Leicestershire

Leicestershire, a midland county of England, surrounded by Nottingham, Lincoln, Rutland, Northampton, Warwick, and Derby shires. It has a maximum length and breadth of 44 miles by 40, and contains 803 sq. m., or 514,164 acres. Pop. (1801) 131,081; (1841) 215,867; (1881) 321,258; (1891) 373,984. Its surface is mainly undulating tableland, the highest ground being at Charnwood Forest in the north-west, where Bardon Hill rises to a height of 853 feet above sea-level. The Soar, itself an affluent of the Trent, which for a short distance borders the county on the north, is, with its tributary the Wreak, the principal river. The soil, varying in fertility, is generally loamy: in the north-west are valuable coal-mines, also granite, slate, and limestone quarries, but, the greater part of the county being under pasture, the quantity of corn grown is comparatively small. According to the agricultural returns for 1889 the area under corn crops was only 73,582 acres, and under green crops 20,935 acres, whilst 341,905 acres were laid down as permanent pasture or grass. Hence the principal objects of agriculture practised in the county are grazing and sheep and cattle breeding, Leicestershire being especially noted for its breed of the former. Of manufactures the principal are those of hosiery and boots and shoes; basket-making is carried on at Castle Donnington; and Stilton cheeses are for the most part made in this county. Leicestershire comprises six hundreds, the parliamentary and municipal borough of Leicester, and 332 parishes, almost entirely in the diocese of Peterborough, and, for judicial purposes, in the Midland Circuit. Leicester is the assize town, and other towns are Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Hinckley, Loughborough, Lutterworth, Market Harborough, and Melton Mowbray, the last two being great hunting centres. Six members are returned to parliament, and the county council consists of fifty-one members. In historical annals the principal event associated with the county is the battle of Bosworth Field (1485), in which Richard III. lost his life. Amongst persons of note identified with Leicestershire may be mentioned Wyclif, Cardinal Wolsey, Lady Jane Grey, Mary Queen of Scots, Beaumont the dramatist, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Cleveland the poet, George Fox, Simpson the mathematician, Dr Johnson, Lord Macaulay, Hobart Pasha, Colonel Burnaby, and last, but not least, Daniel Lambert. See the histories of the county by Burton (1622; 2d ed. 1777), Nichols (4 vols. 1795-1815), and Curtis (1831).