NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, a county (inland), bounded
on the north by Yorkshire, on the east by Lincolnshire,
on the south by Leicestershire, and on the
west by Derbyshire. It extends from 52° 51' to 53°
34' (N. Lat.), and from 44' to 1° 23' (W. Lon.);
including an area of eight hundred and thirty-seven
square miles, or five hundred and thirty-five thousand
six hundred and eighty statute acres. The population
in 1821, was 186,873. This county, having formed part
of the territory of the Coritani, was included in the
Roman district called Flavia Ccesariensis. On the establishment
of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, which
took place about the year 560, the greater part of Nottinghamshire,
viz., that on the north-western bank of
the river Trent, became part of the country of the North
Mercians, the portion on the other side of that river
being in South Mercia. The first memorable event
in the history of the octarchy, recorded as having occurred
within its limits, is the defeat of Ethelfrith,
King of Northumbria, by Redwald, King of East
Anglia, who had espoused the cause of Edwin of
Northumbria, expelled by Ethelfrith; the battle, in
which the latter perished, having been fought on the
eastern bank of the river Idel, or Idle. When Egfrid
of Northumbria invaded Mercia in 679, the Mercians
met him on the banks of the Trent, and in the first conflict
his brother JSlfuin was slain; but the further
effusion of blood was prevented by the mediation of
Theodore, Archbishop of York. The Danes first visited
this county in 868, when they crossed the Humber into
Mercia, and possessed themselves of Nottingham, where
they wintered, and where they were besieged by Burrhed,
King of Mercia, and Ethelred, King of Wessex, with the
whole force of their dominions, when a treaty was entered
into, by virtue of which they evacuated Mercia,
and retired with their plunder to York. The entire
subjection of this shire to the Danish power was involved
in the final overthrow of the Anglo-Saxon sovereignty
of Mercia, which took place in 874. When
Alfred had delivered the Mercian territory from its subjection
to the Danes, he did not avowedly incorporate
it with Wessex, but constituted Ethelred its military
commander, to whom he afterwards gave his daughter
Ethelfleda in marriage. In the early part of the following
century, Nottinghamshire again fell under the
Danish dominion, and so continued until 941, when it
was again rescued by Edward the Elder. At the period
of the Norman Conquest, a great portion of the territorial
property of the county was given by the Conqueror
to his illegitimate son, William Peverel, whose principal
fortified residence was the castle of Nottingham. In
almost all the English civil wars of the middle ages, the
central situation of the county, and the circumstance of
its being intersected by the large river Trent, which in
those ages was an important barrier, defended by the
two strong fortresses of Nottingham and Newark, made
it the scene of numerous important military movements,
and consequently of many ravages, which are detailed
in the account of the places in which they respectively
occurred. In 1216, King John died at Newark, after his
disastrous march across the Washes of Lincolnshire; and
in the neighbourhood of the same town, in 1487, Lam
bert Simnel, the pretended Earl of Warwick, assisted
by John de'la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, and Fitzgerald,
Earl of Kildare, with a body of Irish, and two thousand
Germans, was defeated and taken prisoner, with the loss
of four thousand men, including the Earls of Lincoln
and Kildare, and Lord Lovel.
In the course of the parliamentary war, this county
was the scene of several of the most remarkable tr®,ns"
actions. It was at Nottingham that the king first
solemnly erected his standard, in August 1642. In 1643,
Newark was successfully defended against the parliamentarians
under Lord Willoughby of Parham, and Sir
John Meldrum, whose forces, on the arrival of the
troops under Prince Rupert, sent to raise the siege,
were totally defeated, with the loss of their ordnance
and ammunition. The castle of Nottingham being held
for the parliament, several skirmishes occurred during
the war between the garrison and detachments from
the royalist garrison at Newark. In this county also,
:at Southwell, on the 6th of May, 1646, Charles I. surrendered
himself to the commissioners from the Scot-
tish army then lying before Newark, the garrison of
which, under Lord Bellasis, surrendered to the Scots,
on- the 19th of the same month, by the king's special
command. In the year 1812, the manufacturing
district, of which Nottingham is the centre, was
much agitated by the disturbances among the framework
knitters, owing to the very low rate of wages;
and by the operations of the Luddites, as they were
called, being parties of the working manufacturers, who,
with masks on their faces and otherwise disguised,
broke into many houses and workshops in the night,
and destroyed several stocking-frames; and in June
1817r the south-western part of the county was thrown
into some alarm, by the insurrection of a number of
misguided men in the vicinity of South Winfield, in
Derbyshire, on the .Nottinghamshire .border, who at-
tempted to march upon Nottingham, but were dispersed
by a party of the military within a few miles of that
town, when many of them were taken and committed
to the prisons of Nottingham and Derby; several of
whom being tried by special commission at Derby, in
the following October, for high treason, three of those
who were convicted were executed on the 7th of No-
vember.
