"Yorkshire, maritime county of England; bounded N. by Durham and the Tees, NE. and E. by the North Sea, S. by the Humber and Lincolnshire, Notts, and Derbyshire, SW. by Cheshire, W. by Lancashire, and N.W. by Westmorland; length, E. and W., 96 miles; breadth, 80 miles; area, 3,882,851 acres, population 2,886,564.
Yorkshire is the first county of England in point of size, and the third in point of population. From the mouth of the Tees to Flamborough Head the coast is bold and rocky; from Flamborough Head to Spurn Head it lies low. The interior presents the appearance of a great central valley stretching SE. to the Humber, and flanked on either side by heights - on the E. by the Cleveland Hills and the Wolds, and on the W. by the Pennine chain.
Yorkshire takes high rank as an agricultural, manufacturing, and mining county. It is well supplied with every means of communication. It has from an early period been divided into 3 Ridings - viz., East, North, and West, besides the Ainsty or Liberty of the city of York. Each Riding has a lord-lieutenant and a separate court of quarter sessions and a commission of the peace, and statistically is treated as a distinct county.
Yorkshire contains 26 wapentakes; 3 liberties; 1636 pars. with parts of 2 others; the parliamentary and municipal boroughs of Bradford (3 members), Dewsbury (1 member), Halifax (2 members), Huddersfield (1 member), Kingston upon Hull (3 members), Leeds (5 members), Middlesbrough 1 member), Pontefract (1 member), Scarborough (1 member), Sheffield (5 members), Wakefield (1 member), and York (2 members); and the municipal boroughs of Barnsley, Batley, Beverley, Doncaster, Hedon, Morley, Richmond, Ripon, and Rotherham.
Yorkshire is in the dioceses of York, Ripon, and Manchester."
Transcribed from Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles,1887. -C.H.