E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Shire and County.
When the Saxon kings created an earl, they gave him a shire or division of land to govern. At the Norman conquest the word count superseded the title of earl, and the earldom was called a county. Even to the present hour we call the wife of an earl a countess. (Anglo-Saxon, scire, from sciran, to divide.)
1
He comes from the shires; has a seat in the shires, etc.—in those English counties which terminate in “shire:” a belt running from Devonshire and Hampshire in a north-east direction. In a general way it means the midland counties.
2
Anglesey in Wales, and twelve counties of England, do not terminate in “shire.”
Anglesey in Wales, and twelve counties of England, do not terminate in “shire.”
