The illustrations on pages 7, 33, 61, 84, 88, 96, 106, are from photographs by Mr Llewellyn Treacher, of Twyford; those on pages 83 and 87 are from photographs by Mr H. A. King, of Reading; those on pages 37, 40, 46, 64, 74, 105, 158, 163 are from photographs by the author. The portraits on pages 139 and 144 are reproduced from photographs supplied by Mr Emery Walker; while the illustrations on pages 67, 69, 71, 92, 94, 97, 99, 100, 103, 110, 112, 122, 127, 129, 130, 132, 133, 153, 156, are from photographs supplied by the Homeland Association; and those on pages 2, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 39, 45, 58, 63, 78, 79, 98, 101, 104, 107, 115, 116, 118, 120, 121, 123, 131, 136, 141, 146, 148, 149, 151, 154, 159, 161, are from photographs supplied by Messrs F. Frith & Co., Ltd., of Reigate.
1. County and Shire. Meaning of the Words.
If we take a map of England and contrast it with a map of the United States, perhaps one of the first things we shall notice is the dissimilarity of the arbitrary divisions of land of which the countries are composed. In America the rigidly straight boundaries and rectangular shape of the majority of the States strike the eye at once; in England our wonder is rather how the boundaries have come to be so tortuous and complicated—to such a degree, indeed, that until recently many counties had outlying islands, as it were, within their neighbours’ territory. We naturally infer that the conditions under which the divisions arose cannot have been the same, and that while in America these formal square blocks of land, like vast allotment gardens, were probably the creation of a central authority, and portioned off much about the same time, the divisions we find in England have no such simple origin. Such, in fact, is more or less the case. The formation of the English counties in many instances was (and is—for they have altered up to to-day) an affair of slow growth, and their origin was—as their names tell us—of very diverse nature.
