xham (8092), Buckfastleigh (2520),
Budleigh Salterton (1883), Crediton (3974), Dawlish (4003), East
Stonehouse (15,111), Exmouth (10,485), Heavitree (7529), Holsworthy
(1371), Ilfracombe (8557), Ivybridge (1575), Kingsbridge (3025), Lynton
(1641), Newton Abbot (12,517), Northam (5355), Ottery St Mary (3495),
Paignton (8385), Salcombe (1710), Seaton (1325), Sidmouth (4201),
Tavistock (4728), Teignmouth (8636). The county is in the western
circuit, and assizes are held at Exeter. It has one court of quarter
sessions, and is divided into twenty-four petty sessional divisions. The
boroughs of Barnstaple, Bideford, Devonport, Exeter, Plymouth, South
Molton, and Tiverton have separate commissions of the peace and courts
of quarter sessions, and those of Dartmouth, Great Torrington, Torquay
and Totnes have commissions of the peace only. There are 461 civil
parishes. Devonshire is in the diocese of Exeter, with the exception of
small parts in those of Salisbury and Truro; and there are 516
ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or in part within the
county. The parliamentary divisions are the Eastern or Honiton,
North-eastern or Tiverton, Northern or South Molton, North-western or
Barnstaple, Western or Tavistock, Southern or Totnes, Torquay, and Mid
or Ashburton, each returning one member; and the county also contains
the parliamentary boroughs of Devonport and Plymouth, each returning two
members, and that of Exeter, returning one member.

_History._--The Saxon conquest of Devonshire must have begun some time
before the 8th century, for in 700 there existed at Exeter a famous
Saxon school. By this time, however, the Saxons had become Christians,
and established their supremacy, not by destructive inroads, but by a
gradual process of colonization, settling among the native Welsh and
allowing them to hold lands under equal laws. The final incorporation of
the district which is now Devonshire with the kingdom of Wessex must
have taken place about 766, but the county, and even Exeter, remained
partly Welsh until the time of AEthelstan. At the beginning of the 9th
century Wessex was divided into definite _pagi_, probably corresponding
to the later shires, and the Saxon Chronicle mentions Devonshire by name
in 823, when a battle was fought between the Welsh in Cornwall and the
people of Devonshire at Camelford. During the Danish invasions of the
9th century aldermen of Devon are frequently mentioned. In 851 the
invaders were d