In former days, it may be mentioned in this place, the inhabitants of most, if not all, of the English counties had nicknames applied to them by their neighbours; “Hertfordshire Hedgehogs” being the designation applied to natives of this county, while their neighbours to the eastward were dubbed “Essex Calves.” 3. Size. Shape. Boundaries. The maximum length of Hertfordshire, along a line running in a south-westerly and north-easterly direction, is about twenty-eight miles; while its greatest breadth, along a line passing near its centre from the neighbourhood of Tring to that of Bishop’s Stortford, is very nearly the same. Owing to its extremely irregular outline, the county has, for its size, a very large circumference, measuring approximately 130 miles. Here it should be stated that the ancient area of the county differs somewhat from that of what is now known as the administrative county. According to the census of 1901, the area of the ancient, or geographical county, included 406,157 acres, whereas that of the administrative county is only 404,518 acres[1], or about 630 square miles. The difference in these numbers is due to the fact that certain portions of the old county, such as that part of the parish of Caddington originally included in Hertfordshire, have been transferred to adjacent counties. The figures relating to population, etc. given in the sequel refer to the administrative county. [1] In the _Report_ of the Board of Agriculture published in 1905 the number of acres is given as 402,856; and this is taken as the basis of calculation in section 10 and in the diagrams. In size Hertford may be reckoned a medium county, its acreage being rather less than that of Surrey, and about half that of Essex.