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Devonshire, the largest county in England, except Yorkshire, and the most westerly except Cornwall, ranks among the first in agricultural importance, and the sixth in amount of population. It has mines of copper, tin, lead, and iron ores; inexhaustible quarries of durable granite, slate, lime, building stone, marble &c. ; and is one of the oldest seats of the oldest seats of the lace and coarse woollen manufactures, of which it still retains a considerable share, though greatly reduced since last century, by the machinery and factories of the midland and northern counties.
Occupying the whole breadth of the central portion of that great south-western peninsula of the British Island, which juts out between the Bristol and English Channels, and having more than 150 miles of sea coast, and some fine navigable rivers and broad estuaries, Devonshire is one of the most important maritime counties in the kingdom. It has many sea ports, spacious harbours, and noble bays, and the great naval station, Plymouth and Devonport, is at its south-western angle, adjoining Cornwall.
On it coast are many handsome and delightful bathing places, the principal of which are Torquay, Teignmouth, Exmouth, Sidmouth, Dawlish, and Budleigh Salterton, on the south-east coast, celebrated for their mild and genial climates; and Ilfracombe on the north coast. It comprises 30 market towns, including nine parliamentary boroughs, and its large and handsome capital - the city of Exeter, which is a county of itself. In picturesque beauties, embracing all the associations of hill and dale, wood and water, fertile valleys, elegant mansions, with sylvan parks and pleasure grounds; lofty moorland hills and dells, and extensive land and marine views, it yields to no county in England.
In its greatest length and breadth it extends about 70 miles east and west and north and south; and though of an irregular figure, it may be said to occupy (if we include its large bays,) nearly all the area of a circle 70 miles in diameter, lying between the parallels of 50 deg. 12 min. and 51 deg. 14 min. north latitude; and 3 degrees and 4 deg. 30 min. west longitude. It is traversed in a south westerly direction by the Bristol and Exeter and South Devon Railways, which have branches to Tiverton, Crediton, and Torquay; but the Taw Valley line and some other projected railways are not yet made, though acts were obtained for their construction a few years ago. The boundaries of Devon are Somersetshire and part of Dorsetshire on the north-east; the Bristol Channel on the north; the river Tamar, which divides it from Cornwall, on the East; and the English Channel on the south and south- east, where its coast line is more than 100 miles in extent, and is beautifully diversified and broken by numerous bays, estuaries, creeks, promontories, and headlands; presenting in many places high rocky cliffs, fine sandy shores, pretty towns, villages, and villas, and busy ports and fishing stations. The north coast, including the large semi-circular sweep of Barnstaple Bay, is more than 50 miles in extent. The county is in the Diocese of Exeter, Province of Canterbury, and Western Circuit, and comprises 533,460 inhabitants, and about 1,700,000 acres of land, or 2403 square miles, as will be seen in the following Statistical Summary of its 32 Hundreds &c.