Nottinghamshire is included in the diocese and province
of York, and forms an archdeaconry, comprising
the deaneries of Bingham, Newark, Nottingham, and
Retford, which contain two hundred and five parishes,
of which seventy-five are rectories, eighty-nine vicarages,
and the remainder perpetual curacies. Two sy-
-nods of the clergy of this county are held annually
at.Southwell. For purposes of civil government it is
divided into six wapentakes, or hundreds, viz., Bassetlaw,
which is sxibdivided into North Clay, South Clay,
and Hatfield divisions; Bingham (North and South),
Broxtow (North and South), Newark (North and
South), Rushcliffe (North and South), and Thurgarton
(North and South), and the liberty of Southwell and
Scrooby. It contains the borough and market-towns of
Nottingham, Newark, and East Retford; and the market
towns of Bingham, Mansfield, Ollerton, Southwell,
Tuxford, and Worksop. Two knights are returned to
parliament for the shire, two- representatives for each
of the boroughs of Nottingham and Newark, and two
by the burgesses of East Retford, conjointly with the
-freeholders of the hundred of Bassetlaw; the county
members are elected at Nottingham. This county is
included in the midland circuit; the assizes are held
at Nottingham; the quarter sessions at Nottingham,
on January llth, April 19th, July 12th, and October
-18th; at Newark, on January 15th, April 23d, July
16th, and October 22d; and at East Retford, on January
18th, April 26th. July 19th, and October 25th.
The county gaol is at Nottingham, and the county
house of correction, or bridewell, at Southwell. Nottinghamshire
was under the same shrievalty with Derbyshire,
until the 10th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
There are fifty-eight acting magistrates. The rates
raised in the county for the year ending March 25th,
1827, amounted to £99,085.18., the expenditure to
£99,685.9., of which £71,935.13. was applied to the
relief of the poor.
The shape of this county is elliptical. Its surface
is for the most part uneven, but none of the hills
are of great elevation; those of the sandy district,
which anciently formed a considerable part of the celebrated
Forest of Sherwood, are chiefly long ridges of
gentle acclivity, running from west to east, and forming
narrow valleys, through the principal of which run
fine streams of water. The tract formed by these
ridges would, on the whole, be dreary and monotonous,
as the view from one generally extends only to the
summit of the next, were it not that it is adorned by
numerous noblemen's and gentlemen's seats, surrounded
by very extensive parks and plantations, several of
them having magnificent artificial sheets of water; the
view from its southern extremity at Nottingham, over
the vale of the Trent and into Leicestershire, is rich
and extensive. The noble river Trent is bordered, in the
whole of its course through Nottinghamshire, by a fine
rich tract of level land, varying in breadth from about
a mile and a half to upwards of five miles, many parts
of which are bounded by high woody cliffs; below
Newark, however, its borders are flatter; it is for the
most part enclosed, and the greater proportion, particularly
in the immediate vicinity of the river, is rich
grass land. The part of the county lying south of the
Trent, and forming the three hundreds of Bingham,
Rushcliffe, and Newark, comprises, besides the lower
and more extensive part of the vale of Belvoir, and the
fertile levels in the vicinity of the Soar, at the southwestern
extremity of the county, the range of high
bleak country, called the Nottinghamshire Wolds, lying
to the south and south-east of Bunny, and including
the townships of Clipston, Normanton on the Wolds,
Broughton-Sulney, Plumtree, Stanton on the Wolds,
Widmerpool, Willoughby on the Wolds, and Wysall,
most of which are enclosed. The view from Beacon
Hill, in the hundred and near the town of Newark, is
remarkably extensive. The hundred of Bassetlaw comprises
the whole northern part of the county, from the
vicinity of Mansfield, and includes the towns of Ollerton
and Tuxford; fromGringley on the Hill, near its northeastern
extremity, are obtained some remarkably fine and
extensive views, over the broad vale of the Trent, the Isle
of Axholme, and a great extent of the counties of Nottingham,
Lincoln, and York: the other two hundreds occupy
the space between the southern border of the lastmentioned
and the river Trent, that of Broxtow on the
west, and Thurgarton on the east: they include a
considerable part of those tracts of the forest which
still remain unenclosed, and which are of comparatively
small extent.
