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 Agriculture.—Huntingdonshire is almost wholly an agricultural county; nearly nine-tenths of its total area is under cultivation, and much improvement has been effected by drainage. On account of the tenacity of the clay the drains often require to be placed very close. Much of the soil is, however, undrained, and only partly used for pasturage. On the drained pasturage a large number of cattle are fed. The district comprising the gravel of the Ouse valley embraces an area of 50,000 acres. On the banks of the Ouse it consists of fine black loam deposited by the overflow of the river, and its meadows form very rich pasture grounds. The upland district is under arable culture. Wheat is much more extensively grown than any other grain. Barley is more widely cultivated than oats, but its quality on many soils is lean and inferior, and unsuitable for malting purposes. Beans and pease are largely grown, while mangold and cabbage and similar green crops are chiefly used for the feeding of sheep. During the last quarter of the 19th century there was a large decrease in the areas of grain crops and of fallow, and an increase in that of permanent pasture. Market-gardening and fruit-farming, however, greatly increased in importance. Willows are largely grown in the fen district. Good drinking water is deficient in many districts, but there are three natural springs, once famous for the healing virtues their waters were thought to possess, namely, at Hail Weston near St Neots, at Holywell near St Ives and at Somersham in the same district. Bee-farming is largely practised. Dairy-farming is not much followed, the milk being chiefly used for rearing calves. The village of Stilton, on the Great North Road, had formerly a large market for the well-known cheese to which it has given its name. Large numbers of cattle are fattened in the field or the fold-yard, and are sold when rising three years old. They are mostly of the shorthorn breed, large numbers of Irish shorthorns being wintered in the fens. Leicesters and Lincolns are the most common breeds of sheep; they usually attain great weights at an early age. Pigs include Berkshire, Suffolk and Neapolitan breeds, and a number of crosses. Their fattening and breeding are extensively practised.

Other Industries.—There is no extensive manufacture, but the chief is that of paper and parchment. Madder is obtained in considerable quantities, and in nearly every part of the county lime burning is carried on. Lace-making is practised by the female peasantry; and the other industries are printing, iron-founding, tanning and currying, brick and tile making, malting and brewing.

Communications.—The middle of the county is traversed from south to north by the Great Northern railway, which enters it at St Neots and passing by Huntingdon leaves it at Peterborough. A branch line running eastward to Ramsey is given off at Holme junction, midway between Huntingdon and Peterborough. From Huntingdon branch lines of the Midland and the Great Eastern run respectively west and east to Thrapston (Northamptonshire) and to Cambridge via St Ives. From St Ives Great Eastern lines also run N.E. to Ely (Cambridgeshire) via Earith Bridges on the county border, and N. to Wisbech (Cambridgeshire) with a branch line westward from Somersham to Ramsey. The north-western border is served by the Great Northern and the London and North-Western railways between Peterborough and Wansford, where they part.

Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 234,218 acres, with a population in 1891 of 57,761, and in 1901 of 57,771. The area of the administrative county is 233,984 acres. The county contains 4 hundreds. The municipal boroughs are Godmanchester (pop. 2017), Huntingdon, the county town (4261) and St Ives (2910). The other urban districts are Old Fletton (4585), Ramsey (4823) and St Neots (3880). The county is in the south-eastern circuit, and assizes are held at Huntingdon. It has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided into five petty sessional divisions. There are 105 civil parishes. Huntingdonshire, which contains 87 ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or in part, is almost wholly in the diocese of Ely, but a small part is in that of Peterborough. The parliamentary divisions, each of which returns one member, are the Northern or Ramsey and the Southern or Huntingdon. Part of the parliamentary borough of Peterborough also falls within the county.

History.—The earliest English settlers in the district were the Gyrwas, an East Anglian tribe, who early in the 6th century worked their way up the Ouse and the Cam as far as Huntingdon. After their conquest of East Anglia in the latter half of the 9th century, Huntingdon became an important seat of the Danes, and the Danish origin of the shire is borne out by an entry in the Saxon Chronicle (918–921) referring to Huntingdon as a military centre to which the surrounding district owed allegiance, while the shire itself is mentioned in the Historia Eliensis in connexion with events which took place before or shortly after the death of Edgar. About 915 Edward the Elder wrested the fen-country from the Danes, repairing and fortifying Huntingdon, and a few years later the district was included in the earldom of East Anglia. Religious foundations were established at Ramsey, Huntingdon and St Neots in the 10th century, and that of Ramsey accumulated vast wealth and influence, owning twenty-six manors in this county alone at the time of the Domesday Survey. In 1011 Huntingdonshire was again overrun by the Danes and in 1016 was attacked by Canute. A few years later the shire was included in the earldom of Thored (of the Middle Angles), but in 1051 it was detached from Mercia and formed part of the East Anglian earldom of Harold. Shortly before the Conquest, however, it was bestowed on Siward, as a reward for his part in Godwin’s overthrow, and became an outlying portion of the earldom of Northumberland, passing through Waltheof and Simon de St Liz to David of Scotland. After the separation of the earldom from the crown of Scotland during the Bruce and Balliol disputes, it was conferred in 1336 on William Clinton; in 1377 on Guichard d’Angle; in 1387 on John Holand; in 1471 on Thomas Grey, afterwards marquess of Dorset; and in 1529 on George, Baron Hastings, whose descendants hold it at the present day.

The Norman Conquest was followed by a general confiscation of estates, and only four or five thanes retained lands which they or their fathers had held in the time of Edward the Confessor. Large estates were held by the church, and the rest of the county for the most part formed outlying portions of the fiefs of William’s Norman favourites, that of Count Eustace of Boulogne, the sheriff, of whose tyrannous exactions bitter complaints are recorded, being by far the most considerable. Kimbolton was fortified by Geoffrey de Mandeville and afterwards passed to the families of Bohun and Stafford.

The hundreds of Huntingdon were probably of very early origin, and that of Norman Cross is referred to in 963. The Domesday Survey, besides the four existing divisions of Norman Cross, Toseland, Hurstingstone and Leightonstone, which from their assessment appear to have been double hundreds, mentions an additional hundred of Kimbolton, since absorbed in Leightonstone, while Huntingdon is assessed separately at fifty hides. The boundaries of the county have scarcely changed since the time of the Domesday Survey, except that parts of the Bedfordshire parishes of Everton, Pertenhall and Keysoe and the Northamptonshire parish of Hargrave were then assessed under this county. Huntingdonshire was formerly in the diocese of Lincoln, but in 1837 was transferred to Ely. In 1291 it constituted an archdeaconry, comprising the deaneries of Huntingdon, St Ives, Yaxley and Leightonstone, and the divisions remained unchanged until the creation of the deanery of Kimbolton in 1879.

At the time of the Domesday Survey Huntingdonshire had an independent shrievalty, but from 1154 it was united with Cambridgeshire under one sheriff, until in 1637 the two counties were separated for six years, after which they were reunited and have remained so to the present day. The shire-court was held at Huntingdon.

In 1174 Henry II. captured and destroyed Huntingdon Castle. After signing the Great Charter John sent an army to ravage this county under William, earl of Salisbury, and Falkes de Breauté. During the wars of the Roses Huntingdon was sacked by the