THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LXXVIII.—CENTRAL ENGLAND: RUTLAND, LF:IcEs . mitsittan, AND
NOTTINGDAMSIDRE.—GEOGRAPIIY.
rillIE three counties of Rutland, Leicester, and Nottingham I may be said to constitute, together with that of Northampton, the Eastern Midland district of England. Northamptonshire and part of Warwickshire form their southern frontier ; Lincoln- shire separates them from the sea on the east and north-east ; Staffordshire and Derbyshire form their western frontier line; and on the north the block ofterritory which they compose touches on the great northern county of York. In shape they may be said roughly to make together a double triangle or diamond, the Nottinghamshire upper or more northern triangle being acute angled, and Rutland supplementing Leicestershire on the east, and fortuing with it the lower or more southern triangle, and the base and base angles of the northern triangle.
Rutland, which is distinguished among English comities by being the smallest, is itself in shape an inverted triangle, its southern angle being formed by Northamptonshire on the south- east and Leicestershire on the west, and the angles at its base being formed on the cast by Northamptonshire and Lincoln- shire, and on the west by Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. Its greatest length from north-east to south-west is nearly twenty miles, its greatest breadth at right angles to the length is 16 miles. Its area is 150 square miles, or 95,805 statute acres. Its population in 1851 was 22,983, and this in 1861 had sunk to 21,861, its population in 1811 having been 21,302. Its prosperity, therefore, so far as it is indicated by population, received a sudden and decided check in the decade between 1851 and 1861. The north-eastern part of the county forms a table land, skirted on the southern side by the valley of the Wash, while on the north-west is the more extensive valley of Catlin:Ise. The rest of the county consists of "valleys, whose general direction is cast and west, divided from each other by narrow ranges of low hills. There are no very elevated points in the county; Manton, be- tween Oakham and Uppinglutin, is said to be the highest." The county is included in the district of the lower formations of tho oolite series, "the great oolite forming the table land in the north- east and the higher elevations in the south from Stamford to within two miles of Uppingliam, and the prevailing rock being a close- grained buff limestone, clouded with blue." In the remainder of the county you have the "red or reddish-brown ferruginous sands, which separate the great oolite from the subjacent has. These are covered in many places, especially near their junction, with the has, which takes place just on the north-western border of the county, by vast accumulations of transported blocks of gravel. There are quarries of good building stone at Ketton, between Stamford and Uppingliam, just on the border of the district occupied by the great oolite." The climate resembles that of Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, and Lincolnshire. It is essentially a grazing county, and there is scarcely an acre of waste land. The best pasture grounds are on the has clay, which, with oolite, red sand, and magnesium limestone, forms the chief soil of the county. Short-horns are the favourites among cattle, and the Leicester breed among sheep. There is a good deal of Stilton cheese made in the west of the county. The farm horses are large, and strong dray horses are bred for the London market. The surface of the county is in general picturesque, being very diversified with low hills an 1
narrow val!eys. fertile, and in many parts well wooded. The woods of the county are supposed to have formerly been much more extensive than at present ; and various topographers have asserted that where Oakham is now situated oaks once grew, nay, that the whole vale of Cattnose was once an extensive tract of woodland. It is, however, ascertained that the Forest of Lea field or Lyfield once occupied the greatest part of Oakham Hundred, and that Beaumont chase, or part of it, once extended over great part of Martinsley Hundred, having several towns within its purlieus, though they are now destroyed."
The county is in general well watered. It belongs chiefly to the basin of the Wash. The Welland, which flows ultimately into the estuary of the Wash, skirts the county between Rockingham and Stamford, separating it from Northamptonshire, but is not navigable above Stamford. The Wash, rising just within the Leicestershire border, flows eastward through Rutland into Lincolnshire, where it joins the Welland near Stamford. The Eye and Wreak are smaller streams, the former of which bounds the county on the south-west, and joins the Welland; and the latter drains a small district in the north-west of the county, and joins the Soar, a feeder of the Trent. The Oakham Canal, which passes through the vale of Catmose, has a circuitous route of fifteen miles within this county. Rutland has also now railway commu- nication with the rest of England.