The soils may be divided into the three classes of
sand or gravel, clay, and limestone and coal land.
The forest district, the soil of which is for the most
part a deep light sand, extends northward, from Nottingham
to the northern boundary of the county at
Tickhill, Ba-wtry, Finningley, and West Stockwith, m
length about thirty miles, and in breadth from seven to
ten, including the towns of Mansfield, Ollerton, Worksop,
Retford, and Blyth. The tract of level Country
on the eastern bank of the Soar, and that on the borders
of the Trent, from its entrance into the county
to the vicinity of Button, where the clay soil reaches
down to the river on the western side, have in general
a mellow vegetable mould, resting on sand or
gravel, which in some places rise to the surface:
nearly similar is also the ground lying between the
wolds and the level of the Soar, on an elevation between
the two, and contained in the townships of
East and West Leake, Cortlingstock, and Rempstone j
as well as the strip of higher land on the borders of the
Trent vale, comprising the townships of East Bridgford,
Kneeton, Flintham, and Stoke both of which have a
good mellow mixed soil of easy tillage. At the northeastern
extremity of the Trent vale district of light land
just described, is a tongue of land on the eastern bank
of the Trent, projecting into Lincolnshire, of a sandy
soil, -which is in general very poor. The clay lands
north of the Trent include the North and South clay
division of the hundred of Bassetlaw, and almost the
whole of the hundred of Thurgarton -. they are in
general not of the most tenacious quality, being rendered
more friable by the intermixture of a portion
of sand, particularly the red clay, of which there is a
great extent in the country round Tuxford, and in the
hundred of Thurgarton, and the black clay soil, commonly
called a "woodland soil." The whole of the
vale of Belvoir, with the exception of those parts included
in the districts of the lighter soils before described,
consists of clay, or very strong loam-; the
soil of the wolds is a cold clay. The limestone and
coal district is a narrow tract lying on the western
side of the county, to the west of -a line drawn from
the little river at Shireoaks, in the north, nearly south
by west to the river Lene near Wollaton and Radfjprd,
no limestone being found east of the Lene; the
limestone, running from Shireoaks, begins to abut
upon the coal near Teversall, to the west of Mansfield,
and afterwards runs between it and the sand;
the line of coal, which in this county is scarcely more
than a mile broad, commencing a little to the north
of Teversall, runs nearly south by west to Brookhill,
then south to Eastwood, arid thence, in nearly a
south-easterly direction to Bilborough, Wollaton, and
the river Lene v the soil upon the limestone is of a
hungry quality; that upon the coal a cold blue or
yellow clay.
Nearly all the enclosed part of the forest district
which is not occupied by woods, most of the coal and
lime district, and a considerable portion of the other
parts of the county, are under tillage. It has been besides
an immemorial custom for the inhabitants of townships
to take up " breaks," or temporary enclosures, and
keep them in tillage for five or six years: for this the permission
of the lord of the manor is necessary, and two
verderers of the forest must inspect, who report to the
lord chief justice in Eyre that it is not to the prejudice
of the king or subject; they are also to see that the
fences are not such as to exclude the deer: the increased
number of enclosures, and the consequent decrease in
the waste lands, have rendered this custom almost obsolete.
The crops usually cultivated are, wheat, rye
barley, oats, beans, and peas. The produce of wheat
varies from two to four quarters per acre. Rye is chiefly
grown in the Trent vale, in the vicinity of Markham, &c.
and on the forest; the produce is generally from"
three to four quarters per acre. Barley is very extensively
cultivated, the produce varying from three to six and
sometimes seven quarters per acre. Oats of various
kinds are grown: the produce is generally from four to
seven quarters per acre, but sometimes as much as ten
quarters: the Trent vale produces remarkably fine oats;:
-there is also cultivated an inferior species of oats, almost
peculiar to this county, called shegs, which will grow on.
