RUTLANDSHIRE, a county (inland), bounded on
the north-west and south-west by Leicestershire, on
the south and south-east by Northamptonshire, and
on the east and north-east by Lincolnshire. It extends
from 51° 31' 28'' to 51° 45' 34" (N. Lat.), and
from 25' to 48" (W, Lon.) This is the smallest county
in England, its extreme length being only eighteen
miles, its greatest breadth fifteen miles, and its circumference
fifty-eight miles, containing, according
to Parkinson's Agricultural Survey, drawn up for the
consideration of the Board of Agriculture, ninety-one
thousand and two acres and twenty-nine perches, or
about one hundred and forty-two square miles. The
population, in 1821, was 18,487. This district, at the
period of the Roman invasion, formed part of the territory
of the Coritani; and, under the Roman dominion,
was included in the division called Flavia Ccesariensis: on
the complete establishment of the Saxon Octarchy,
Rutlandshire was comprised in the kingdom of Mercia.
For the name Rutland, in Saxon Roteland, no probable
derivation has been assigned. In Domesday-book
Roteland is spoken of as comprising the two wapentakes
of Alstoe and Martinsley, which, according to the
same record, belonged to the sheriffdom of Nottingham,
so far as the king's tax was concerned. The rest
of the county was, at that period, included in Northamptonshire.
Rutland is first mentioned as a distinct
county in the 5th of King John, at the coronation of
whose queen, Isabel, it was amongst other lands, assigned
in parliament for her dower. Owing to its inferior
size, and its containing no important military
post, few memorable events have occurred within its
limits. In 1016, however, near Essendine, the invading
Danes were repulsed by the inhabitants of
Rutlandshire, and the men of Stamford, under the command
of the baron of Essenden; but the Saxons,
abandoning order in the pursuit, were finally routed.
In 1311, at Burley, Henry Spencer, the warlike Bishop
of Norwich, assembled the troops with which he afterwards
defeated the Norfolk insurgents under John
Letester, who had taken up arms at the time of the
formidable insurrection headed by Wat Tyler. In
1470, on April 27th, an army of Lancastrians, consisting
chiefly of Lincolnshire men, was defeated by Edward
IV., at Horn, with a loss of thirteen thousand
men, when their commander, Sir Thomas Wells, and
Sir Thomas de Launde, were taken prisoners and shortly
after beheaded: this engagement has been jocularly
styled " the battle of Lose-coat field," from the fugitives
having cast off their coats, in order to be less incumbered.
Rutlandshire lies within the diocese of Peterborough
(excepting the parishes of Empringham, Ketton cum
Tixover, and Liddington cum Caldecott, which are included
in that of Lincoln), and in the province of Canterbury;
it forms a deanery, in the archdeaconry of Northampton,
and contains fifty parishes, of which thirty are
rectories, thirteen vicarages, and the remainder perpetual
curacies. For civil purposes it is divided into the
four hundreds of Alstoe, East, Martinsley, and Wrandike,
and the soke of Oakham. It contains the market
towns of Oakham and Uppingham. Two knights are
returned to parliament for the shire, and are elected
at Oakham. This county is included in the Midland
circuit: the assizes and quarter sessions are held at
Oakham, where is the county gaol; there are seven
acting magistrates. The rates raised in the county
for the year ending March 25th, 1827, amounted to
£14,029. 7., the expenditure to £13,873. 14., of which
£9,479. 18. was applied to the relief of the poor.
The general appearance of the county is of an
interesting character, more especially where it has
abundance of timber, being greatly diversified by gently
rising hills, running in the direction of east and west,
between which are vallies about half a mile in width,
so that the prospects, which are always agreeable
and lively, are also pleasingly varied. Some of the
finest views may be obtained from Manton, which is
the highest ground in the county; Beaumont Chase,
Burley House, Rakesborough Hill, the village of Teigh,
the Whissendine Hills, and Witchley common. The
soils are for the most part fertile, but in their nature
vary greatly, and sometimes abruptly. The eastern
and south-eastern parts have in general a clay soil
of shallow staple, resting upon limestone rock, with
a small mixture of cold woodland j the rest of the
county has a strong red loamy soil, amongst which ironstone
is found; some of this is provincially termed
keal: there are also some small tracts of rich clay, and
others of a blueish clay. The substratum of the greater
part of it is a very strong blue clay. The thin-stapled
soils are well adapted for the production of turnips,
barley, clover wheat, and all other green crops, though
they make but poor meadow land; abundant crops of
grass are produced upon the red keal. Upwards of
forty-two thousand five hundred acres are under tillage;
the course of crops observed on the thin limestone
soil is, first, turnips; second, barley; third, clover;
fourth, wheat: on the other soils it is various. The
crops commonly grown are, wheat, barley, oats, peas,
beans, turnips, cabbages, tares, and lentils. The average
crop of wheat is twenty-two bushels and three
quarters per acre; that of barley thirty-two; the latter
grain is here of a very superior quality. The average
produce of oats per acre is forty-two bushels and a
quarter; that of peas, twenty-four and three quarters;
and that of beans, twenty-three and three quarters.