Leicestershire is an irregular block, the southern angle of which is formed by the counties of Warwick and Northampton. An eastern shoulder is skirted by the latter county and Rutland, and the outline of the rest of the county is made by two blocks projecting severally into Leicestershire and Derbyshire on the north-east and north-west, and forming in the interval between them a socket-basis for Nottinghamshire on the north. The greatest length of the county is forty-four miles, its greatest breadth forty miles. Its area is 803 square miles, or 514,164 statute acres. The population in 1851 was 230,308; in 1861, 237,412. As in 1841 it was 215,867, it appears that the popula- tion-rate has fallen off during the last decade from that of the preceding, though there is still an increase.
The surface consists almost entirely of gently-rising hills. The north-eastern portion is occupied by hills which form the southern extremity of the Kesteven Cliffe Row, and overlook the vale of Belvoir, which is partly in Leicestershire, partly in Nottingham- shire. The south-eastern portion, from Ouston to Lutterworth, is occupied by the hills separating the basin of the Welland from that of the Soar. The north-western portion constitutes the dis- trict which, though now bare of wood, is still called Charnwood Forest, consisting of a group of inconsiderable but rugged hills, with distinct, sharp prominences. Bardon Hill, the highest, situated between Leicester and Ashby, rises to 853 feet, and com- mands very extensive views. Some portions of the east side of Leicestershire are of the lowest oolite formation. The great oolite extends over the sandy hills overlooking the vale of Belvoir. The beds which intervene between the great oolite and the Has skirt this vale, and occupy the border of the county towards Rutland. The Has occupies the remainder of the eastern side of the county, and in the rest of the county is found the new red sandstone, with the exception of Charnwocal Forest, the coalfields near Ashby- de-la-Zouch, and some isolated hills of mountain limestone to the north-west of the forest. The Ashby coalfields extend into Derbyshire, and the isolated mountain limestone is quarried. The Charnwocxl Forest district is occupied by rocks of the transition series, sienite greenstone, and slate. The air of Leicestershire is considered mild and genial. There are few lofty hills, and the county "does not rank high in the estimation of tourists for abundance of scenic beauty ; but the vales are rich and fertile, and the more open country, if somewhat monotonous, as becomes a great grazing district, is cheerful and breezy, and irresistibly recalls to all who are fond of sport the music of the hounds, as they sweep along in full cry over the finest hunting country in the world." Its breeds of cattle and sheep are very noted, and a great number of valuable horses are also bred there. The valleys of the rivers are celebrated for their cheese dairies, the neighbourhood of Melton being pre-eminent with its Stiltons. There is a fair share of arable land, and once the county seems to have been so famous for its beans that it was said, "Shake a Leicestershire maa by the collar, and you shall hear the beans rattle in his inside." The great collieries employ large numbers of persons in the north- west of the county, and quarrying supports Gthers. "There are few villages within a radius of twenty miles of Leicester, Harborough, Loughborough, Hinckley, and Lutterworth, but what are mainly occupied with frame-work knitting," the medium of communication with the masters in Leicester being the bagman, and the factory system being generally ignored. The staple is hosiery generally, and particularly stockings.
Leicestershire is chiefly included in the basin of the Trent, which for a few miles divides it from Derbyshire. The principal tributary of this river within its borders is the Soar, formed by the union of several small streams that rise near the south-western border. In its lower course the Soar forms the boundary between the county and Nottinghamshire. It was anciently called the Leire, and gave its name to the town and county. It is in length nearly 40 miles, but is inavigable only for 7 miles above its junction with the Trent. The other rivers are the Wreak (a feeder of the Soar) ; the Anker, on the Warwickshire frontier, which joins the Tame ; the Sence, a feeder of the Anker ; the .211ease, a feeder of the Trent, which flows by Ashby ; and the Devon, which joins the Trent at Newark. Besides these tributaries of the Trent, the Avon, a tributary of the Severn, forms the boundary of the county for nearly eight miles, separating it from Northamptonshire. The Swift rises near Lutterworth and falls into the Avon; the Welland rises just within Northamptonshire, and forms the boundary between it and Leicestershire for 17 miles. Leicestershire also has several canals, so that it must be considered a well-watered county, and it falls within the Midland system of railways.