the forest land, and although seldom brought to market,
they are much esteemed by those who grow them, and
are frequently given as fodder in the straw. The produce,
of beans varies from three to five quarters per acre; that
of peas, from four to six quarters; in the clay.district
north of the Trent, crops of peas and beans mixed are
not unfrequent. Buck-wheat is cultivated in small
quantities. Turnips are most cultivated on the sandy
and lighter soils; and on the limestone tract the Swedish
turnip is also frequently grown: rape is sometimes
sown instead of turnips in the clayey districts, as food
for sheep and oxen; and when reserved for seed, it is
generally found to produce four or five quarters per
acre. Winter tares are common in several parts/ as
green food for horses and cattle. Potatoes in small
qtiantities are grown in every part of the county: the
common artificial grasses, red and white clover, trefoil,
ray-grass, and rib-grass, are cultivated, as is also
lucerne; burnet grows naturally and plentifully in' the
Trent meadows. Hops form a considerable article in
the produce, of the clay districts north of the Trent,
more particularly in the part about Retford, and, in a
minor degree, in the vicinity of Southwell: they are generally
known "by the name of North Clay hops, and are
much stronger than the Kentish, but those who are accustomed
to the latter object to their flavour as rank';
they are also cultivated to a small extent at Rufford,
Ollerton, and Elksley, situated on the sand; the quantity
grown fluctuates, some grounds being laid down and
others taken up every year; the extent of land occupied
in this manner is upwards of one thousand acres.
The crops in the best seasons are small compared with
those of the Kentish plantations, and do not in the
very best years average eight hundred-weight per acre.
Woad is cultivated at the northern extremity of,the
county, on the light soils in the vicinity of Scrooby,
Ranskill, and Torworth, but the quantity varies greatly,
according to the demand; it is sown with barley -and
clover, and is pulled up from among the clover the next
year, when the latter is coming into blossom, and then
tied in bundles and dried: about six hundred-weight
per acre is an average crop.
On the banks of the Trent and the Soar is much excellent
grass land, which is employed more for feeding
than for the dairy, except along the course of the.S.oar,
and in the vale of the Trent above Nottingham, "where
there are large dairies, the chief produce of which is
cheese. The large island formed by the two branches
of the Trent near Newark is remarkably fine feeding
land. In the clay district north of the .Trent, most
of the farmers keep cows for the dairy; but it is not
their principal object, except in the vicinity of ,*iea
borough; and thence also along the Trent, as far as
Gainsborough, a good many young cattle are reared,
and in some parts, particularly in the North Clay, many
cattle are fed. In the forest district very little land
remains permanently in grass, except the bottoms near
brooks and rivers, as meadow. A considerable quantity
of meadow land has been improved by irrigation
in various parts of the county, the most considerable
tract being in the valley of the Maun, between Mailsfield
and Edwinstow, the property of the Duke of
Portland. Lime to a greater or less extent is used as a
manure in every part of Nottinghamshire, and in various
quarters of it bone-dust, malt-combs, and soot are
commonly used for the same purpose. The cattle on
the borders of the Soar are of the long-horned breed;
almost all the cow-calves are reared, and at three years
old are taken into the dairy, and the old cows fed off.
The cattle reared in the clay district north of the Trent
are of a poor coarse kind, commonly called " woodland
beasts; " those reared in the vale of Belvoir are a mixture
between the long-horned and the short-horned
breed. The lime and coal district has a mixture of
long-horned and short-horned woodland cattle; few are
reared in either the forest district, or in the Trent.vale j
those fed in the latter tract are generally of the shorthorned,
Lincolnshire, and the Holderness breeds.
The1 old forest sheep are a small polled breed (though
some few have horns), with grey faces and legs, and
a fleece of fine wool, the average weight of which is
nearly two pounds; when fat they weigh from seven
to nine pounds per quarter: -this breed has of late
years been much improved by crossing with the Leicestershire
sheep, and the new sort thus produced are
a round compact kind, carrying a fleece of about four
pounds weight, and weighing generally from seventeen
to twenty-two pounds per quarter. In the Trent vale,
and the vale of Belvoir, the breed has also been much
improved- by the introduction of Leicester sheep, and
they are now of a good size, and carry a fleece upwards
of seven pounds' weight. In the clay district north of
the Trent they are of a mixed kind, generally between
the forest and the Lincolnshire pasture sheep, with an
intermixture of the New Leicester breed. In the lime
and coal district also the Leicester sheep now prevail:
of late years many of the South Down breed have
been introduced. The breed of hogs for bacon is the
old lop-eared; that for pork the Chinese, or swingtailed;
a mixture with the old sort is very prevalent.
