HEREFORDSHIRE, an inland English county, bounded on the north by Shropshire, on the east by Worcestershire, on the south by Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, and on the west by the Welsh counties of Brecknock and Radnor. Its greatest length is thirty-eight, and its greatest breadth thirty-five miles. It is nearly of a circular form; but the dividing lines are broken by many indentations. Its circumference is 120 miles, and its square area 1221 miles, or 781,440 statute acres.

It is divided into eleven hundreds, containing one city, seven towns, and 221 parishes. The population amounted in 1801 to 89,191, in 1811 to 94,073, in 1821 to 103,243, and in 1831 to 110,300. By the comparative tables of mortality, it appears that the ratio of deaths to the whole population has been thus: From 1801 to 1811 one in fifty-seven, from 1811 to 1821 one in fifty-eight, and from 1821 to 1831 one in fifty-eight. Few manufactures exist in the county; about forty persons are employed in making hats at Leominster, and a few cloths and stockings are made in other parts. The occupations stand thus: Agriculturists employing labourers, 2505; agriculturists employing no labourers, 1679; labourers in agriculture, 12,213; employed in manufacture, 63; retail traders or handicraft, 7576: capitalists, bankers, &c. 911; labourers not agricultural, 2410; other males twenty years of age, 1521; male servants, 725; female servants, 5512.

The face of the country is very beautiful, when viewed from the western descent of the Malvern Hills. The whole country is rather thickly enclosed with high hedges; the divisions of the fields are generally small; and the abundance, both of forest and fruit trees, with which its surface is covered, gives it the appearance of an extensive wood. The roads are all narrow and bad, and even the turnpike ones are scarcely an exception.

In the eastern side of the county, a part of the Malven Hills is rather barren, as are the Hatterel or Black Mountains, which divide it from Wales on the west. With the exception of these two portions, the whole of the land is highly fertile, and the fields are clothed with perpetua' verdure. The soil is generally a mixture of marl and clay but contains calcareous earth in various proportions it different parts. Towards the western part, the soil is tenacious, and retentive of water; the eastern side is principally a stiff clay, in some places of a red colour. In tht’ south, some of the soil is a light sandy loam. The subsoi is almost universally limestone; in some parts a species o: marble, beautifully variegated with red and white veins and capable of receiving a high polish. Where the soi does not rest on limestone, as near the city of Hereford it is sometimes a siliceous gravel, and occasionally fuller’s earth and yellow ochres are found. The climate is rather more inclined to rain than the more eastern parts of England, and at times is much subject to damp fogs, which moisten the earth, and may be one cause of its great verdure.

The cultivation of grain is generally in a state behind [7:11:273]most of the English counties, and the crops bear no proportion to the excellence of the soil. Wheat is generally sowed on a clover ley, with a dressing of lime, and then yields, on an average, twenty bushels to the acre. After this wheat is harvested, a winter and spring ploughing are followed by peas, which do not average more than fourteen bushels to the acre. The peas are fojlowed by wheat again, when the produce is not usually more than fourteen bushels. In the succeeding spring it is sowed with barley and clover, neither of which crops yields a good increase. Oats are only sowed partially in the room of barley. Turnips are carelessly cultivated, and artificial grasses sowed to a very limited extent, though somewhat increased of late years. On the borders of some of the rivers there are most valuable meadows of natural grass, which are the most productive of any lands in the county.

One cause of the neglect manifested in the cultivation of corn may be the attention paid to the growth of hops and fruit. The cultivation of hops is considerable, and increasing on the borders of Worcestershire, and much more of the manure is applied to them than to the corn. The soils selected for hop gardens are those where a dry loam predominates, with but a small proportion of clay; and old pastures are deemed more fit for them than the land that has been recently under the plough. The time of planting them is usually the month of April. In July the gardens are hoed carefully, and the same operation is repeated five or six weeks after; and in September the earth is formed into hillocks around the roots of the young plants. The hops are picked from the plants in October, are then gently dried in a kiln, and packed for sale. The average produce of an acre of garden is about five hundredweight of hops. Each acre requires 1000 poles, around which the plants entwine themselves. The cost of poles, of manure, and of labour, makes the cultivation highly expensive, and in some years it far exceeds the amount of the produce, but in others the growers gain very large profits. The whole is a very speculative pursuit.