The turnips are for the most part eaten on the land by
sheep; the greater part of the tares is consumed as green
food for horses in the stable: the lentils are greatly
esteemed as winter food for sheep. The artificial grasses
are clover, trefoil, ray-grass, and sainfoin. The quantity
of grass land rather exceeds that under tillage,
being almost forty-five thousand acres; the meadows
are chiefly upland, the only tracts ever flooded being
those on the margins of the rivers Welland, Guash,
and Chater. In this case the waters of the two latter
streams quickly subside; but the river Welland
having very little fall, and the meadows in its vicinity
being very flat, the water retires but slowly, frequently
continuing so long upon the land, that the pasturage is
rendered unwholesome, and produces the rot amongst
sheep that are put upon it: the average produce of hay
is from a ton to a ton and a half per acre. Much of
what is called Stilton cheese is made in the district of
Leafield Forest, and in the Vale of Catmose. About one
half of the grass land is good feeding land; the rest
is of an inferior quality, and is used to feed store cattle:
in general the ground is healthy for sheep and cattle,
and the management of the grazing lands is considered
to he well understood. The cattle reared are of no particular
breed, and in general of rather an inferior kind;
many of the calves are sold fat to the butcher; the dairies
are few, grazing being the chief object. The cattle
most in request are the Irish and small Scotch, which,
after one summer's grass, are in general sent to the London
market, Some long-horned and a few short-horned
heifers of the Durham breed are brought in at two
years old, and when three years old, are sold out to
jobbers, who take them to the dairy counties, or to
London. Some of the cattle grazed here obtained are
from Wales, and others from Lancashire. The sheep are
nearly all of the polled, long-woolled kind, and in the
open fields of a very poor sort, little care being taken
of them; in the enclosures, however, they are better
attended to, but are for the most part very inferior,
being small in size and light in flesh; their wool also
is light, short, and mossy. The breeds are the Old and
the New Leicester; but- in that part of the county bordering
on Lincolnshire, the breed of that county, with
a cross of the New Leicester, prevails.. The horses are
of an inferior kind, being strong, but very ill shaped.
The county contains several very large orchards. There
are nearly three thousand acres of native wood and of
plantations, containing very little oak timber; the coppice
wood is felled at from ten to fifteen years' growth.
The woodlands were formerly much more extensive, the
forest of Leafield, or Lyfield, having once occupied
the greater part of the soke of Oakham; and Beaumont
Chase, forming a part of the same forest, having extended
over much of Martinsley hundred: several
townships in its vicinity, as well as those within its
limits, still claim certain forest rights; and the
whole tract is now a particularly rich and beautiful
scene of woodland and high cultivation. The forestership
of Leafield, together with the property of the
manor of Leigh, from which it is supposed to take its
name, became vested, in the reign of James I., by purchase,
in the family of Noel, and are now possessed
by its present representative, Sir Gerard Noel, Bart.
Limestone of two kinds, softer and harder, is obtained
in many parts of the county; and at Ketton, an excellent
stone for building is procured. Coal is brought
by the Milton canal to Oakham, and forms the chief
fuel of the county, but is mostly used in conjunction
with wood, while in some few parishes wood is still the
principal article of fuel.
The river Welland forms the south-eastern boundary
of the county, separating it from Northamptonshire;
the small river Eye, which rises in Leicestershire, and
takes a south-easterly course to the Welland, is its
south-western boundary for some miles in the latter
part of its.course. The two principal streams which
run through it are the Guash, or Wash, and the Chater,
both which have their sources beyond its western boundary,
in Leicestershire, and take an easterly course to
the Welland. The Melton-Mowbray canal, from the
river Soar to Melton-Mowbray, was extended to Oakham,
in the centre of the county, by virtue of an act
of parliament obtained in the year 1793. This. is the
only line of navigation that Rutlandshire possesses;
from Leicestershire it enters it near Teigh, and proceeds
by Market-Overton, Barrow, Cottesmore, and Burley, to
the northern side of Oakham, in the level of the vale
of Catmose; that part of its course contained within
its limits is about six miles and a half in length, and
on one level: it has a reservoir for its supply with water,
near Langham, in this county; the expense of the
whole was £86,000: the principal articles of traffic
upon it are coal, timber, and agricultural produce.
The great north road from London to Edinburgh
passes through the easternmost portion of the county,
which it enters a little to the north of Stamford. The
Leeds mail-road enters the county from Kettering in
Northamptonshire, and passes through Uppingham and
Oakham to Melton-Mowbray in Leicestershire.
At Great Casterton was a Roman station, but antiquaries
disagree concerning its name. The castle, church,
county-hall, and hospital, of Oakham, present some
interesting relics of antiquity. There were not more
than four or five religious houses and hospitals in the
county. Of ancient church architecture, the chancel of
Tickencote church is afine specimen of the early Norman.
the following are also worthy of notice, viz., Essendine
church, more particularly its southern doorway; that
of Exton, considered the handsomest in the county 5
that of Ketton, which is remarkable for its fine lofty
spire; and those of Empingham, Stretton, and Tinwell;
there are some ancient and handsome monuments
in the churches of Ashwell, Drystoke, and Exton.
Liddington hospital, originally a palace of the
Bishops of Lincoln, and Preston manor-house, are also
remarkable for their antiquity. Among the seats of
the nobility and gentry, Burley, that of the Earl of
Winchilsea and Nottingham, is the most distinguished.
Chalybeate springs are numerous in almost
every part of the county; but the strongest,
which has long been noted, and some years ago was
much resorted to, is situated between Teigh and Market-
Overton. Numerous marine exuvia are found in
the limestone. Rutland gives the titles of duke and
earl to the family of Manners.