In the Trent vale some horses are bred, chiefly tolerably
good, middle-sized, black cart-horses; in the
clay district north of the Trent, some of the same
kind also are reared, though of a rather inferior sort;
in the lime and coal district the breed of black horses
is much attended to, and many of them are sold
to the southern dealers, who come down to purchase
them. The rabbit warrens were formerly very
numerous and extensive in the forest district, and
they are still very considerable: in the clay district
north of the Trent more pigeons are kept than in
any other district of equal size in the kingdom. In
several parts of the county are considerable marketgardens
and nursery-grounds, particularly in the vicinity
of Newark; and in the clay district are many
orchards of apples and pears, among the most considerable
of which are those about the villages of Halam
and Edingly, and in the vicinity of Southwell; a very
ready sale for this fruit is found at Mansfield market,
whence it is forwarded for the supply of the Peak of
Derbyshire; some of it is also sent to Sheffield. Little
waste land is now left in the county, by far the greater
part of the forest being enclosed; the parts which
remain are chiefly about the centre of the forest district,
in the space between the towns of Mansfield,
Southwell, and Ollerton, and consists in great part of
rabbit warrens. On the tongue of sandy land east of
the Trent, between Newark and Gainsborough, before
mentioned, are some low, flat, barren commons, almost
always under water in the winter. The Nottinghamshire
Wolds, properly so called, are wastes in the open
parishes, which afford a stinted pasture for young cattle
and horses.
The ancient royal Forest of Sherwood extends
from Nottingham to the vicinity of Worksop, in length
about twenty-five miles, and varies in breadth from
seven to upwards of nine miles. Several smaller
tracts of land, particularly in the northern part of the
county, as far as Rossington bridge, have been usually
called forest; but, from the survey made in the year
1609, they appear either not to have belonged to the
forest, or to have been diafforested before that period.
In Sherwood Forest are included several large parks,
which have been taken in at different times, as those
of Welbeck, Clumber, Thoresby, Beskwood, Newstead,
Clipstone, and several villages, or lands, belonging
to them. The whole soil of the forest is understood
to have oeen .granted from the crown to different
lords of manors, reserving only what is called in
forest language the " vert and -venison,"or trees and
deer; the latter, which were all of the red kind, though
formerly very numerous, are now, in consequence of
the advance of cultivation over their sylvan haunts,
entirely extirpated. The forest is the only one that
remains under the superintendence of the lord chief
justice in Eyre, north of the Trent, or which now
belongs to the crown in that portion of England. The
officers are, the lord-warden, at present the Duke of
Newcastle, who holds his office by letters patent from
the crown during pleasure; the bow-bearer and ranger,
who is appointed by the lord warden, and holds his
office also during pleasure; four verderers, elected by
the freeholders of the county for life, who have each
a tree out of the king's hays of Birkland and Bilhagh,
and a fee of £8. 2. on attending the enclosure of a
break; a steward; nine keepers, appointed by the verderers
during pleasure, who have so many different
walks, and receive a salary of £ 1 per annum from the
Duke of Newcastle, paid out of a fee-farm rent from
Nottingham castle; and two sworn woodwards for Sutton
and Carlton. Thorneywood Chase comprises a great
part of the southern division of the forest lying on
the eastern side; ""the Earl of Chesterfield is hereditary
keeper of it, by grant of the 42nd of Queen Elizabeth
to J. Stanhope, Esq.
The principal remains of the ancient woods are the
hays of Birkland and Bilhagh, situated to the north of
Ollerton and Edwinstow, which form an open wood
of large old oaks, most of them in decay, and stagheaded,
as it is called; that is, the tops have decayed,
and the highest branches now forming the top, being
sapless, have somewhat the appearance of a stag's
horns: this wood is about three miles in length, and
one and a half in breadth, occupying an extent of about
one thousand four hundred acres, and is without underwood,
except some birch in one part, which has
given name to one of its divisions. From a survey
made in the year 1790, it appears that there were then,
in both, ten thousand one hundred and seventeen trees,
valued at £17,147. 15. 4.: during the late war with
France, however, nearly all the valuable timber was
felled for the use of the royal navy: a part of this
tract has been taken by grant into Thoresby park.
