ASHBY-de-la-ZOUCH, a market-town and parish
in the western division of the hundred of GOSCOTE,
county of LEICESTER, 18 miles (N.W. by W.) from Leicester,
and 115 (N.W. by N.) from London, containing,
with the chapelry of Blackfordby, and the extra-parochial
liberty of Alton-Grange, 4227 inhabitants. The
name appears to be derived from the Saxon Asc, an ash,
and bye, a habitation: it received the adjunct, by which
it is distinguished from other towns of the same nanx.-,
from the family of La Zouch, in whose possession it
continued from the latter part of the twelfth to the
close of the fourteenth century. Sir William Hastings,
created Baron Hastings by Edward IV., who was beheaded
by Richard III., built a strong castle here in
the reign of the former monarch, in which Mary, Queen
of Scots, while in the custody of the Earl of Huntingdon,
was for some time kept in confinement: in this
castle Anne, consort of James I., and her son, Prince
Henry, were magnificently entertained by the Earl of
Huntingdon, on their journey from York to London, in
1603. At the commencement of the parliamentary war,
the Earl of Huntingdon was one of the first that appeared
in arms for the king in Leicestershire. Ashby castle
was garrisoned for his Majesty by the earl's second
son, Col. Henry Hastings, who was made general of the
king's forces in the midland counties, and, for his services
to the royal cause, was, in 1643, created Baron
Loughborough. The king was here, on his march to
and from Leicester, in May and June 1645. After sustaining
a siege of several months from the army under
Sir Henry Fairfax, Lord Loughborough surrendered the
castle to Col. Needham, in February 1646, on honourable
terms, the garrison being allowed to march out
with all the honours of war. This castle was one of
the fortresses demolished by order of a committee of
the House of Commons, about the end of the year 1642;
portions of the walls of the hall, the chapel, and the
kitchen, are still remaining, and form an extensive and
interesting mass of ruins.
The town, a great part of which was destroyed by
fire in 1753, is pleasantly situated on the banks of the
small river Gilwisthaw, at the north-western extremity
of the county, and consists principally of one very spacious
street, with two smaller streets extending in a parallel
direction, containing several substantial and wellbuilt
houses: there are many excellent springs in the
neighbourhood, but the town is very indifferently supplied
with water. The Ivanhoe baths, a splendid
building erected within the last six years, in the Doric
order of architecture, are supplied from the neighbouring
collieries with water, strongly impregnated with
muriate of soda, containing, by ten or twelve degrees,
a greater proportion of salt than sea water, and efficacious
in mitigating the pain of rheumatism; the baths
are conveniently and elegantly fitted up for the use of
invalids. There are lodging-houses, a handsome hotel,
a .neat theatre, and other sources of attraction requisite
in a place of fashionable resort. A small mineral
spring, called Griffydam, the water of which possesses
highly medicinal properties, rises at a short distance
from the town. The manufacture of the coarser kinds
of hosiery is carried on here: bricks are made to a considerable
extent; and in the neighbouring wolds, which
abound with iron-stone, a furnace for smelting the ore
has been recently erected. A canal passes within three
miles south-westward of the town, with which it is connected
by a rail-road, and, after continuing a course of
more than thirty miles, unimpeded by a single lock,
forms a junction with the Coventry canal. The market
is on Saturday: fairs are held on Shrove-Monday,
Easter - Tuesday, Whit-Tuesday, the last Monday in
September, and the 10th of November, for horses and
cattle -. this is stated to be the best market for strong
horses in England. The town is in the honour of Tutbury,
duchy of Lancaster, and within the jurisdiction
of a court of pleas held at Tutbury every third Tuesday,
for the recovery of debts under 40s.: a constable
and two head-boroughs are appointed at the court leet
of the lord of the manor.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
of Leicester, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the
king's books at £ 14. 10. 4., endowed with £200 private
benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the. patronage
of the Marquis of Hastings. The church, dedicated
to St. Helen, is a spacious structure in the decorated
style of English architecture, and contains,
among many others, a handsome monument to the memory
of Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, and his Countess.
There are places of worship for Baptists, those in the
Connexion of the late Countess of Huntingdon, Independents,
and Wesleyan Methodists. The free grammar
school was founded, in 1567, by Henry, Earl of Huntingdon,
and others, and endowed with one hundred and
twenty houses and seventy-five acres of land: it has,
jointly with the school at Derby, ten exhibitions of £10
each per annum, to Emanuel College, Cambridge, founded
by Francis Ash, merchant and citizen of London, a
native of this town, with preference to the founder's
relations. The Blue-coat school, for twentysix
boys, was founded in 1669, and endowed with.
£25 per annum, by Isaac Dawson; and a Greencoat
school was founded" and endowed by Alderman
Newton, of Leicester. The Rev. Simeon Ash, a native
of this town, gave £50 per. annum, directing that £1Q
thereof should be appropriated to the apprenticing of
two boys yearly in some corporate town, and that the
remainder should be distributed among the poor. A
great number of Roman coins has been found here
within the last seven years. Bishop Hall, an eminent
divine and satirist, and Dr. John Bainbridge, a celebrated
astronomer and mathematician, were born at this
town, the former in 1574, and the latter in 1582.