LANCASHIRE

lancashire, a north-western county of england, bounded n.e. by westmorland, e. by yorkshire, s. by cheshire, w. by the irish sea and n.w. by cumberland. the area is 1880.2 sq. m., the county being the sixth in size in england. the coast is generally flat, and broken by great inlets, with wide expanses of sandy foreshore at low tide. the chief inlets, from n. to s., are--the estuary of the river duddon, which, with the river itself, separates the county from cumberland; morecambe bay; and the estuaries of the ribble and the mersey. morecambe bay receives the rivers crake and leven in a common estuary, and the kent from westmorland; while the lune and the wyre discharge into lancaster bay, which is only partially separated from morecambe bay by the promontory of red nab. morecambe bay also detaches from the rest of the county the district of furness (q.v.), extending westward to the duddon, and having off its coast the island of walney, 8 m. in length, and several small isles within the strait between walney and the mainland. the principal seaside resorts and watering-places, from s. to