Harlow wood, Thieves' wood, and the scattered remains
of Mansfield woods, are of small exteni, containing
timber of an inferior size: in Clumber park are also some
remains of ancient woods. The effects of a disposition
for planting which has prevailed among the noblemen
and gentlemen of this county since the middle of
the last century, are amazing, the Duke of Newcastle,
in Clumber park alone, having one thousand eight hundred
and forty-eight acres of plantation. Extensive
tracts of plantations, consisting chiefly of firs of various
kinds, occupy many miles of country to the south and
south-east of Mansfield; and there is an immense extent
of the same kind of woods in a similar direction
from Worksop, chiefly on the large estates of the Duke
of Norfolk, the Duke of Portland, the Duke of Newcastle,
and Earl Manvers. There are besides numerous
large plantations still further north in the county,
and some close upon its western border. In the clay
districts, north of the Trent, are considerable tracts of
wood, which are chiefly sprung, their principal value, in
common with that of all other spring woods in the
county, arising from the ash hop-poles and the stakes
and bindings, &c. for the farmers' use, which they produce;
in the limestone and coal district are also considerable
woods, and in the sandy tongue of land east
of the Trent, are extensive plantations; but in the rest
of the county they are comparatively few, and of small
extent. Besides the various kinds of fir, including
Weymouth pine, the woods contain much fine oak, ash,
beech, chesnut, and elm, besides inferior kinds of timber
. numerous plantations of willow, sallow, and owler,
are made in the low bottoms. The fuel almost universally
used is coal, much of which is raised in the lime
and coal district, and a great deal brought from Derbyshire,
by the Erwash, Cromford, and Chesterfield
eanals.
The chief minerals are coal, gypsum, and stone of
various kinds. Coal is got in the line before described,
on the western border of the county, whence it is conveyed
by the Erwash and Nottingham canals, or distributed
over the country by land-carriage. Gypsum of
an excellent quality is dug on Beacon Hill, near Newark,
and is much used for plastering floors; a considerable
quantity is also sent in lumps to the colourmen of London;
and some of the white kind, ground and packed
in hogsheads, is likewise sent to the metropolis. At Red
Hill, at the junction of the Trent and the Soar, is a
quarry of the same mineral: it is also found at Great
Markham, the Wheatleys, and many other places in the
red clay district. Lime is burned at various places in the
limestone tract, as also on Beacon Hill, near Newark,
from a blue stone. At Mansfield a very good yellowish
freestone is quarried, for the purpose of building, paving,
&c., and a courser red kind for cisterns and troughs.
At Maplebeck is a blueish stone used for building, which
with continued exposure to the air, bleaches to' nearly
a clear white. At Beacon Hill, near Newark is obtained
a blue stone for hearths, approaching to a marble in
texture, and which also burns to lime. At Linby, a fewmiles
to the south-west of Mansfield, a coarse paving
stone is raised, much used at Nottingham.
The manufacture of stockings from cotton and silk
is that most anciently established in the county, and is
carried on to a great extent, affording employment to a
large number of persons at Nottingham, and the villages
for some miles round it, as also in Mansfield and its
neighbourhood. The very high state of improvement to
which the machinery for manufacturing British lace
was here brought, about twelve years ago, and the great
demand for the superior article thus produced, have rendered
the manufacture of " bobbin net," and the embroidering
of machine lace, a source of employment to
a great portion of the inhabitants of the same district,
the dense population of which it has also materially
contributed to collect. The cotton-mills and silk-mills
for the supply of these manufactures are very numerous.
The bleaching trade hi the vicinity of Nottingham is
very extensive; there are several large starch-mills and
some paper-mills in different parts of the county.  The
malting business is carried on to a great extent, particularly
at Nottingham, Newark, Mansfield, Wbrksop,
and Retford: a great deal of malt is sent up the Trent
and the canals into Derbyshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire.-
At Newark are large breweries, which rival those of
Burton in their trade to the Baltic and other quarters:
Nottingham also has extensive breweries. The exportsare
chiefly lace and stockings, much of which is sent
to London by the stage coaches and light vans, coal,.
oak timber and bark, and malt and hops; the principalimports
are coal, into the northern part of the county,
from Derbyshire, foreign timber, and iron.