.Nottinyhamshire stretches in a long narrow strip of territory from north to south, the northern angle or extremity being formed or bounded by Lincolnshire on the north-east and Yorkshire on the north-west ; Derbyshire covering its western frontier, Leicester- shire forming the socket to its southern extremity, and Lin- colnshire being its neighbour on its eastern frontier. Its greatest length from north to south is 51 miles ; its average breadth from east to west is 20 miles. Its area is 822 square miles, or 526,076 statute acres. Its population in 1851 was 270,427, and in 1861, 293,867. In 1841 it amounted to 249,910, so that it is increasing at a somewhat accelerated rate.
Nottinghamshire, "if wanting in mountainous scenery, possesses all the picturesque and pleasant characters of a thoroughly English county, in which forests and rivers, uplands and fertile dales, busy villages and manufacturing towns alternately present them- selves," the most interesting part being the broken ground in the westerly portion. The surface is undulating, except in the vale of Trent and vale of Belvoir. "The northern boundary runs through the marshes that surround the Isle of Axholtue. Beacon Hill rises to the east of Newark, and a ridge of upland skirts the right bank of the Trent at a little distance from the river, between Newark and Nottingham, the eastern side of this ridge sloping gradually towards the vale of Belvoir. Quite in the south part of the county are the IVo/ds, a region of upland farms and pastures furrowed by many picturesque and fertile dales. On the west side of the Trent the ground rises gradually towards the Idle, and west of this the ground rises again, but is intersected by the valleys through which the Idle's tributaries flow. Near the head of the Mann, one of these tributaries, is the high land of Sherwood Forest. Sutton-in-Ashfield Hill, near Mansfield, is about 600 feet high, but the hills generally attain no very great elevation."
The eastern and southern districts of the county are chiefly occupied by the Ibis. The vale of the Trent and the uplands near it are generally composed of new red sandstone, and this sinks below the fens in the north, emerging again in the Isle of Asholme. To this lies belong the excavated sandstone caverns of the neigh- bourhood of Nottingham. The newer magnesium limestone under- lies the red sandstone, except where they are separated by beds of quartzose gravel, often consolidated (as in the case of the Castle Hill at Nottingham) into a soft pudding-stone, and forming the prevailing stratum throughout Sherwood Forest. The magnesium limestone occupies a tract in the south-western part of the county, and west of it occurs the South Yorkshire coalfield. The coal, though abundant, is inferior to the Newcastle. There are also quarries in different parts of the county of blue limestone, approach- ing to marble, a good bluish stone, and a reddish stone, besides limestone for burning and a coarse paving-stone.
'rho whole county belongs to the basin of the Trent. The river itself has a long course ; first as the eastern boundary line and easterni district river of the county, and then (from Newark by Nottingham) in a south-western direction to Derbyshire and Leicestershire. There are also the Maws, the idle, the Soar, the Dover-beck, and the Devon. Through all these rivers and its canals Nottinghamshire has water communication with most of the towns of England.
The county was once nearly covered with forest, and still affords t good deal of timber for parks, 8:c. "Although a large portion of the land is given up to farming, the county is better known for its reputation in manufactures. A good deal of the land is poor
and clayey, especially on the eastern portion, although there are very rich valleys, particula rly along the Soar, which.are more devoted to dairies. A considerable portion of the population finds employ- ment in the quarries, among which we may mention those of Mansfield and Mansfield-Woodhouse (which supplied the stone for the frontage of the Houses of Parliament). But the chief depend- ence of the county is on its lace and bobbin-net manufacture," carried on in numerous towns and villages adjacent to Nottingham, instead of being concentrated in that town. "The production of lace and net from Nottingham averages upwards of two million pounds a year."
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