If you peruse a modern map of Britain, you might have trouble locating some of the shires described below. In the past few decades, shires have been renamed, borders have been realigned, administrations have been shifted... and a lot of people have been made rather unhappy. Shires and their boundaries (and feuds) are a part of the British landscape and history,and it takes more than redrawing a map to erase the sense that one is a "Lancashire lad." Rather than attempt to match Victorian locations with modern maps, this section looks at shires and districts as they were then. (In 2013, the continued existence of England's 39 historic counties was at last formally re-acknowledged.)

Larger Regions and Multi-Regional Travels

The Black Country of the North (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1879)

A look at England's coal and steel country.

From Kent to Devon: Summer Rambles on the English Coast (Demorest, 1879)

On the South Coast, by Charles Wood (Argosy, 1881)

A visit to Bournemouth, Bognor, and other coastal towns.

On the East Coast (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1883)

Contrasts of English and American Scenery, by E.S. Nadal (Century Magazine, 1894B)

In the Footsteps of Cupid, by Frederick Dolman (Windsor Magazine, 1900B)

Spots renowned for being "Lover's Leaps" in various parts of England.

The L.S.D. of Literary Shrines, by Harry Golding (Windsor Magazine, 1900B)

No, not the drug; it refers to the pounds-shillings-pence gathered from visitors to such places as Shakespeare's birthplace or "the land of Burns."

Cave Exploring in England, by T.W. Wilkinson (Good Words, 1902)

Shires & Districts

Cambridgeshire

The Cambridge Backs in Winter, by Alan St. Aubyn (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1896)

Cheshire

The Cheddar Gorge Stalactite Caves, by Archibald Williams (Sunday Strand, 1902)

Cleveland

A Run Through Cleveland (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1879)

Cleveland, Past and Present (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1881)

Cornwall

My Trip to Lands End, by Guy Roslyn (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1877)

Walks About Devoran (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1881)

A Winter Holiday for Ten Pounds, by S.F.A. Caulfeild (Girl's Own Paper, 1892)

Holiday resorts in Cornwall.

The Land of a Lost Language, by William Copland Borlaise (English Illustrated Magazine, 1895A)

Derbyshire

Hardwicke Hall (Cassell's Family Paper, 1860)

Up the Derbyshire Wye: A Sketch in Outline, by Edward Bradbury (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1878)

Voices from the Valley, by Edward Bradbury (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1889)

Devonshire

A Devonshire Combe (Argosy, 1881)

The Fairest County of England, by Francis George Heath (Century Magazine, 1884A)

A Week on the West Coast, by Katie Magnus (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1886)

A Devon Sketch, by James Baker (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1887)

[Dartmoor] From Moor to Sea, by Grant Allen (English Illustrated Magazine, 1890A)

The Pilgrim in Devon, by Alice Brown (Atlantic Monthly, 1893)

Dartmoor: The Highlands of Devonshire, by Archibald S. Hurd (Windsor, 1897A)

Dorset

In the Isle of Purbeck, by Edith E. Cuthell (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1893)

Durham

High Teesdale (Leisure Hour, 1868)

Essex

Horeham Hall, Essex (Cassell's Family Paper, 1860)

London in the Greenwood [Epping Forest] (Leisure Hour, 1860)

Epping Forest and Its Ancient Camps, by B.H. Cowper (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1877)

Epping Forest, site of several Roman camps (and possibly some hill-forts), was set aside as a recreation area and thus spared from being "improved off the face of the earth."

Between Two Waters (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1893)

A charming tale of travel, and seeking lodgings, in an Essex village.

A Bargeman's Village, by E. Chapman (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1895)

A Little Outing for Londoners, by H.W. Brewer (Girl's Own Paper, 1898)

Hatfield and other country destinations not far from London.

[Cunning Murrell] A Wizard of Yesterday, by Arthur Morrison (The Strand, 1900B)

An account of a legendary Essex cunning-man or "wizard."

Gloucestershire

Our Ramble Through the Forest of Dean (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1879)

Hampshire

My First Visit to the Isle of Wight (English Annual, 1838)

Today the Isle of Wight is an independent administrative authority, but in 1838 it would still have been part of Hampshire.