The principal river, the Trent, ranks the first in
England after the Thames and the Severn; after forming,
for about two miles, the boundary between Der
byshire and this county, it enters it near Thrumpton,
and runs in a north-easterly direction, by the Trent
bridge, south of Nottingham, to the vicinity of Newark;
where it forms a large island; a small branch of it passing
by that town, while the main stream flows two miles
to the northward of it, and then almost immediately
assumes a direction nearly north, which it continues
throughout the rest of its course, beginning, a little
above Dunholm ferry, to form the eastern boundary of
the county, which it separates from Lincolnshire, and
so continuing until just below Stockwith, where it wholly
quits Nottinghamshire, and enters Lincolnshire. The
tide in this river, which flows for a distance of some
miles above Gainsborough, more particularly at spring
tides, rushes up with great violence, bearing a breast ot
water several feet in perpendicular height, provincially
called the agar, supposed to be a corrupt pronunciation
of the word eager. The Trent is navigable for merchant
ships of considerable burden up to Gainsborough;
and for barges during the rest of its course in this
county; to facilitate this navigation, there is a side-cut
of ten miles in length, in order to avoid the numerous
shallows which occur in about thirteen miles ot its
course, between the Trent bridge, at the commencement
of the Nottingham canal, and Sawley ferry in Derby-
shire, at the commencement of the Trent and Mersey
canal: this side-cut, sometimes called the Trent canal,
has a rise of twenty-eight feet, and not only crosses
and communicates with the Erwash canal near Sawley,
but has also a short cut and lock into the Trent at
Beeston. The Soar forms the south-western boundary
of the county, which it separates from Leicestershire
for the distance of between seven and eight miles, above
its junction with the Trent near Thrumpton; this river
is navigable for the Trent barges. The Erwash forms the
boundary between this county and that of Derby, for
the distance of ten or twelve miles, down to its junction
with the Trent, a little below Thrumpton. No less
than five'fine streams cross the sandy forest district,
from west to east: the junction of two of these, the
Maun from Mansfield, and the Meaden, forms the river
Idle, which, receiving the other streams at irregular
distances, flows northward by Retford and Bawtry, and
thence eastward to the Trent at Stockwith, having
below Bawtry formed the northern boundary of the
county for a few miles. From. Bawtry to the Trent it
has been rendered navigable, and has gates at its
mouth sixteen feet high, for the purpose of preventing
the tide from overflowing the low lands which border
the latter part of its course; this channel in one part
has the name of Bycar Dyke, and about half a mile from
Stockwith assumes that of Misterton Sluice. Numerous
smaller streams pursue a more direct course from the
higher parts of the county to the Trent; the principal
being the Lene, which falls into it at Nottingham; the
Dover, or Darebeck, which .joins it near Caythorpej
the Greet, from Southwell; and the Smite and Devon,
united, from the vale of Belvoir, which have their confluence
with it at Newark.
The commerce of this county is materially facilitated
by its great extent of canal navigation. The
Nottingham canal, commencing in the Trent near that
town, passes along the southern side of it, and then
proceeds in a devious north-westerly course of about
fifteen miles to its termination in the Cromford canal,
near Langley bridge, and not far from the termination
of the Erwash canal, the rise being comparatively
small; the Trent canal, before mentioned, forms a
junction with this a little to the westward of Netting-:
ham; the Nottingham canal was completed in 1802;
the articles brought down it are chiefly coal from the
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire pits, and lime from
Crich, in the former county j those conveyed up it are for
the most part corn and malt, for the supply of the
populous district in the central parts of Derbyshire. A
small part of the course of the Erwash canal is within
the county of Nottingham. The Grantham canal commences
from the Trent near Holme-Pierrepoint, and
takes a course nearly east towards the head of the vale
of Belvoir, where it enters the north-eastern extremity
of Leicestershire; it ha$ a branch of upwards of three
miles in length to the town of Bingham; in the ascent
from the Trent to the Wolds, this canal has a rise of
eighty-two feet in a space of only six miles and a half.
The proprietors of the Trent river navigation, having
been at considerable expense in eepening the river
near the entrance of this canal, are entitled to certain
tpll on all goods passing along that river, from this to
the Nottingham canal. The Chesterfield canal enters
Nottinghamshire near Shire-Oaks, on the north-western
border of the county, and proceeds to Worksop, at
a little distance below which it crosses the small
river Ryton, by an aqueduct, and continues its course
in an irregular easterly direction to Retford: here,
having crossed the Idle, it takes a northerly direction
to Drakelow, where it passes through a tunnel of two
hundred and fifty yards in length, and then runs, in a
north-easterly direction, near Gringley on the Hill,
across Misson Car to Misterton, and across Walkeringham
moor to West Stockwith, terminating in a large
basin which communicates with the Trent: the whole
line of this canal is about forty miles in length, and
from the summit level, at Norwood in Derbyshire, it
has a fall to the Trent of three hundred and thirty-five
feet. [For an account of the Pinxton railway, see the
article on MANSFIELD.]
