The only true and right way of learning geography (which in its widest sense comprehends almost everything connected with the earth) is to become acquainted with the geography--or, strictly speaking, the topography--and history of the district in which we live. Modern England is split up into a number of main divisions known as _counties_, and in some instances also as _shires_; the word _shire_, when it is used, being added at the end of the county name. Thus we have the county of Essex or the county of Hertford; but whereas in the former case the word _shire_ is never added, it may be in the case of the latter. We then have either the county of Hertford, or Hertfordshire, as the full designation of the territorial unit in which we dwell. In official documents our area is always mentioned under the title of the “County of Hertford”; but imperfectly educated persons when filling in such documents frequently write the “County of Hertfordshire.” This is wrong and superfluous; shire being equivalent to county. The word _county_ signifies an area of which a _count_ or _earl_ is the titular head. Here it may be incidentally mentioned that the title “Earl” is of Saxon origin, which it was attempted to replace after the Conquest by the Norman-French “Count”; the attempt being successful only in the case of an Earl’s consort, who is still known as “Countess.” It also obtained in the case of “County,” which is thus practically equivalent to “Earldom.” It now remains to enquire why some counties are also known as shires, while others are not thus designated. In Anglo-Saxon times England, in place of being one great kingdom, was split up into a number of petty kingdoms, each ruled by a separate sovereign. Essex was then a kingdom by itself, situated in the east of the country; while Wessex was a western kingdom, and Mercia a sovereignty more in the heart of the country. Essex and Sussex, being small kingdoms, were constituted counties by themselves when the country came under a single dominion, and their names have consequently remained without addition or alteration from Anglo-Saxon times to our own day. The larger kingdoms, such as Wessex and Mercia, were, on the other hand, split up into _shares_, or _shires_,--i.e. that which is shorn or cut off--and their names have disappeared except as items in history. Hertfordshire, then, is in great part a _share_ of the ancient kingdom of Mercia, of which, indeed, it seems to have formed a centre, as the Mercian kings spent at least a portion of their time at Berghamstedt (Berkhampstead). It is however only the larger western portion of the county that belonged to Mercia, a smaller area on the eastern side originally being included in the kingdom of Essex.