Buckinghamshire, or Bucks, a south-midland county of England, surrounded by Bedfordshire, Herts, Middlesex, Surrey, Berks, Oxfordshire, and Northamptonshire. Thirty-third in size of the English counties, it has a maximum length of 57 miles, a varying breadth of 8 1/2 and 27 miles, and an area of 730 sq. m., or 466,932 acres. It is finely diversified with hill and dale, wood and water. To the south is the Chiltern range of chalk-hills, which, entering from Oxfordshire and stretching across the county in a northeasterly direction, are partly covered with heath and wood, and rise near Wendover to a height of 905 feet above sea-level. The chief rivers are the Thames, bordering the county on the south-west, the Ouse, Ousel, Colne, and Thame, the last two falling into the Thames. Buckinghamshire is eminently an agricultural county, 87 per cent. of the entire area being in cultivation. The chief dairy product is butter for the London market; in the fertile vale of Aylesbury, fattening of cattle is extensively carried on; the sheep are noted for their fine and heavy fleeces; and large numbers of ducks are reared. Nearly 40 sq. m. are under woods and plantations, beech and oak being the chief timber-trees. The chief manufactures are paper, straw-plait, and thread-lace. The county returns three members to parliament; Aylesbury, Buckingham, Marlow, and Wycombe having ceased in 1885 to be parliamentary boroughs. It contains some Roman and British remains, as traces of Watling, Icknield, and Akeman Streets or Ways; remains of the religious houses of Missenden, Notley, Burnham, Medmenham, and Ivinghoe; and vestiges of Lavendon and Whitchurch Castles. Bucks is rich too in scenes of historic or biographical interest, as Chalfont St Giles, Horton, Hampden, Milton, Stoke Poges, Olney, Slough, Stowe, Aston Sandford, Beaconsfleld, Gregories, Barden-ham, and Hughenden. Pop. (1801) 108,132; (1841) 156,439; (1901)197,064. See county histories by Lipscomb(1847), Sheahan (1S62), and Page(1905-6).