HALLATON, a parish (formerly a market-town) in the. hundred of GARTREE, county of LEICESTER, 7 miles (N. B. by N.) from Market-Harborough, and 90 (N.N.W.) from London, containing 664 inhabitants. The name is supposed by some to be a corruption of Hollow-town, in allusion to its being situated in a valley, or hollow spot; by others it is derived from Holy town. The market-cross is still standing, but the market has not been held within the memory of the present inhabitants. An attempt was made to revive it in 1767, which proved abortive, owing in a great measure to the badness of the roads, which were then nearly impassable in winter. Fairs are held for cattle on Holy Thursday, and on the third Thursday after it. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Leicester, and diocese of Lincoln, formerly in medieties, which were united in 1728; the north mediety is rated in the king's books at £18. 13. 4., and the south mediety at £17. 6. 8.: it is held with the annexed donative of Blaston St. Michael, and is in the alternate patronage of the Rev. Calverley John Besvicke, and the Rev. George Ouselev Fenwicke. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a large and handsome edifice, consisting of a nave, aisles, chancel, and a western tower, with a spire; the aisles are of the same height with the nave, and lighted by fine large windows, decorated with mullions and elaborate tracery: it contains an ancient square font, supported by columns ornamented with grotesque heads. There is a place of worship for Baptists. A charity school has an endowment of £20 per annum, arising from different benefactions; and there are several charitable bequests for annual distribution among the poor. On the western side of the town, at the distance of a mile, is the site of an ancient fortress, called Hallaton Castle hill: the most conspicuous part of the remains is a conical eminence, one hundred and eighteen feet high, and six hundred and thirty feet in circumference, on which stood the keep, occupying, with the outworks, about two acres of ground. About a quarter of a mile south-west of this spot are traces of another fortress of nearly the same extent. A battle is said to have been fought near this town, and these vestiges lend countenance to the tradition, as also does the name of Blood-wood, affixed to a neighbouring spot. Hallaton is distinguished by a singular annual custom which is thus described: on every Easter Monday the inhabitants meet on a piece of ground which was bequeathed to the use and benefit of the rector, who then provides two hare pies, a quantity of ale, and two dozen of penny loaves, to be scrambled for. Attempts have been made to put down this custom, and appropriate the bequest to charitable purposes; but so attached are the inhabitants to it, that these efforts have always failed, and on one occasion a riot was the result.