Essex

Essex, a maritime county in the east of England, washed by the North Sea, and separated from Kent by the Thames estuary, from Suffolk by the Stour. Measuring 57 miles from east to west, and 44 from north to south, it has an area of 1657 sq. m. The low flat sea-board is close on 100 miles long, deeply indented by shallow creeks, and much of it fringed by the desolate salt-marshes described so well in Baring-Gould's Mehalah. Inland the surface becomes gently undulating or even hilly, the principal eminences being Danbury Hill (317 feet), Laindon Hill (378), and High Beech (350). The rivers are the Thames, Stour, Lea, Stort, Colne, Blackwater, Crouch, Roding, and Chelmer—rivers that sometimes flood the low-lying lands, as notably in the summer of 1888. Four years before, an earthquake, proceeding from north-east to south-west, did almost £10,000 damage. Chiefly occupied by the stiff London clay, but with chalk in the north-west, and crag near Harwich, Essex offers a great variety of soil. Nearly 79 per cent. of the entire area is in cultivation; and as Essex is more than most counties purely agricultural, so it has suffered more than most through the agricultural depression, 21,472 acres being thrown on the landlords' hands in 1887. Epping Forest (q.v.) is a mere remnant of the once wide woodlands, whose total area throughout the whole county is now reduced to less than 44 sq. m. Fishing is prosecuted, though not very actively; and the Colne has long been famous for its oysters. Brewing is an important industry, especially at Romford; but outside of the metropolitan area there are no great manufactures. Essex since 1877 has been included in the new diocese of St Albans, and since 1885 has returned one member to parliament for each of its eight divisions—South-west or Walthamstow, South or Romford, West or Epping, North or Saffron Walden, North-east or Harwich, East or Maldon, South-east, and Mid or Chelmsford. The County Council consists of eighty-four members. Chelmsford is the county town; and towns other than the above are Colchester, Stratford, Barking, Braintree, Brentwood, Coggeshall, Dunmow, Halstead, Harlow, Ilford, Ongar, Witham. Pop. (1801) 227,652; (1841) 344,979; (1881) 576,434; (1891) 785,399. Essex, named after the East Saxons, has little history apart from Colchester (q.v.); its only battlefield is Ashingdon (Assandun). The palaces of Havereng and Theobalds are no more; but the Norman keep of Castle Hedingham still stands, and Audley End, a splendid Jacobean mansion. Old halls too are plentiful; and there are ruins of more than a dozen monastic houses. Of Essex worthies the chief have been Tusser, John Ray, Quarles, Sydney Smith, and Isaac Taylor. See the county histories of Morant (2 vols. (1768) and Suckling (1845); also Walford's Guide (1882) and Barrett's Essex Highways (1892).