home counties

The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey are usually included in definitions as they directly border London. Other counties slightly further from London – such as Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, East Sussex and West Sussex – are not always regarded as home counties, although on occasion may be thought of as such due to their proximity to London and their connection to the London regional economy. Origin The origin of the term "home counties" is uncertain. Marcus Crouch, writing in 1975, thought that it derived from the Home Counties Circuit of courts that had surrounded London since at least the 18th century. Looking further back, he suggested that it included the counties in which, since Tudor times, it has been possible for civil servants and politicians to have their country homes and still be able to travel into London without excessive delay when they were needed. Composition The earliest use of the term cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1695. Charles Davenant, in An Essay upon Ways and Means of Supplying the War, wrote, "The Eleven Home Counties, which are thought in Land Taxes to pay more than their proportion, viz. Surry with Southwark, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, Berks, Bucks, and Oxfordshire."