The rearing of fruit-trees, to the growth of which the soil and climate seem admirably adapted, engrosses the greatest share of the attention and skill of the Herefordshire cultivators. Although almost every soil and situation in the county is favourable to the growth of apples and pears, yet those spots are preferred which are exposed to the south-east and sheltered to the westward; as it is found that the winds from that quarter are ungenial to the fruit trees. Orchards, though planted in Kent as early as the reign of Henry VIII., did not extend to Herefordshire till they were introduced by Lord Scudamore and some other gentlemen in the reign of Charles I. when the circumstance of their adaptation to the soil being ascertained, they quickly spread over the whole county. It is a fact, that many varieties of apples and pears, which a few years ago were the most highly esteemed, have entirely disappeared; but new varieties have by care and attention been produced, which equal in value, if not in fame, the celebrated redstreah and slime aj>ple, and the squash pear, the value of whose cider and perry was thirty years ago most highly prized. Some of the proprietors of orchards, who are most attentive to the selection of the fruit, and most skilful in the management of the juice when expressed, have produced such exquisitely flavoured cider and perry as to obtain for them a preference over any wines made from the grape. The prices at which the best of these liquors are sold by the growers far exceed those which are obtained for the best wines of any vineyards either in France or Germany. They are sometimes sold as high as L.20 the hogshead direct from the press. Some of the orchards are from thirty to forty acres in extent, and the trees being at considerable distance from each other, the intervals are kept in tillage. The produce of the orchards is very fluctuating, though less so in Herefordshire than in Somerset, Devon, or Gloucester; yet the growers seldom expect more than one year in three to be fully productive. In a good year an acre of orchard will produce from eighteen to twenty-four hogsheads of cider or perry. The quantity of apples or pears required to make a hogshead varies from twenty-four to thirty bushels. The greater part of the best descriptions of both liquors is purchased by merchants from Bristol, who find bottles, and export it to the East and West Indies, and to America.

Herefordshire has long been celebrated for one of the best races of cows. They are of the middle-horned kind, have a large and athletic frame, and, from the silky nature of their coats, have an unusually sleek appearance. The most prevailing colour is a reddish brown, and their faces are white and bald. The heifers fatten quickly at an early age, and the calves are highly esteemed. The rearing of oxen for the plough is a common pursuit, and the greater part of the animal labour of the county is performed by them. After being worked five or six years, they are usually sold to, graziers from Buckinghamshire, and fattened in the Vale of Aylesbury for the consumption of the metropolis, where their flesh is highly prized.

The fame of the Herefordshire sheep equals that of its cows. They are best known by the name of the Rylands, a district in the southern part of the county, in which the superior varieties of them are fed. They are small, whitefaced, and without horns. In symmetry of shape, and in the exquisite flavour of the meat, they surpass most other kinds; and, in addition, their wool is by far the finest produced from any of the native English races. The quantity of wool from them does not average more than two pounds each, but it is usually sold for three times the price of coarse wool. Many experiments have been made to improve this breed by crossing them with the Merinos; but it has been found that the flesh has deteriorated as much as the wool has improved by the mixture. The practice of keeping the sheep in houses in cold weather is general, and perhaps the wool may be in some degree indebted to that management for a portion of its fineness of fibre.

The excellence of the wool has not induced many manufactures, for most of it is sold to the clothiers of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. Attempts have been made to establish manufactories of woollen goods in the city of Hereford, but they proved abortive. At Kington some few woollens are made, and likewise at Leominster, but to no great extent. The river Wye is navigable to Hereford, but either floods or droughts so often suspend the navigation, that the trade carried on by it is very inconsiderable.

The principal river, the Wye, is celebrated for its picturesque beauties, especially in the vicinity of Ross, and till it enters Monmouthshire. The other streams, the Lugg, receiving the waters of the Arrow and the Frome, the Munnow receiving those of the Dore, and the Led-don, are but inconsiderable, though they tend to fertilize the lands through which they flow.

Few counties are more rich in antiquities than Herefordshire, especially in the remains of those feudal castles, which were probably erected when it was the frontier towards the hostile Welsh. The most remarkable of these are Goodrich Castle, Dore Abbey, Wigmore Abbey, Vineyard Camp, and Bransil Castle.

The largest towns, and their population, are, Hereford, 10,280; Leominster, 5249; Ledbury, 3909; Ross, 3078; and Kington, 3111.

By the law of 1832 this county returns three members to parliament; and the polling places are Hereford, Leominster, Bromyard, Ledbury, Ross, and Kington. The [7:11:274]borough of Weobly was disfranchised by the same law, and Hereford and Leominster return each two members.

The towns in Herefordshire are generally worse built than in any other English county, and more nearly approach to those of their adjoining Welsh neighbours. In the villages the buildings are still worse. The construction of most of the farm-houses and of the barns is rude and slight; they are usually built of stone, only cemented with mud or clay, about two feet high; and upon these imperfect walls the superstructure is raised, composed of timber frame-work, with laths intertwined, and plastered with mud or clay. They are usually covered with thick flag-stones, which increase the weight, and soon reduce them to a most ruinous state.

See Duncomb’s Herefordshire ; Marshall’s Rural Economy ; Lodge’s Sketches ; Clark’s General View; and Brayley and Britton’s Beauties of England, vol. vi. (g.)