A Hampshire Moor, by Rose G. Kingsley (English Illustrated Magazine, 1892A)

Hertford

In Lavender Land, by W.J. Lacey (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1889)

Kent

Drowsy Kent, by Charles de Kay (Century Magazine, 1894A)

In the Heart of Hop-Land, by Miss Sparrow (The Strand, 1895B)

A visit with the hop-pickers of Kent.

Lake District

A Walk in the Lake District (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1877)

The English Lakes and Their Genii (Harper's Monthly, 1881A)

The "genii" are the poets commonly associated with the Lake District.

Dove Cottage, Grasmere, by Milward Wood (Girl's Own Paper, 1893)

A Lakeland Voyage [Lake District] (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1893)

Lancashire

Speke Hall, Lancashire (Cassell's Family Paper, 1860)

An August Afternoon Climb [in the Lancashire Moors], by Alfred Bamford (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1892)

Lincolnshire

[Axholm] An Isle of Our Island, by Alice Price (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1887)

New Forest

A Ramble in the New Forest (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1875)

In the New Forest, by Charles Wood (Argosy, 1881)

Norfolk

Memorials of the Wash (Gentleman's Magazine, 1859)

A Glance at the County of Norfolk (Leisure Hour, 1868)

The Norfolk Broads: A Holiday Resort, by G. Christopher Davies (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1881)

In the Wash, by Fred Hastings (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1889)

A Peep at the Norfolk Broads (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1889)

A Cruise on the Norfolk Broads, by Anna Bowman Dodd (Century Magazine, 1895B)

In Poppyland, by Rev. W. Durban (Girl's Own Paper, 1901)

"...the lovely stretch of coast which extends on each side of Cromer" in East Anglia.

Northumberland

[Bamborough] A Pilgrimage to Holy Island (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1884)

Berwick Bridge (North Country Lore & Legend 1890)

Oxfordshire

Round Henley Regatta Reach, by Roderick MacKenzie (English Illustrated Magazine, 1892A)

This article looks primarily at the history of Fawley Manor, which was the scene of an intriguing case of poisoning.

• See also All About Oxford

Shropshire

All Round the Wrekin (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1882)

On the Shropshire Meres, by G. Christopher Davies (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1882)

Somersetshire

The Classical Quantocks, by F. Hastings (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1882)

[Glastonbury] The Valley of Apples, by J.C. Tildesley (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1887)

Staffordshire

In the Footsteps of a Popular Novelist, by "Darby Stafford" (Lady's Realm, 1901)

A look at the Staffordshire settings of the novel A Double Thread.

Surrey

The Borderlands of Surrey, by Alice Maude Fenn (Century Magazine, 1882B)

On a Surrey Common (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1888)

In Lavender Land, by W.J. Lacey (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1889)

Sussex

Three Days in Sussex (Scribners, 1879B)

Crawley Down and Its Neighborhood, by W. Maurice Adams (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1882)

Among the Red Roofs of Sussex, by Alice Maude Fenn (Century Magazine, 1885B)

[Harting Coombe] A Relic of Wild England (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1895)

Warwickshire

George Eliot's Country, by Rose G. Kingsley (Century Magazine, 1885B)

Wessex

Wessex Folk, by Thomas Hardy (Harper's Monthly, 1891A)

Westmoreland

Mountaineering in Westmoreland, by John Foster Fraser (English Illustrated Magazine, 1895B)

Wiltshire

A Holiday in and Around Savernake Forest (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1881)

A Ramble Round and About Pewsey Vale, by W. Maurice Adams (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1881)

Salisbury and Stonehenge: A Contrast, by Charles Wood (Argosy, 1881)

Stonehenge (New Illustrated Magazine, 1900)

Some Impressions of Priceless Stonehenge, by Lady Antrobus (Lady's Realm, 1901)

Over Historic Ground, by the Rev. John M. Bacon (Good Words, 1902)

Ballooning over Salisbury Plain, as a method of aerial military signalling.

Yorkshire

A Yorkshire Dale, by G. Vickars-Gaskell (Cassell's Family Magazine, 1890)

See also

• Towns & Cities

• Castles

• Cathedrals, Abbeys & Churches

• Victorian London

• For information on historic destinations in Britain today, please visit our sister site, TimeTravel-Britain.com.