In 1215, the Earl of Winchester seized Colchester Castle. In the reign of Richard II. Humphrey Duke of Gloucester was arrested at his castle of Plessy, near Chelmsford. In 1571 a number of Flemish refugees settled in Colchester, and introduced the woollen manufacture. At the approach of the Armada, a camp was formed at Tilbury. In the Civil War, Essex sided with the parliament, raising 2,000 men for service, besides large sums of money. Colchester was stormed by the parliamentarians under Fairfax in 1648. No later events of historical interest have occurred. The county, which is reputed the most Conservative in England, is divided into North and South Essex for parliamentary purposes, each division returning two members; the former has a population of 189,435, with its seat of election at Braintree; the latter 179,883, with its seat of election at Chelmsford, which is also the assize and county town. The government of the shire is administered by a lieutenant and vice-admiral, assisted by 22 deputy-lieutenants, a high sheriff, and about 380 magistrates. The whole of the county is included within the home circuit and military district, but only that part adjoining Epping Forest is within the bounds of the Central Criminal Court and Metropolitan Police, being considered as a suburb of the metropolis. The two divisions of the county comprise together nineteen hundreds and one liberty, containing 408 parishes and about 600 townships, with 4 extra-parochial places. The county contains no cathedral city, but 22 market towns, including Chelmsford, the county town, Colchester, Harwich, and Maldon, parliamentary boroughs, each returning two members to parliament, with Braintree, Dunmow, Halstead, Rochford, Romford, Saffron Walden, Waltham Abbey, Brentwood, Billericay, Chipping Ongar, Epping, and Witham, the first twelve being also heads of new County Court districts. The chief seaports are Colchester, Maldon, and Harwich, which last is connected with Ipswich by a line of steamers ascending the Orwell. The minor ports are Barking, Bradwell, Brightlingsea, Burnham, Grays, Leigh, Manningtree, Purfleet, Southend, Salcott, and Wakering. The principal trade of these ports is in the fisheries, especially the oyster fishery, and in the shipping of corn, coals, cattle, and timber. Essex is ecclesiastically under the see of Rochester, and is distributed between the archdeaconries of Colchester and Essex, comprising the whole of the county except the ten metropolitan parishes, which are still retained in the see of London, and the village of Ballingdon, a suburb of Sudbury, in Suffolk, which is in the diocese of Ely. The shire is of an irregular shape, and on the E. much indented with friths and creeks of the Stour, Colne, Blackwater, Crouch, and Thames. The coast presents a succession of unhealthy marshes, known as the South and East Hundreds, but the middle and northern districts of the county are remarkably healthy, so that the average duration of life is above that for all England. Even the marsh lands have lately been much improved by drainage and embankments, but still cover a large extent of surface, both along the bank of the Thames and on the E. coast. The marshes begin near the junction of the Lea with the Thames, and extend along the whole of the northern bank except near Leigh and Southend, where the coast rises into low cliffs. After passing the mouth of the Thames, they continue along the eastern coast to about 4 miles beyond St. Osyth Point, where the land presents a high broken coast-line, extending nearly 10 miles to the Naze, the most eastern point of the county. From the Naze to Harwich, for about 6 miles, the coast forms an inlet lined by salt marshes, and terminated in the estuary of the Stour, above Manningtree. Along the whole extent of this eastern coast the sea has for centuries been encroaching, in some places nearly 5 miles, as indicated by shoals, ruins of buildings, &c. On this coast, which in many places is defended from further encroachments by dykes and sea-walls, are the marsh islands of Canvey, Foulness, Wallasea, Mersea, Horsea, Havengore, Potten, Pevril, and Holmes, besides others. Most of these islands are low and marshy, being separated from the mainland by narrow intervening channels, and are embanked. In the creeks and inlets