Leicestershire.

ing, and the manufacture of all kinds of fancy hosiery. Steam power is largely used in the town, coal being easily obtained by railway and canals communicating with the neighbouring coal-fields. Leicester contains ten parishes, and some extra-parochial places. It is divided into seven wards, and governed by a town-council, consisting of a mayor, 14 aldermen, and 42 councillors. It returns 2 members to parliament. The population was, in 1821, 31,036; 1831, 40,639; 1841, 50,853; 1851, 60,642.

an inland county of England, bounded on the N. by Nottinghamshire, N.E. by Lincolnshire, E. by Rutlandshire, S.E. by Northamptonshire, S.W. by Warwickshire, and N.W. by Derbyshire. Its name is derived from Leire, the ancient name of its chief river, the Soar. Its greatest length is, N. and S. from the junction of the counties of Lincoln and Nottingham with Leicester, to Lutterworth, 44 miles; and its greatest breadth is, E. and W. from near Rockingham to the neighbourhood of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 40 miles. It contains 514,164 statute acres, and is the twenty-eighth of the English counties in size.

The surface of the country is a series of gentle undulations, with full and sluggish rivers winding through rich pastures intersected with hedgerows. It is a table-land, and the highest ground consists of the Charwood Hills, in the N.W. part of the county, generally called the Forest, though now destitute of trees. It is a group of hills exhibiting sharp distinct prominences of a rugged character. The highest of them, Bardon Hill, between Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Leicester, is 852 feet above the level of the sea, and commands, perhaps, a more extensive view than any other elevation in this country: the eye ranging as far as Lincoln, 60 miles off in one direction; the Dunstable Hills, 80 miles off in another; to the Malverns in Worcestershire, the Wrekin in Salop, the Peak of Derbyshire, and the mountains of North and South Wales. This expanse comprises one-fourth of the surface of England and Wales.

The county belongs to the basin of the River Trent, which forms part of its northern boundary. It is nearly equally divided between the lias and sandstone formations; the former occupying the greater part of the eastern, and the latter the western side of the county. The coal formation exists to a considerable extent on the W., and clay-slate in the Charwood Hills. The soil varies, but it may be described as consisting either of clay or loam, as there are very few portions of it that are calcareous, sandy, or gravelly. It is, for the most part, strong and stiff. The climate is mild.

The rivers of the county are,—the Soar, 40 miles long, rising on the S.W. edge of the county, between Hinckley and Lutterworth, and falling into the Trent, below Kegworth; the Wreck, 25 miles long, rising near Oakham, in Rutlandshire, and falling into the Soar, near Mount Sorrel; and the Anker, the Sence, the Messe, the Swift, and the Devon. These belong to the system of which the Trent is the trunk. There are, in addition, the Avon, a tributary of the Severn, and the Welland, which also passes out of the county. The Soar is navigable for 7 miles from its junction with the Trent, and this part of it, as well as a part of the Wreck, is incorporated with the system of navigation which overspreads the county. The canals are,—one from Leicester to Loughborough, 11 miles long, and rising 45 feet; one from Leicester to Melton-Mowbray, 11 miles long; one from Leicester to Foxton, 17 miles long; or, including its branch to Market-Harborough, 21 miles, having a rise of 120 feet; one from Foxton to the Grand Junction Canal, 8 miles of it being in the county; one from Melton-Mowbray to Oakham; and one from Ashby-de-la-Zouch to Nuneaton, Warwickshire. These canals, being connected with the general system of navigation, give the county access to all the great towns of the country, and to the eastern, western, and southern sea-coasts. The railway communications consist of a line from the Ashby Canal to Moira; a line running N.W. from the River Soar, near Leicester, to Swannington, 15½ miles long, having four branches, and principally used for the conveyance of coal; the Midland Counties Railway, traversing the county from S. to N., entering the county near Lutterworth, and passing by Syston, Leicester, and Loughborough to Derby; and the Syston and Peterborough Railway, running N.E. The London and North-Western Railway also skirts the south and south-eastern boundary of the county.

