SUFFOLK, an English maritime county, on the borders of the German Ocean. It is bounded on the east by the sea; on the south by Essex, from which it is divided by the river Stour; on the west by Cambridgeshire; and on the north by Norfolk. Its medium length from east to west is forty-seven miles, and its breadth from north to south twenty-seven. The square contents are 1512 miles, or 967,680 statute acres. It consists of two grand divisions, one called the Liberty of Bury, the other the Guildable Land, each of which furnishes a distinct grand jury at the assizes. The next division is into twenty-one hundreds, and these are subdivided into five hundred and twenty-three parishes. The entire country forms a part of the diocese of Norwich.

The population of this county at the four decennial periods of enumeration was found to amount in 1801 to 210,431, in 1811 to 234,211, in 1821 to 270,542, and in 1831 to 296,000.

At the last period the occupiers of land employing labourers were 4,526

Occupiers not employing labourers 1,121

Labourers employed in agriculture 33,040

Labourers employed in manufactures 676

Labourers employed in retail trade or handicraft... 18,167 Capitalists, bankers, &c 2,228

Labourers not agricultural 5,336

Other labourers under twenty years of age 4,940

Males at and above twenty years 71,376

Male servants. 2,032

Female servants 11,483

In the same year the number of families chiefly employed in agriculture was found to be 31,491; those chiefly employed in trade, manufactures, and handicraft, were 18,116; and those comprised in neither of the preceding classes were 11,926. The number of inhabited houses was 50,139, occupied by 61,533 families; the uninhabited houses were 1141, and those building 259.

The annual value of the real property of the county, as assessed for the purposes of the property-tax in the year 1813, was L. 1,127,404.

The towns of this county containing more than 2000 inhabitants, with their population in 1831, were the following: Ipswich 20,454

Bury St Edmund’s 11,436

Woodbridge 4,769

Sudbury 4,677

Lowestolfe 4,238

Beedes 3,862

Bungay 3,734

Hadleigh 3,425

Mildenhall 3,267

Long Melford 2,514

Halesworth 2,473

Framlingham 2,445

Eye 2,313

Newmarket, but a part of this town, with 714, is in

Cambridgeshire. 2,134

Gorlestone, a suburb to Yarmouth in Norfolk, and by the reform bill a part of that borough 2,111

Lavenham 2,107

Brandon 2,065

Suffolk is generally a level tract of country, in which, as there are few elevations, there are scarcely any extensive prospects. It is, however, tolerably well clothed with trees, but wants running water; most of the streams being very sluggish in their course, and by no means copious. The soil is as various as in other districts of the same extent. On the sea-coast it is in general sandy, but rendered productive by the application of shell-marl, which is found in abundance. In the middle of the county, from north to south, called usually High Suffolk, which is the larger part, the soil is a tenacious, loamy clay, affording good pasturage for cows, whose butter is chiefly used to supply the London markets.

The north-western division is a poor sandy soil, in many places covered with heath, and scarcely fit for any other purpose than that of feeding sheep or breeding rabbits, of which latter animals, it is said, the skins of more than 40,006 annually supply fur to the hatters. The corn furnished by the eastern division of the county, besides supplying its vicinity, is sent to London from the ports of Ipswich and Woodbridge. The cultivation is commonly conducted on the Norfolk system of turnips, barley, clover, and wheat; and the husbandry being well executed, the crops are generally very good. The beans are peculiarly productive. Turnips, and in some districts carrots, are extensively cultivated. Hemp is grown in the garden of almost every peasant, and spun into linen for their domestic uses. Some few hops are grown in the vicinity of Stow-market.

They have an excellent breed of draught-horses, well known by the name of Suffolk punches. The cows have been long celebrated for the abundance of their milk, which, in proportion to their size and the quantity of food they consume, exceeds the produce of any other race in the kingdom. They are all without horns. The sheep, of which large flocks are kept, are mostly of the Norfolk breed; but of late years they have been changed for those of the South Downs.

There are few manufactures in this county, though it was the first in which the Flemings introduced the clothing trade. Before the extension of machinery in the northern counties, the females found constant winter employment in spinning worsted, but that has ceased. A small portion of the manufacture of mixed silk and worsted stuffs is retained, in which 269 males above twenty years of age are employed at Sudbury, forty-two are so employed at Glemsford, and a few at Lavenham and at Hadleigh. At Brandon no less that sixty men are employed in making gun-flints. There is some coarse linen made from hemp at Haverhill, and a little bone-lace at Eye.

