GEOGRAPHY OF THE BRITISH ISLES, INTERSPERSED WITH MANY HISTORICAL FACTS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES; SELECTED FROM THE BEST AUTHORS, AND ILLUSTRATED WITH SEPARATE BLANK MAPS AND EXPLANATORY KEYS; SHOWING THE RELATIVE SITUATIONS, BOUNDARIES, PRINCIPAL TOWNS, FOR THE USE OF YOUNG PERSONS AND SCHOOLS. BY MARY MARTHA RODWELL. IN TWO VOLUMES.. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMAN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1834. ΤΟ HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS OF KENT. THE condescending zeal for which Your Royal Highness is so eminently distinguished in promoting the extension of useful knowledge, has made me desirous of obtaining the honour of dedicating the following pages to Your Royal Highness; and I respectfully entreat that the wishes of diffusing instruction, and (if possible) contributing my feeble means towards alleviating the pecuniary embarrassments of beloved parents, may plead as an extenuation for my presumption. The arrangement of the following compilation served to beguile the tedious hours of an extremely protracted indisposition; and I sincerely hope it will be found beneficial to a juvenile public, by interesting their minds in the study of the Geography and History as well as giving them more accurate ideas of the natural and artificial beauties which are to be seen in many parts of the British dominions. Humbly soliciting that the peculiar circumstances under which it was arranged may serve as an excuse both to Your Royal Highness and to the world for the defects that may be found in the execution of it, I have the honour to subscribe myself, Your Royal Highness's Most devoted Servant, MARY MARTHA RODWELL. PREFACE. IN offering this work to public notice, I feel all the diffidence and anxiety natural to a young authoress, more especially as I am aware that publications on the Geography of the British Isles are already sufficiently numerous; but as the compilation here offered differs in many particulars from those usually introduced to juvenile readers, I hope it will not be considered altogether destitute of merit. Having a pleasing recollection of the interest I took in kind maternal conversations, and the lasting instruction I derived from them, I have ventured to offer this little work to my youthful friends in the form of a dialogue between a mother and her two children, and have endeavoured to render the general view of each county, in regard to its situation, extent, most important places, commerce, natural and artificial productions, and other principal objects, in as intelligible a manner as the limits of the work would allow. With the conscious recollection of the great difficulty those engaged in the education of youth have to fix the attention of their pupils, I have introduced into this little work many historical and traditionary anecdotes; to the latter species of infor |