which surround and separate them are extensive oyster-beds, especially round Wallasea, hence called Wallfleet oysters. These are of so great value that the town of Colchester alone derives an income of £700 a year from licenses annually granted to dredgermen for the fishing of the Colne. It is calculated that above 15,000 bushels of oysters are taken in a season, and that the capital employed in the trade is from £60,000 to £80,000. In its geological characteristics the greater part of the county belongs to the London clay formation, with freshwater deposits on the E. coast, containing animal remains. Near Harwich the stratum is crag, containing fossils, and to the S., about Purfleet and Grays, chalk predominates, as also in the N.W. beyond Dunmow and Halstead, where the continuation of the Chiltern hills forms the Chalk Downs. The only hills of any considerable elevation are High Beach, near Waltham Abbey, 390 feet high; Laingdon Hill, 620 feet; Danbury Hill, 700; and Tiptree Heath, near Witham, about the same altitude. The rest of the county is level, or gently undulating, the slope, as determined by the water-shed, being towards the S. and E. The Thames, which bounds it on the S. side, has several quays on the Essex shore, but no great haven. The Victoria Docks and the Metropolitan Steam Docks are in Plaistow level. Steamers run from London to Harwich, calling at Purfleet, Grays, Tilbury, Southend, and Walton. The Lea, which is navigable, bounds the county on the W. side till it meets the Stort, when it flows S. and joins the Thames. The Stour, which separates the county from Suffolk on the N.E., becomes navigable at Sudbury, and after passing the ports of Manningtree and Harwich, falls into the North Sea. There are besides several other minor rivers, as the Roding, or Roden, Bourne-brook, Ingerbourne, and the Marditch, which forms a creek at Purfleet; the Crouch, which waters the S.E. part of Essex and falls into the North Sea, forming a port at Burnham; the Chelmer, with its tributaries the Ter, Wid, Cann, and Sandon, being navigable from Chelmsford to the port of Maldon, near which place it is joined by the Blackwater and Podsbrook, and so falls [into the North Sea; the Colne, which is navigable from Colchester, and receiving the waters of the river Roman, also falls into the North Sea. The Cam and Slade brooks water the N.W. part of the county, and then cross the Cambridge border. Besides these are the Holland and Broomhill creeks, the latter being navigable for 7 miles to near Rochford. The soil is in general extremely fertile, being a rich loam, particularly well adapted for the growth of corn, as the superiority of Essex wheat sufficiently proves. The chief crops are wheat, which yields from 25 to 33 bushels per acre, barley 40 bushels, oats 12 to 14 quarters, beans 32 bushels, and potatoes 300 bushels per acre. The other principal productions are turnips, tares, rape, clover, mustard, and rye-grass. The raising of carraway, coriander, and teasel, which are planted together, is peculiar to this county, and is considered a very profitable crop. Grazing is confined to the marsh lands, the principal stock fed on which are Welsh and Scotch runts. The principal dairy farms are in the parish of Epping and its vicinity, and have for centuries been famous for the supply of the London markets with cream, butter, and dairy-fed pork. The suckling of calves, for which Essex is celebrated, and the fattening of North country cattle, is still largely carried on about Sandon, the river Lea, Barking, and Epping. The sheep are principally of the South Down breeds, and the pigs a small variety of the Berkshire. The size of the farms varies with the part of the county, but in general they average from 150 to 200 acres, and are held by yearly tenure, or on short leases of from seven to fourteen years. The greater part of the industrial population is engaged in agriculture, there being but few manufactures. The woollen baize manufacture, originally introduced by the Flemings in the reign of Elizabeth, and formerly of so much importance, is now extinct. There are silk-mills at Colchester and Coggeshall, satin velvet mills at Halstead, and crape factories at Braintree and Bocking, besides straw-plait in several villages, and bricks and coarse pottery in