visions were, in
that country, as well military as civil; and each contained a hundred
freemen; who were subject to an officer called the _centenarius_; a
number of which _centenarii_ were themselves subject to a superior
officer called the count or _comes_[c]. And indeed this institution of
hundreds may be traced back as far as the antient Germans, from whom
were derived both the Franks who became masters of Gaul, and the
Saxons who settled in England. For we read in Tacitus[d], that both
the thing and the name were well known to that warlike people.
"_Centeni ex singulis pagis sunt, idque ipsum inter suos vocantur; et
quod primo numerus fuit, jam nomen et honor est._"

[Footnote b: Seld. tit. of hon. 2. 5. 3.]

[Footnote c: Montesq. Sp. L. 30. 17.]

[Footnote d: _de morib. German._ 6.]

AN indefinite number of these hundreds make up a county or shire.
Shire is a Saxon word signifying a division; but a county,
_comitatus_, is plainly derived from _comes_, the count of the Franks;
that is, the earl, or alderman (as the Saxons called him) of the
shire, to whom the government of it was intrusted. This he usually
exercised by his deputy, still called in Latin _vice-comes_, and in
English the sheriff, shrieve, or shire-reeve, signifying the officer
of the shire; upon whom by process of time the civil administration of
it is now totally devolved. In some counties there is an intermediate
division, between the shire and the hundreds, as lathes in Kent, and
rapes in Sussex, each of them containing about three or four hundreds
apiece. These had formerly their lathe-reeves and rape-reeves, acting
in subordination to the shire-reeve. Where a county is divided into
_three_ of these intermediate jurisdictions, they are called
trithings[e], which were antiently governed by a trithing-reeve. These
trithings still subsist in the large county of York, where by an easy
corruption they are denominated ridings; the north, the east, and the
west-riding. The number of counties in England and Wales have been
different at different times: at present there are forty in England,
and twelve in Wales.

[Footnote e: _LL. Edw._ _c._ 34.]

THREE of these counties, Chester, Durham, and Lancaster, are called
counties palatine. The two former are such by prescription, or
immemorial custom; or, at least as old as the Norman conquest[f]: the
latter was created by king Edward III, in favour of Henry Plantagenet,
first earl and then duke of Lancast