The great north road from London to Edinburgh
enters Nottinghamshire about three miles to the south
of Newark, passing through which town it crosses
the Trent, and continues by Tuxford and Retford,
quitting the county as it enters Bawtry in Yorkshire.
The great road from London to Sheffield and
Leeds. enters it from Leicestershire immediately to the
south of Rempstone, and passing through Nottingham
and Mansfield, quits it for Derbyshire at Pleaseley, about
three miles beyond the latter town. The Leeds mail road
enters from Leicestershire between Nether Broughton
and Over Broughton, whence it crosses the Nottinghamshire
Wolds, and falls into the last-mentioned road at
the southern extremity of the Trent bridge, near Nottingham.
An excellent turnpike-road branches from
the great Leeds road at Mansfield, and passing through
Worksop quits the county for Yorkshire at South Carlton,
in its way to Doncaster, where it falls into the
great north road. A branch of the great north road
also diverges from it at Newark, and passing through
Ollerton, falls into the last-mentioned road at Worksop.
Nottinghamshire possesses comparatively few monuments
of remote antiquity; the most remarkable British
remains are the caves in the sand-rock near Nottingham.
At Barton, four miles to the south-west of
Nottingham, is Brent's Hill, considered by Aubrey to
have been a fortified place of the Britons; and at Oxton
are three large tumuli, supposed by Major Rooke
to be of equal antiquity: brass celts have also been
found, particularly between Hexgrove and the little
stream called Rainworth-water. Of Roman antiquities,
the camp on Holly-hill, near Arnold, is considered by
Dr. Gale to have been the important Roman station
Causennis; and about two miles from Mansfield are
still the remains of a Roman villa, while in various other
parts of the county have been found spears, fibula, and
brass keys, of Roman workmanship. The principal remains
of Roman roads are those of the Fosse-way, which,
coming from Leicestershire, enters this county nearWilloughby
on the Wolds, proceeds to Newark, and crossing
the line of the Ermin-street, enters Lincolnshire. This
may be traced for many miles across the Wolds, being
literally a fosse, dug to a great depth, so as to form a spacious
covered way. Another ancient road, formerly called
"the Street," commences at Newark and proceeds through
part of Southwell to Mansfield: it is still discernible
between the two former towns. The most various
and interesting examples of ancient ecclesiastical architecture
are conspicuous in the collegiate church of
Southwell; fine specimens may also be seen in the
churches of Worksop, Newark, and Nottingham: in
those of Southwell and Worksop in particular, the
Anglo-Saxon, or early Norman style, is strikingly exhibited.
The religious houses, including colleges and
hospitals, were about thirty-nine; the chief remains of
monastic buildings are those of the abbeys of Newstead
and Worksop, and of the college at Southwell. There
are considerable remains of the once important castle
of Newark, and some interesting relics of that of Nottingham.
Bunny Park, the seat of Viscount Rancliffe, and
Thurland Hall, in Nottingham, are among the most
curious specimens of ancient mansion houses. Among
the most distinguished of the numerous modern seats
which adorn the county, more especially the northern part
of its once dreary forest district, may be enumerated
Worksop manor, the property of the Duke of Norfolk,
and the residence of the Earl of Surrey; Welbeck abbey,
the property and residence of the Duke of Portland;
Clumber park, that of the Duke of Newcastle; Thoresby
park, that of Earl Manvers , Wollaton Hall, that of Lord
Middleton; and Newstead abbey, recently that of the
late Lord Byron, but now of Lieut. Col. Wildman. The
ordinary houses, except on the borders of Derbyshire,
where stone is more plentiful, are generally of brick and
tiled, though sometimes thatched: some of the poor cottages
and barns in the clay country are of lath and plaster,
but all new buildings are there of brick and tiled: in
the southern part of the county, many of the better class
of houses are slated. The traditions respecting Robin
Hood and the Sherwood outlaws of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, which, in the form of popular
ballads, were current for ages among the lower orders,
seem to have fallen into oblivion in the latter part
of the last century, and are now scarcely preserved,
except in the libraries of the curious.