various parts. At Waltham Abbey are the government powder-mills, at Purfleet extensive powder magazines, and at Shoeburyness an extensive practice ground for artillery. Hunting has from time immemorial been a favourite sport in Essex, and the county can boast of several packs of hounds, as, the Essex, Essex Union, South Essex, East Essex, Essex and Suffolk, Mr. Tufnell's and Mr. Honeywood's harriers,;the Hon. F. Petre's stag hounds, &c. The county is crossed by the two main sections of the Great Eastern railway, one under the name of the Cambridge line, proceeding in a northerly direction by Waltham Abbey to Cambridge and Newmarket, with a branch to Hertford; the other in a N.E. direction by Chelmsford and Colchester to Ipswich, with numerous branches to all the principal towns on the East Coast. Another short line runs to Loughton in connection with the Great Eastern and North London railways. In the S.W. a short line runs from Stratford to North Woolwich, and another line from Stratford to Tilbury and Southend. The Tendring railway from Colchester to Wivenhoe has only recently been completed; and another line called the Colne Valley is in course of formation, commencing at the Chapel junction on the Sudbury branch line, with an extension to Haverhill in Suffolk. A connecting line has likewise been just commenced from Stortford, through Dunmow, to Braintree. The principal roads in the county are the three roads from London to Norwich, by Ipswich, by Bury, and by Newmarket, with branch roads from Chelmsford and Colchester as centres to all the principal towns and ports on the Thames and the East Coast. The road which quits London by Shoreditch enters the county at Lea Bridge, and joins the Newmarket road at Snaresbrook. From the Colchester road, near Bow-Bridge, a road runs by Chipping Ongar to Dunmow and Bury St. Edmund's. A cross road enters the county from Hertfordshire, and passes through Dunmow and Braintree to Colchester. Essex gives name to an archdeaconry in the diocese of Rochester, consisting of 16 rural deaneries, and the title of earl to the Capels. The chief seats are-Danbury Palace, of the Bishop of Rochester; Easton Lodge, of Viscount Maynard; Hill Hall, of Bowyer-Smith, Bart.; Navestock Park, of the Dowager Countess Waldegrave; Terling Place, of Lord Rayleigh; Thorndon Park, of Lord Petre; Belhus, of Sir Thomas Barrett Lennard, Bart.; Audley End, of Lord Braybrook; Hyde Hall, of Lord Roden; Boreham House, of Sir John Tyssen Tyrrell, Bart.; Dagnam Park, of Sir Digby Neave, Bart.; Felix Hall, of T. S. Western; Forest Hall, of J. B. Stane; Mark Hall, of Loftus Arkwright, Esq.; Newton Hall, of Sir Brydges P. Henniker, Bart.; Rivenhall Place, of Rev. Sir John Page Wood, Bart.; Spains Hall, of Colonel S. B. R. Brise; Tiptree Hall, of J. J. Mechi; Wivenhoe Hall, of Sir Claude W. Champion de Crespigny, Bart. British and Roman antiquities are widely scattered throughout the county. Of the former, consisting of camps and barrows, examples are met with at Blunts Walls, the Bartlow hills, Ambreys, Ruckolt, and Walbury, and on Lexden Heath is the famous Grim's Dyke. Of the Roman antiquities, the chief are altars, tesselated pavements, foundations of temples and villas, baths, and coins, which are more frequently met with on the line of the two Roman roads, one of which passed through Colchester, and the other, called the Stane or Ermine Street, by Bishop Stortford and Dunmow. The sites of several Roman towns have been pretty accurately determined, as, Canonium, near Witham; Camalodunum, now Colchester; Cæsaromagus, near Chelmsford; and Durolitum, near Romford. Of the Saxon and Norman periods there are castles and religious houses. The latter at one time amounted to 47. The former comprise the remains of Clavering Castle, built by Sueyn the Dane; Hedingham Castle, the seat of the De Veres; Walden Castle, of the Mandevilles; the castles of Colchester, Hadleigh, Stansted Monfichet, Ongar, and part of the foundations of Plessy, which belonged to the Good Duke Humphrey, as high constable. Of the religious houses only few remains exist: the chief are-Waltham Abbey, founded by King Harold, and recently restored; Barking Abbey; with the minor abbeys of Billeigh, Tiltey, Stratford, and the priories of Bychnacre, Colchester, Dunmow, Latton, and Leighs."