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 the Parliament by setting up his standard at Nottingham, and during the ensuing Civil War the castle was held by each of the two parties more than once. In 1644 it was dismantled by Cromwell’s orders.

Henry II. granted the first extant charter, which confirmed to the burgesses the liberties they had under Henry I., referred to a market on Saturdays, and forbade the working of dyed cloth, except in Nottingham, within ten leagues of the borough. This was confirmed by John, who also granted a gild-merchant. Henry III. allowed the burgesses to hold the town in fee-farm, and Edward I. granted them a mayor and two bailiffs, one to be chosen from each borough. Henry VI. confirmed all preceding privileges, first incorporated the mayor and burgesses, and granted that the town, except the castle and the gaol, should be a county of itself. Two sheriffs were to replace the two bailiffs. This charter remained, except for temporary surrenders under Charles II. and James II., the governing charter of the corporation until the Municipal Act of 1835. Nottingham returned two members to parliament from 1295 until 1885, when the number was increased to three. Edward I. granted an eight days’ fair in September and a fifteen-days’ fair in November, the last altered by Richard II. to a five-days’ fair in February. Two other fairs were granted by Anne; one large fair, Goose Fair, is still held. This begins on the first Thursday in October and lasts three days. The markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays are held by prescriptive right. Besides the Reform riots of 1831, Nottingham witnessed in 1811 the Luddite disturbances. In 1870 Nottingham was made the seat of a suffragan bishop of the diocese of Lincoln, but as it is now in the diocese of Southwell there is no suffragan bishopric.

 NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, or, an inland county of England, bounded N.W. by Yorkshire, W. by Derbyshire, S. by Leicestershire and E. and N.E. by Lincolnshire. The area is 843·4 sq. m. The N. is included in the great plain of York, and in the extreme N. there is some extent of marshes. The valley of the lower Trent and that of the Idle are also very flat. In the S.W. between Nottingham and Warsop, the undulations swell into considerable elevations, reaching near Mansfield a height over 600 ft. This district includes the ancient (q.v.). Some portions of it are still retained in their original condition, and there are many very old oaks, especially in the portion known as (q.v.). The county generally is finely wooded, although to the E. of the valley of the Soar there is a considerable stretch of wolds. The principal rivers are the Trent, the Erewash, the Soar and the Idle. The Trent, which enters the county near Thrumpton in the S.W., where it receives the Erewash from the N. and the Soar from the S., flows N.E. past Nottingham and Newark, where it takes a more northerly direction, forming the N. part of the E. boundary of the county till it reaches the Isle of Axholm (Lincolnshire). The Soar forms for a short distance the boundary with Leicestershire, and the Erewash the boundary with Derbyshire. The Idle, which is formed of several streams in Sherwood Forest, flows N. to Bawtry, and then turns E. to the Trent.

Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 539,756 acres, with a population in 1901 of 514,578. The area of the administrative county is 540,123. The county contains the city and county and municipal borough of Nottingham (pop. 239,743), and the municipal boroughs of Retford or East Retford (12,340), Mansfield (21,445) and Newark (14,992). The urban districts are Arnold (8757), Beeston (8960), Carlton (10.041), Eastwood (4815), Hucknall Torkard (15,250), Hucknall under Huthwaite (4076), Kirkby in Ashfield (10,318), Mansfield Woodhouse (4877), Sutton in Ashfield (14,862), Warsop (2132), West Bridgford (7018), Worksop (16,112). For parliamentary purposes the ancient county is divided into four divisions (Bassetlaw, Newark, Rushcliffe and Mansfield), each returning one member; and the parliamentary borough of Nottingham returns one member for each of its three divisions. There are one court of quarter sessions and seven petty sessional divisions. The boroughs of Newark and Nottingham have separate commissions of the peace, also separate courts of quarter sessions;