a market-town of England, county of Leicester, and hundred of West Goscoate, 17 miles north-west of Leicester. The town consists principally of one long street, and contains two churches, four chapels, a bank, savings-bank, theatre, and gas-works, and has a grammar-school, with ten exhibitions of L10 each per annum in Emanuel College, Cambridge, besides several charity schools. The Ivanhoe baths, erected in 1826, are much frequented for their saline waters, which, as containing bromine, are found useful in scrofulous disorders.

The church of St Helen is a fine old building, containing the tombs of the Huntingdon family, and a "finger pillar." In the vicinity are the extensive remains of Ashby Castle, built by Sir William Hastings in 1480, and in which Mary Queen of Scots was confined. Population in 1851, 3762, principally engaged in the manufacture of stockings, hats, firebricks, or in the coal and iron mines of the vicinity. Bishop Hall was a native of this place.