HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN
LEICESTERSHIRE -
Highways and Byways in Leicestershire. By J. B. Firth.
Mn. Frani has written a most interesting book on Leicester- shire for the admirable" Highways and Byways" series, in which he has already dealt with Derby and Nottingham. He must have walked may miles to sec all that he has seen, besides reading countless volumes. But he wears his learning very lightly, and it is safe to say that everyone who reads the book will often read it again, not merely for the descriptions of towns and villages, but also for the entertaining anecdotes that he has collected. Leicester itself is a great industrial centre ; little or nothing remains of the Roman station, the castle once held by Simon de Montfort, or the famous abbey where Wotsey died. Melton Mowbray stands for another aspect of the shire as the fox-hunter's Mecca, and Mr. Firth has much to say about bygone followers of the Quorn and Fernie's. But his most novel pages concern the little places that have nothing to do with industry or with hunting ; once again we are impressed with the fact that every village has contributed something to our history. Who has heard of Dishley near Loughborough ? Yet Robert Bakewell who farmed there in the eighteenth century bred the new Leicester- shire sheep which doubled or trebled the supply of mutton and opened a new era for stock-farmers. Stanford will always be memorable in the history of aviation, for it was there that Pitcher, the pioneer of flying, was killed by an accident to his rudimentary machine. Rothley Temple was the birth- place of Macaulay, and the neighbouring Bradgate the home of Lady Jane Grey, whose tutor was Roger Ascham. Don- ington Hall recalls not only the mad Marquess of Hastings Who gambled his vast fortune away on the Turf and died at twenty-five, but also the saintly Selina, Countess of Hunting- don, the friend of Wesley and Whitefield. Mr. Firth is peculiarly adept in noting these local associations, whether familiar or forgotten, and he never wearies with undue detail. He 'has been" fortunate in his illustrator, Mr.- Griggs, whose pencil studies of villages, old houses and churches and rural scenes are one and all charming.
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