ESSEX, a maritime county of the s.e. of England, having the North sea on the e.; the Thames estuary, dividing it from Kent, on the s.; Middlesex and Hertford on the w.; and Cambridge and Suffolk on the north. Its greatest length from n.e. to s.w. is 63 m., and the greatest breadth from e. to w. is 54 miles. It has 1,055,161 statute acres,. nine-tenths being arable or in grass, and a twentieth in wood. The coast-line is 85 m. long. Some cliffs at the Naze are 35 ft. high. The center and n. of the county are beautifully diversified and richly wooded, the highest point being Langdon hill, 620 ft. above the sea. Besides the Thames, the other chief rivers are the Stour, 50 m. long; Blackwater, 46 m. ; Lea, Boding, Crouch, and Chelmer. The e. of the county is mostly on London clay, with limestone beds near Harwich. In the chalk appears. In the middle and n., there is much diluvium, with chalk fragments. Crag occurs near Harwich, and stones of phosphate of lime are found here and there. E. has few manu factures, except in the neighborhood of London, where are chemical works, tar, and other works of a kind that could not be carried on in a large scale within the metro politan boundaries. The Thames iron-work and ship-building company, near the new Victoria docks, are another manufacturing feature of the county. At Colchester, there
is a great silk-mill, as there are also at Hocking, Braintree, and Halstead. Tambor lace is made at Coggeshall and a few other places; there is straw-plaiting in some of the smaller towns, but the county has, notwithstanding, comparatively few distinctive manu factures. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, beans, potatoes, saffron, caraway, and hops. Great numbers of calves are fattened for the London market, and there are large sheep-flockS. E. has valuable oyster-fisheries. Pop. in 1861, 404,644; in 1871, 466,436. The county is almost entirely in the diocese of Rochester. E. returns six members to parliament. E. was once forest-land, and the seat Ca flOwerful tribe, the Trinobantes, whose famous chiefs, Caractacus and Boadicea, were overthrown by the Romans. E. constituted part of the Roman Flavin Cavariensis. It has afforded many Roman remains, and a Roman road once passed through Colchester, which was an im portant Roman station. The Saxon kingdom of Essex included London and parts of Middlesex, Hertford, Bedford, and Essex.