley, clover, and wheat. A variation is in some instances introduced by taking a crop of peas after the wheat, and occasionally tares arc sown after the barley instead of clover, as that latter plant will sometimes fail if too frequently repeated. The greater part of the district is, however, of a clayey loam, on a subsoil of clay, and too tenacious for the turnip system. Much of this is good old pasture land, used solely for feeding, and to which the plough is never applied. The arable land is highly productive; the crops of wheat and beans especially are very luxuriant, and their produce of the best quality. The practice of fallowing is pursued as in the district before described, but so many ploughings are not deemed necessary. The rotation is various, but it rarely occurs that wheat is sown immediately after the fallow. Most commmonly the succession is as follows: 1. fallow; 2. barley; 3. beans; 4. wheat; 5. tares; 6. barley; 7. clover. When the land is more wet, which, in spite of excellent draining, is frequently the case, the rotation is, 1. fallow; 2. oats; 3. clover; 4. wheat. When manure is abundant, the heavy soils are cropped in the following rotation with great success: I. fallow; 2. beans; 3. wheat; 4. tares; 5. barley; 6. clover; 7. beans; 8. wheat. In this rotation the clearing of the ground from weeds depends on the use of the hoe, which is applied most carefully to the crops of beans.

The western part of the county, especially where it borders on Hertfordshire, is, in general, land of a very inferior quality, and, without very expensive cultivation, yields but light crops. In one extensive district, called the Rodings, is still practised a most singular system of husbandry, known now in Essex only, though formerly it was adopted on poor lands in some other counties. It is, 1. a year’s fallow; 2. wheat; 3. fallow; 4. barley, and then a repetition of the same-course; thus having one half the arable land constantly without any crop. The soil is a tenacious clay, of a reddish colour, upon a subsoil of white clay. It is difficult to pulverize, and, with wet, potches so much as not to admit of ploughing when the atmosphere is moist. There are but small parts of this district which produce clover, peas, tares, or beans; and what hay is grown is confined to the narrow borders of the rivulets which rurt in the valleys..

In the south-western part of the county the agriculture assumes that system which is adapted to the supply of the wants of the metropolis. A great portion of the land is in permanent pasture, or grows hay to furnish the markets of Smithfield and Whitechapel. The arable land is generally cultivated with a rotation of three crops, viz. potatoes, wheat, and clover; and, as London supplies abundance of manure, by applying it very liberally to the young clover after the wheat is harvested, such culture produces most abundant crops, and the land is cleaned by the potato culture. In this kind of husbandry, which, indeed, can only be conducted where manure is to be obtained with great facility, the plough is only used once in the rotation after the clover; as the potatoes are planted, and the digging them up sufficiently prepares the land for wheat.

Essex feeds some sheep, but very few are bred in the county. Calves are suckled to a great extent, and the rearing them to furnish veal for the London market is the principal dependence of many farmers. The whiteness of the veal is produced by a great attention to cleanliness, by regular periods of suckling, and by giving them a small portion of barley-meal mixed with chalk. The tendency to fatten is promoted by administering narcotic drugs, which keep the young animals in a quiescent state. Though the county affords such abundance of excellent pasture, yet the fattening of calves is so much more profitable than the dairy, that it is supplied with butter from other counties. Epping has indeed been celebrated for its excellent butter; but the greater part of what is sold in London under that denomination is the produce of Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, and other counties. London is supplied with much of its beef from Essex. The bullocks, in a lean state, are brought from Scotland, from Wales, and some from Devonshire, and are fattened in this county, sometimes on the rich natural meadows, and sometimes on turnips, with the addition of oil-cake.

Several other agricultural productions are cultivated in Essex. Hops are grown near Chelmsford, and in a few other districts. Saffron is cultivated near Saffron-Walden with great success. Mustard is an advantageous crop in the islands of Foulness and Wallasea, and on the embanked marshes. On some rich old pasture land, when first broken up, three crops are raised together, viz. carraway seed, coriander seed, and teasels for the baize manufacturers. The three kinds of seed are sowed together m the spring of the year. The harvest of the coriander takes place in the following autumn. The carraway is a biennial plant, and the seed is fit to be gathered in July of ⅛e succeeding year; and in September of the same year the teasels are cut. The carraway sometimes produces a crop the second, or even the third year. This cultivation is deemed an excellent preparation for the growth of wheat, on lands which are so prolific as to require some degree of exhaustion, as, the hoe being very liberally applied in the process of this triple cropping, it keeps the ground free from weeds. There are few counties in England, taking the whole o them together, in which the agriculture is so skilfully con-dueted, or where the productiveness is so great.

The landed property in Essex, as in other counties near to the metropolis, is very much divided; there are no overgrown estates, though some of considerable value, belonging to a few individuals; but the greater part m moderate-sized farms, which can be easily disposed of, an [7:9:371]which are frequently purchased from the savings of the commercial class in London.

The only good harbour in this county is Harwich, whence the packets for Holland are dispatched, and where there is a royal dock-yard, in which some frigates are built and repaired. The river Coln is navigable for small vessels to Colchester, and the Blackwater river to Walden. The Crouch is navigable for the largest ships; but, passing through an unhealthy country, and having few inhabitants on its borders, it is useless for the purposes of commerce. The river Lea is navigable by barges a distance of twenty-five miles. There are no canals in this county, but one is projected to unite the river Lea with the Cam, and thus create internal navigation from Lynn to London.

This county gives the title of earl to the family of Capel, and of Rochford to the family of Nassau; that of Baron Colchester to the family of the late Speaker of the House of Commons, Abbot; and that of Baron Western to the late representative of the county.

The members of the House of Commons elected in Essex are ten, being two for each of the boroughs of Colchester, Harwich, and Maldon, and four for the county, which, for election purposes, has been divided into the northern and southern districts. The polling places of the former are Braintree, Colchester, Saffron-Walden, and Thorpe; and of the latter, Chelmsford, Billericay, Romford, Epping, Rochford, and Maldon.

The most remarkable seats of noblemen and others are Audley-End, Lord Braybrooks; Thorndon, Lord Petre; Wanstead, now dilapidated, Hon. William Wellesley Pole; Easton Lodge, Lord Maynard; Felix Hall, Lord Western; Mistley Hall, C. Manners Sutton; Dagenham Park, Sir Thomas Neave; the Hyde, Theo. Disney, Esq.; Chig-well, Sir Eliab Harvey; Hill Hall, Sir William Smyth; Cranham Hall, Lady Davy; Weald Hall, Christopher Tower, Esq.; Boreham House, Sir John Tyrell; Coped Hall, Mr Conyers; Mark Hall, Mr Arkwright; Stansted Hall, Mr Fuller Maitland; and many others.

Essex, a post-town in Essex county, New York, on the western shore of Lake Champlain. It is fourteen miles south-west of Burlington, and sixteen miles from Elizabethtown. In this township there is a village situated on the lake, which is very flourishing, and enjoys a considerable trade. Essex is the name of several counties in the United States, which will be found described as they occur under the heads of the respective states.