The vice-county system was first introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson in the third volume of his
Cybele Britannica published in 1852. He refined the system in later volumes. The geographical area that Watson called "Britain" consisted of the island of Great Britain with all of its offshore islands, plus the
Isle of Man, but excluding the
Channel Islands. This area was divided into 112 vice-counties with larger counties divided; for example, Devon into the vice-counties of North Devon and South Devon, and Yorkshire into five vice-counties. Each of these 112 vice-counties has a name and a number. Thus Vice-county 38, often abbreviated to "VC38", is called "Warwickshire". Other recording schemes regard the "British Isles" as including the Channel Islands. As they are not part of the 152 vice-county system, the Channel Islands may be added as an extra vice-county, making 153 in total, being indicated by letter codes such as "C" Less usually, each of the five separate islands may be treated as a vice-county, giving 157 vice-counties in total. Alternative counts of vice-counties used in different recording schemes are shown in the table below. The vice-counties of Britain alone may be described as "Watsonian vice-counties", or this term may be used for the combined vice-counties of Britain and Ireland, In all cases, the Channel Islands may be excluded or included, so that the count of vice-counties varies, as noted in the table above. ==List of vice-counties==