A trapezoid, formed by drawing parallel lines across a map from east to west, and others from south to north, at the distance of the sixtieth part of a degree, contains, on an average of every ten minutes succes sively, the following number of acres and decimal parts.
By means of this scale, the following calculation of the whole area of England and Wales, and of the particular areas of the different counties, as well as the proportion which each county bears to the whole of South Britain, Very little addition will be necessary to be made to this calculation, from the circumstance of the irregula rity or unevenness of the surface of England ; and not much even for the mountainous districts of \Vales. Dr Becke supposes, that in the clayey, gravelly, and sandy soils, which predominate on the eastern side of the kingdom, the increase of surface, from its irregularity or unevenness, does not amount to much more than the 1000th part; that in the hilly and chalky counties, it scarcely exceeds the 400th part ; and that, making a greater allowance for \Vales, \Vestmoreland, and other very mountainous districts, it will not collectively amount to more, at most, than between 120,000, and 150,000 acres.
The progressive geography of England and \Vales may be classed under four periods, which will supply us with the divisions of this country, at the time when the Romans invaded it; during their abode here ; du ring the Saxon heptarchy ; and at present.
At the period of the invasion of the Romans, the Danmonii inhabited the counties of Cornwall and De vonshire; the Durotriges, Dorsetshire ; the Belgx, So merset, Wiltshire, and the northern part of Hampshire; the Attrabatii, Berkshire ; the Regni, Surrey, Sussex, and the south part of Hampshire ; the Cantii inhabited the county of Kent ; the Trinobantes, Middlesex and Essex ; the Iceni, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire; the Catecuchlani, Buckingham shire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire; the Dohuni, Gloucestershire, and Oxfordshire ; the Silures, Here fordshire, Monmouthshire,Radnorshire,Brecknockshire, and Glamorganshire ; the Dimetx, Caermarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and Cardiganshire ; the Ordovices, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Merionethshire, Montgome ryshire, Caernarvonshire, and the Isle of Anglesey ; the Cernovii, Cheshire, Salop, Staffordshire, \Varwick shire, and Worcestershire ; the Coritani, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland shire, and Northamptonshire ; the Brigantes, York shire, Lancashire, \Vestmoreland, Cumberland, and Durham ; and the Ottodani, Northumberland.
During the Roman period, England was divided in to the following large provinces, the extent and boun daries of which are not, however, exactly ascertained: Brittania Prima, which comprehended the whole south ern part of England, as far as the mouths of the Severn and the Thames ; Brittania Secunda, which comprised modern Wales; Flavia CRsariensis, which comprehend ed the middle of England, from the Thames to the Humber ; Maxima Cmsaricnsis, in which were included a part of the northern counties, from the Humber to the Tyne, on the east side, and from the Mersey to the Solway Frith, on the west side of the kingdom. The province of Valencia seems to have comprised the re mainder of the northern counties, and to have been formed and named when the province of Vespasiana, which included part of the south of Scotland, was re conquered.
During the Saxon period of the history of England this country formed a heptarchy, or seven kingdoms, which were divided in the following manner: Kent, comprehended the county of Kent : it was founded by Hengist, in the year 454, and terminated in the year 823.
Sussex, or the kingdom of the South Saxons, con prehended the counties of Sussex and Surrey : it was founded by Ella, in the year 491, and ended in the year 685.
The East Angles comprehended the counties of Nor folk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and the isle of Ely : it was founded by Uffit, in the year 565, and terminated in the year 792.
Wessex, or the kingdom of the West Saxons, com prehended the counties of Cornwall, Devonshire, Dor setshire, Somersetshire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire: it was founded by Cerdic, in the year 519, and ended in the year 828.