BRECONSHIRE, or BILECKNOCKSHIRA, in South Wales, is divided from Radnorshire by the river Wye ; its other boundaries are artificial. Its length is 29 miles, the breadth of its southern basis 84, and its circumference rather more than 100. It contains nearly 500,000 acres of land, not one half of which are either in a state of cultivation, or adapted to it. Its form is irregularly triangular, narrowing towards the northern extremity. It is di vided into six hundreds ; and contains the county town, Brecon, and three market-towns besides, Crickhowel, Biulth, and Hay. There are in it one hundred and eleven parishes, and places paying pa rochial rates, according to the last returns to Par liament respecting these rates.
Breconshire is one of the most mountainous counties in Wales ; and the Van, or Brecksock 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 obser vations made in the year 1802, with a rain gunge, that 261 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 hundered of Biulth, the soil is remarkably argilla ceous, and the water does not sink sufficiently deep ; in the Vale of Usk, 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, for the most part, is 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 west ern side of the county, on the border of Caermarthen shire, 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 con siderable 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, ia•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 SS miles in length, with 68 feet rise to Brecon. From the fall of this canal from Bre con to the Bristol Channel, it appears, that Brecon is 411 feet 8 inches above the level of the The agriculture of this county is superior to that of most of the other counties of Wales, and ap pears 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 on 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 Nor folk rotation is followed with skill and success ; and tolerably abundant crops of barley, clover, wheat, and turnips are obtained. The Highland farmers, in ge neral, are too poor to attempt any material improve ments. In the vales the farms seldom exceed 150 or 200 acres ; the rents are high ; in the neighbour hood of Glasbury and Hay, nearly 40s. 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 former, 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, Lon don, Bristol, &c. The cattle and horses are small, but the former have been much improved by in termixing the Glamorganshire and Herefordshire breeds ; and the latter by the introduction of the Suffolk Punch sort. A considerable number of ot ters frequent the. rivers, the furs of which form another branch of the exports of this county.
The principal manufactures are flannel, linsey woolsey, and other coarse cloths. These manufac tures are not so flourishing as they were formerly ; as, from the latter end of the sixteenth, to the beginning of the eighteenth century, considerable fortunes were acquired in Brecon and its vicinity, by the manufac ture of woollen cloths. At present, the workmen confine themselves, almost entirely, to weaving what is amp by private families, into what is called /tan nergate, raw cloth. Latterly, several forges and iron founderies have been established near the bor ders of Glamorganshire, which abound with coal and iron-ore ; and these have succeeded extremely well. The profits of the mines for the year ending 5th April 1813, according to the returns under the Property Act, were L. 2254; and of iron works L.1006.
The poor and other parochial rates of this county, in the year ending Easter 1803, amounted to the sum of L.12,200, 7s. sid. In the year ending the 25th of March 1815, there was paid in parochial rates the sum of L. 20,307, Ss. 10d.
In the year 1801, the population amounted to ; 31,633 inhabitants; of whom 14,346 were employed in agriculture, and 4204 in various trades and manu factures.