Lancashire is a county palatine of England, ranking sixth in point of area, first in population, and first in return of revenue from all sources. It forms the north-western division of England, stretching along the shore of the Irish Sea from the river Duddon and the mountains of Cumberland on the north to the river Mersey on the south. It is bounded on the E. by Yorkshire, on the W. by the Irish Sea, on the N. by Cumberland and Westmorland, and on the S. by Cheshire. The extreme length from N. to S. (including the hundred of Furness) is 75 miles, and the greatest breadth at the south end 43, and at the north end 10 miles. The circumference is 240 miles, and the area 1905 sq. m., or 1,219,221 statute acres. Pop. (1801) 673,486; (1821) 1,052,948; (1841) 1,667,054; (1861) 2,429,440; (1881) 3,454,441; (1891) 3,926,760. The rateable value increased from £10,029,967 in 1868 to £18,623,910 in 1890.
The coast is level, free from rocks, and has numerous estuaries stretching far into the mainland. Its ports are the only ones accessible to large vessels between Milford Haven, in South Wales, and the estuary of the Clyde. This, with the ease with which the coast is approached from the interior, has made the county the principal outlet for the commerce of the country in a westerly direction, one-third of the whole foreign trade of Great Britain being carried on from its ports. The chief rivers are the Mersey, Ribble, Lune, Wyre, Kent, Leven, and Duddon. The rainfall in Lancashire is sometimes twice as great as on the east coast; the climate is mild. The lofty hills on the east shelter it from the land winds, while the prevailing winds, those from the south and west, are rendered mild from the effect of the Gulf Stream. This humidity of climate is said to contribute to the superiority of the finer kinds of cotton threads manufactured in Lancashire. An outlying portion of the county, called Furness, 25 miles long by about 20 wide, is separated from the main portion by Morecambe Bay, and seems as if it properly ought to belong to the Lake District. Coniston, Esthwaite, and Windermere lakes lie within the borders. The highest point here is 'Coniston Old Man'—'alt maen,' or the 'high rock'—2633 feet above the sea. The larger division is intersected in the north and east by branches of the hill-system which runs southward through the counties of York and Derby, the chief eminences being Pendle Hill (1831 feet), Bleasdale Moor (1709), Boulsworth Hill (1689), and Rivington Moor (1545). The soil is peaty in the upland districts, but for the most part a fertile loam in the flats. Oats and potatoes are general crops; wheat grows well in the southern division. Coal is the chief mineral product, the coalfield being estimated at 217 sq. m. in extent. The latest estimate of the quantity raised in one year amounted to 19,120,000 tons. Limestone and iron are common in the north. Lead, copper, sulphur, and fireclay are also found. The whole surface of the county is covered with a network of canals and railways which connect the principal manufacturing and commercial centres (see MANCHESTER, LIVERPOOL, PRESTON, BLACKBURN, &c.). Lancashire is the great centre of the cotton manufacture of the world, having about two-thirds of the entire trade (see COTTON). The other textile manufactures, such as woollens, silk, carpets, are likewise of considerable importance. It is pre-eminent in the manufacture of engineers' tools; and the making of all kinds of iron and steel machinery is extensively carried on. Shipbuilding, sailmaking, the manufacture of boots and shoes, hosiery, and kindred trades are also in a flourishing condition. The county returus, since 1885, twenty-three members to parliament (formerly eight), besides those for the boroughs. The phrase, 'Lancashire Witches,' which is now used as an expression of admiration for the young maidens of the county, arose from the prevalence of the crime of witchcraft in Lancashire in the reign of James I. So many as twenty witches were tried and executed at the Lancaster Assizes of 1612. Twelve of these were the witches of 'Pendle Forest,' and eight belonged to the witches of 'Samlesbury.' A few years previously, Ferdinand, fifth Earl of Derby, was supposed to have been murdered by witchcraft. At the time of the Reformation the Roman Catholic party was extremely strong in Lancashire, and religious houses of great wealth and influence existed in every district, twenty-two being suppressed by order of King Henry VIII.; this included the abbeys of Furness and Whalley (see FURNESS). An unusually large proportion of the land-owners still adhered in the reign of James I. to their old faith, and in 1604 six priests were tried at the Lancaster Assizes and executed. Those connected with the Gunpowder Plot expected to rouse the Catholics of Lancashire, but entirely failed to do so. The whole of the district was continually unsettled and full of discontented recusants, some of them of Roman Catholic and others of Puritan opinions. The people of Lancashire have long been noted for their love of music and natural history, there being amongst them many working-men who are botanists and entomologists of repute; while their politics and opinions have had such influence in the country that the proverb has arisen that 'What Lancashire thinks to-day England says to-morrow.' Amongst eminent names connected with Lancashire are those of Mrs Gaskell, Mrs G. L. Banks, Miss Martineau; of Roscoe, De Quincey, Sir Robert Peel, Horrocks, Dalton, Hodgkinson, Joule, Greg, Bamford (the weaver poet, 1788-1872), William Henry the chemist, Sir W. Fairbairn, Sir J. Whitworth, James Martineau, Gladstone; and names connected with the success of the cotton trade, as John Kay (inventor of the fly-shuttle), Crompton, Arkwright, Hargreaves. The Lancashire dialect, renowned for terseness and vigour, is illustrated in works by J. Collier ('Tim Bobbin'), Ben Brierley, Edwin Waugh. See maps at MANCHESTER and at LAKE DISTRICT.
See Baines, Lancashire (1836; new ed. by Croston, 1888); Espinasse, Lancashire Worthies (1873-77); Nodal and Milner, Dialects (1882); and works by Butterworth (1841), Grindon (1866, 1882, 1892), Axon (1883).