Nearly two-thirds of the county are in permanent pasture, the greater part of which lies on the lias formation, while the corn land is almost entirely limited to the sandstone formation. The quantity of waste land is very small, and the open fields, from the existence of which it became a great hunting county, have nearly disappeared. The richest pasture is the low ground along the course of the rivers, and these are frequently held in conjunction with arable farms, the stock being wintered on the latter, and fattened in summer on the former. Much of the inferior grass land is employed for dairy purposes, and a large quantity of full-milk cheese is made for consumption in the N. of England. The richest cheese in the world, that called Stilton, from having been sold first in that town, is also made to a large extent in the neighbourhood of Melton-Mowbray. The mode of its manufacture was long kept a secret in a few villages; its richness arises from one quantity of milk being skimmed, and the cream taken from that being added to more milk, so that the cheese has double the usual quantity of cream in its composition. The average yield of ordinary cheese of a dairy, on moderate land, is estimated at about 3 cwt., and on better land as high as 5 cwt. for each cow. The land is much subdivided, the greater part of it forming estates of from 50 to 500 acres each, belonging to yeomen who cultivate the land themselves. The size of the dairy farms varies from 100 to 500 acres. Rent is very high, owing to the proximity of large towns, the facilities of communication which are afforded by the canals, railways, and good roads traversing the county, and the crowd of men of fortune which is attracted thither during the hunting season, a sport for which the county has long been famous, and for which it is still admirably adapted. The land, on the whole, is imperfectly cultivated, and draining and other improvements have made little progress; indeed, like most grass countries, it has slept upon its natural riches. The arable crops average from 3 to 3½ quarters of wheat, and from 2 to 4 quarters of beans per acre. The county has, however, produced an eminent farmer, Bakewell, from whose farm, Disley Grange, near Dishley, emanated the great art of transforming breeds of domestic animals, one of the most valuable conquests of human genius. The race of sheep introduced by him—the Dishley, or New Leicester breed, as it is called,—exceeds all other known races for precocity, producing animals ready for fattening in one year, and full-grown in two years. Bakewell also improved the cattle of the county, and though his success was not so great as it was with sheep, he has led to the modification of every breed of horned cattle throughout the kingdom. He also improved the breed of horses, and his black horses; of the cart kind, originating principally from mares which he brought from Flanders, were the first in this part of the country to plough two horses abreast. Notwithstanding the decided superiority of the New Leicester sheep, the old breed is still reared, as well as a race of forest sheep, still more inferior. The Old Leicesters are heavy, slow to fatten, and give a coarse wool.

The mineral productions of the county are coal, freestone, limestone, coarse slate, clay for making bricks, gypsum, Leicestershire.

and a species of red granite, locally used for paving streets, and building houses. Bredon Hill is composed of a valuable kind of limestone, which forms an excellent cement in water, and which was used in the erection of the pier at Ramsgate. Thereare two coal-fields, one to the N.E. of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, six or seven miles long, the other S.W., and extending 11 miles; these terminate the English coal-fields in the direction of the German Ocean. One of the beds is from 17 to 21 feet thick, and the mines are worked at an average depth of 750. Leicestershire is also a considerable manufacturing county; its productions are stockings, and all kinds of fleecy hosiery, bobbin-net lace, felt-hats, and carpets. Six-tenths of the stockings are of the coarse kinds, and it is estimated that 20,000 knitting-frames, and 35,000 persons are employed in this branch of manufacture. A large number are also occupied in wool-combing, and in spinning woollen and cotton yarn. Leicester, Loughborough, and Hinckley are the chief localities of manufacturing, but it is carried on very generally throughout the towns and villages of the county.

