GENUKI: Wales, .All of Wales (original) (raw)

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"WALES, a principality, adjoining the W of England. It was formerly more extensive than now; it included, besides its present area, all of what is now Monmouthshire, and considerable portions of what are now Herefordshire, Salop, and Cheshire; and it now comprises the counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon, Merioneth, Denbigh, Flint, and Montgomery, forming North Wales, and the counties of Cardigan, Radnor, Brecon, Glamorgan, Carmarthen, and Pembroke, forming South Wales. It is bounded, on the N, by the Irish sea and the estuary of the Dee; on the E, by Cheshire, Salop, Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire; on the S, by Bristol channel; on the W, by St. George's channel. Its length from N to S, is 136 miles; its breadth varies from 37 to 92 miles; its circuit is about 540 miles,-of which 390 are coast; and its area is 2,003,297 acres in North Wales and 2,731,189 in South Wales, or altogether 4,734,486 acres. The surface, in a general view, is imposingly mountainous in the N, grandly hilly in the S; aggregately a land of soaring heights and magnificent acclivities,-of limited plains, narrow vales, and gorgy ravines,-of endlessly diversified uplands, with interesting pieces of lowland, rich in the ornature of river, lake, and wood ....... More" [From John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72 on A Vision of Britain through Time.]