It is convenient. If it were not so, counties
would not have survived, so as to make a part of our modern maps.
Nevertheless, this is not the historic reason why we have the
particular kind of subdivisions known as counties. We have them
because our fathers and grandfathers had them; and thus, if we would
find out the true reason, we may as well go back to the ancient times
when our forefathers were establishing themselves in England.
[Sidenote: Clans and tribes.]
We have seen how the clan of our barbarous ancestors, when it became
stationary, was established as the town or township. But in those early
times _clans_ were generally united more or less closely into _tribes_.
Among all primitive or barbarous races of men, so far as we can make
out, society is organized in tribes, and each tribe is made up of a
number of clans or family groups. Now when our English forefathers
conquered Britain they settled there as clans and also as tribes. The
clans became townships, and the tribes became shires or counties; that
is to say, the names were applied first to the people and afterwards to
the land they occupied. A few of the oldest county names in England
still show this plainly.
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