Leicestershire was anciently part of the territory of the Coritani, and was afterwards included in the Roman province of Flavia Caesarisium. It contained several Roman stations, but the only traces of them remaining are those of Rata (Leicester). Under the Saxons the county was incorporated with the kingdom of Mercia. In the seventh or eighth century it was the seat of a bishopric, which in the ninth was united with the see of Lincoln. In 878, in accordance with a treaty between Gothrun the Dane, and Alfred the Great, the county became part of the Danish territory; but in the reign of Edward the Elder, it was conquered by the Saxons, and restored to the kingdom of Mercia. William the Conqueror divided the county amongst his relations and friends, and they built castles upon their possessions; but these edifices have perished, all that remains of them being a few fragments of Ashby and Groby Castles. Belvoir Castle was destroyed by Lord Hastings, in the wars of the Roses. The present edifice, the noble residence of the Dukes of Rutland, is of modern date. Leicester Castle was captured by William Rufus, in the struggle with Robert Duke of Normandy. The county was a battle-field in the contests of John and Henry III.; and in 1485, the war of the Roses ceased in the defeat and death of Richard III. at the battle of Bosworth Field, near Market-Bosworth. A tablet has lately been set in the gable of a new building at Bowbridge, Leicester, commemorating the fact that the "crooked-backed tyrant" lies buried near the spot. The county was again much disturbed in the civil war between Charles I. and the Parliament. Leicester was captured by the king in 1645, and the decisive battle, which led to his dethronement and execution was fought a fortnight afterwards, on the borders of the county at Naseby, Northamptonshire.

The antiquities of the county are a tumulus at Radcliffe on the Wreake, 350 feet long, and 120 broad, attributed to the Celts; a remarkable parallel embankment near Leicester, locally called the Raw Dykes, and supposed to be the bounds of a British race-course; traces of the Roman roads, the Watling Street, the Via Devana, and the Fossway; a Roman wall, called the Jewry Wall, at Leicester, built of alternate courses of ragstone and brick, and having several arches turned with tiles; tessellated pavements at Rothley and Wanlip; and remains of encampments, supposed to be Roman. Coins of the Roman emperors Titus, Trajan, Diocletian, Constantine, Constantius, Hadrian, and others, have been found at different times and places. The Gothic remains are those of the Abbey of Leicester, of the Nunnery of Grace Dieu, Ulvestoft Priory, Laund Priory, the castle of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, the churches of Hinckley and Melton-Mowbray, and the chapel of Market-Harborough.

The pulpit and part of the vestments of the great reformer Wickliffe are still preserved in the church of Lutterworth, of which he was the pastor. He was buried there in the year 1387; but in 1428, by order of the Council of Sienna, his bones were taken up and burnt, and the ashes thrown into the river. Thus, to use the words of Fuller, "the Swift conveyed them to the Avon, the Avon into the Severn, the Severn into the narrow seas, and they into the wide ocean," foreshadowing the dispersion of the Bible, which he first translated into English, over the whole world.

The county is divided into 6 hundreds and 206 parishes. The population was, in 1821, 174,571; 1831, 197,000; 1841, 220,304; 1851, 234,938.

The chief towns are—

| Town | Population | |-----------------------|------------| | Ashby-de-la-Zouch | 3,472 | | Castle Donington | 2,726 | | Hinckley | 6,111 | | Loughborough | 10,900 | | Leicester | 50,684 | | Lutterworth | 2,446 | | Melton-Mowbray | 4,391 | | Market-Harborough | 3,325 |

The amount assessed to the property and income tax within the county in 1851 was £1,364,270.

The number of places of worship in the county in 1851 was 650, viz.—Church of England, 289; other denominations, 361. The total attendance at the services in the morning, afternoon, and evening was,—Church of England, 157,982; other denominations, 147,802.

The number of day schools was 709, with 28,257 scholars, viz.—Public schools, 278, with 19,392 scholars; private schools, 431, with 8,862 scholars. Sunday schools, 432, with 36,280 scholars, viz.—Church of England, 297 schools, 17,217 scholars; other denominations, 205 schools, 19,063 scholars.