The branch of industry which, next to agriculture, gives employment to the greatest number of inhabitants, is the fishery. Many vessels are equipped at Lowestoffe and Southwold to take herrings, which are cured in houses appropriated for that purpose in these towns. The taking of mackerel is beneficial before the season when the shoals of herrings arrive on the coast. There is little other commerce in the county than that which arises from the transmission of the agricultural products to the metropolis.

The navigable rivers are the Sark, which passes by Thetford, and runs to the Ouse; the Deben, of short course, which runs by Woodbridge to the sea; the Orwell, a beautiful river, navigable to Ipswich; and the Blythe, navigable to Framlingham. To these may be added the Wave-nay, which forms the northern boundary of the county; and the Stour, which is its southern. The only navigable canal is one between Ipswich and Stowmarket; but the river Yare having been rendered navigable to Norwich, has a canal at its mouth at Lowestoffe in this county: the admission is by gates, which exhibit one of the most complete specimens of hydraulic architecture in the kingdom.[7:20:790] The landed property of the county is much divided. There are scarcely any estates so large as to create a decided political preponderance, and there is a larger number of proprietors occupying their own lands, of a value of from L.100 to L.400 per annum, than in any other county. Except in the heavy clay districts, the farms are generally large; and the tenants being possessed of ample capitals, the agricultural business is admirably conducted. There are neither mines nor mineral springs in this county. In the summer season sea-bathing attracts a considerable portion of company to the shore at Lowestoffe, Southwold, and some other spots, where every accommodation for such parties is provided.

Among the antiquities stand first the remains of the ancient Roman castle at Burgh, on the banks of the Yare. It is said to have been the ancient Garianonum, erected by Publius Ostorius Scapula, in the reign of the emperor Claudius. The walls, which are still standing, enclose a space 612 feet in length and 320 in breadth; they are fourteen feet in height and nine in thickness. The whole ground plan, including the wall, is more than five acres, and is capable of containing a cohort and a half; having been built to keep in subjection the Sceni, a people inhabiting Suffolk, Norfolk, Huntingdonshire, and Cambridgeshire. The most remarkable of the Saxon antiquities are the monastery at Bury St Edmund’s, that of Framlingham, and several ancient churches.

The following peers derive their titles from places in this county: Marquis Cornwallis; Earls of Suffolk, Orford, Euston, and Stradbrooke; and Barons Rendlesham and Worlingham. The county has been formed into two divisions, the eastern and western, for the purpose of electing members to parliament, each division returning two. The elections for the eastern part arc held at Ipswich; and the other polling places are Needham, Woodbridge, Framlingham, Saxmundham, Beccles, and Halesworth. The elections for the western part are held at Bury St Edmund’s; and the other polling places are Wickham Brook, Lavenharn, Stowmarket, Botesdale, Mildenhall, and Hadleigh. By the reform act the boroughs of Dunwich, Alborough, and Orford, which had each returned two members, have been disfranchised; and Eye, which likewise returned two, now returns only one. Ipswich, Bury St Edmund’s, and Sudbury return two members as before.

The most remarkable seats among a very great number belonging to noblemen and gentlemen in this county are, Euston Hall, Duke of Grafton; Broom Hall, Sir E. Kerrison; Ickworth, Marquis of Bristol; Henham, Lord Stradbrooke; Worlingham Hall, Lord Gosfordl; Boston Hall, Sir H. E. Banbury; Rendlesham, Lord Rendlesham; Benacre, Sir Thomas Gooch; Haveningham Hall, Lord Huntingfield; Sotterly Park, Miles Barm, Esq.; Flinton Hall, Alexander Adair, Esq.; Redgrove Hall, Admiral Wilson; Woolverston Park, Charles Berners, Esq.; Long Melford, Sir Hyde Parker; Shrubland Park, Sir William Middleton; and Tendring Hall, Sir Joseph Rowley.^[1. Kirby’s Suffolk Traveller. Arthur Yeung’s General View of the Agriculture of Suffolk. Views in Suffolk, by W. C. Brayley. ]