Where to begin with this question – or, to be more precise, this answer?
Let's begin with the fact that Middlesex hasn't existed as a county since 1974. And to follow that: Rutland isn't even England's smallest county any more.
This question has obviously been set as a counterpart to Question 65, which (you may remember) asked what was England's second biggest county. In my comment to that question I wondered why the setter had referred to the 1831 census, when more recent data is (obviously) available.
At least in that case the answer hadn't changed: North Yorkshire (rather than all of Yorkshire) is now the biggest county, but Lincolnshire is still the second biggest. When it comes to the smallest counties however, the picture has changed completely.
Unlike its counterpart, Question 94 doesn't refer to the 1831 census; but the answer given is the one that would have been correct if it had. Here (in my previous comment I pointed out that Wikipedia gives the figures from that year), Rutland is indeed the smallest county, and Middlesex is the second smallest. But Question 94 doesn't ask which was the second smallest county in 1831; it asks which is the second smallest.
In my previous comment I also referred to a list published by the Country Digest website, which gives the English counties in a sortable table. This has the City of London (area 1.12 square miles) as the smallest, followed by Bristol (42 square miles), then the Isle of Wight (147 square miles) which is inconveniently inseparable from Rutland (also 147 square miles).
Fortunately, Wikipedia is able to resolve the tie for third place: it gives Rutland's area as 147 square miles (382 sq km) and the Isle of Wight's as 148 square miles (384 sq km). So according to Wikipedia, Rutland is (albeit only marginally) smaller than the Isle of Wight.
Both the City of London and Bristol, however, are smaller than either. But are they counties?
Country Digest itself, on its Bristol population page, states "As well as being a city, Bristol is also a county in its own right, and a unitary authority." And Wikipedia agrees: "Bristol ... is a city and county in South West England with a population of 463,400."
Country Digest doesn't seem to have an equivalent page for the City of London. I naturally turned to Wikipedia, and this describes the City of London as "a city, county and a local government district ... "
So there you have it: Bristol and the City of London are both counties; the City of London is England's smallest, and Bristol is its second smallest. Rutland is third smallest, and the Isle of Wight is fourth on this list.
The correct answer to Question 94 was "Bristol".
© Macclesfield Quiz League 2020