Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/989

 the peasantry and the labouring classes. At the same time its members looked for a regeneration of the Church, and the rescue of both the Church and Ireland from the trammels inherited from the Whig predominance of the 18th century. Manners made an extensive tour of inspection in the industrial parts of N. England, in the course of which he and his friend Smythe expounded their views with a brilliancy which frequently extorted compliments from the leaders of the Manchester school. In 1843 he supported Lord Grey’s motion for an inquiry into the condition of England, the serious disaffection of the working classes of the north being a subject to which he was constantly drawing the attention of parliament. Among other measures that he urged were the disestablishment of the Irish Church, the modification of the Mortmain Acts, and the resumption of regular diplomatic relations with the Vatican. In the same year he issued in pamphlet form a strong Plea for National Holydays. In 1844 Lord John vigorously supported the Ten-hours Bill, which, though strongly opposed by Bright, Cobden, and other members of the Manchester school, was ultimately passed in May 1847. In October during that year he took part in, and spoke at, the brilliant soirée held at the Manchester Athenaeum under the presidency of Disraeli. A few days later he and his friends attended a festival at Bingley, in Yorkshire, to celebrate the allotment of land for gardens to working men, a step which, through the agency of his father, he had done a great deal to further. About the same time Smythe dedicated to him his Historic Fancies as to “the Sir Philip Sidney of our generation.” Manners figured as Lord Henry Sidney in Disraeli’s Coningsby, and not a few of his ideas are represented as those of Egremont in Sybil and Waldershare in Endymion. But the disruption of the Young England party was already impending. Lord John’s support to Peel’s decision to increase the Maynooth grant in 1845 led to a difference with Disraeli. Divergences of opinion with regard to Newman’s secession from the English Church produced further defections in the ranks, and the rupture was completed by Smythe acquiescing in Peel’s conversion to Free Trade. Lord John produced another volume of verse, known as English Ballads, chiefly patriotic and historical, in 1850. In the same year he wrote the letterpress for an atlas of coloured views by J. C. Schetky; and he published several pamphlets, one on the Church of England in the Colonies, in 1851. During the three short administrations of Lord Derby (1851, 1858, and 1866) he sat in the cabinet as first commissioner of the office of works. On the return of the Conservatives to power in 1874 he became postmaster-general in Disraeli’s administration, and was made G.C.B. on his retirement in 1880. He was again postmaster-general in Lord Salisbury’s administration, 1885–86, and was head of the department when sixpenny telegrams were introduced. Finally, in the Conservative government of 1886–92 he was chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. He had succeeded to the dukedom of Rutland in March 1888, upon the death of his elder brother. He died on the 4th of August 1906 at Belvoir Castle.

He was succeeded as 8th duke by his eldest son (b. 1852), who had been Conservative M.P. for the Melton division of Leicestershire from 1888 to 1895; and whose wife, as marchioness of Granby, became well known as a clever artist, a volume of her Portraits of various distinguished men and women being published in 1899.

 RUTLAND, a midland county of England, bounded N. and E. by Lincolnshire, N. and W. by Leicestershire, and S.E. by Northamptonshire. It is the smallest county in England, having an area of 152 sq. m. The surface is pleasantly undulating, ridges of high ground running E. and W., separated by rich valleys. The principal of these valleys is the vale of Catmose, in the Oakham district, to the N. of which rises a tableland commanding wide views into Leicestershire. The vale maintains its reputation for richness of soil assigned to it by Drayton in his Poly-Olbion. This, the N.W. part of the county, is also the district of the well-known Cottesmore hunt. The royal forest of Lyfield, or Leafield, which included the greater part of the hundreds of Oakham and Martinsley, once extended over the county between Oakham and Uppingham, and patches of it still exist. To the S. of Uppingham it was known as Beaumont Chase. The river Welland, flowing N.E., forms the S.E. boundary of Rutland with Northamptonshire. The Gwash, or Wash, which rises in Leicestershire, flows eastward through the centre of the county, and just beyond its borders in Lincolnshire joins the Welland. The Chater, also rising in Leicestershire and flowing E., enters the Welland about 2 m. from Stamford. The Eye, forming part of the S.W. boundary, is also tributary to the Welland.

Geology.—The county consists entirely of Jurassic formations, viz. of Liassic and Oolitic strata—the harder beds, chiefly limestone containing iron, forming the hills and escarpments, and the clay-beds the slopes of the valleys. The oldest rocks are those belonging to the Lower Lias in the N.W. The bottom of the vale of Catmose is formed of marlstone rock belonging to the Middle Lias, and its sides are composed of long slopes of Upper Lias clay. The Upper Lias also covers a large area in the W. of the county, and is worked for bricks at Luffenham and Seaton. The lowest of the Oolitic formations is the Northampton sand, which has yielded iron ore at Manton and Cottesmore. The Lincolnshire Oolitic limestone prevails in the E. of the county N. of Stamford. It is largely quarried for building purposes, the quarries at Ketton, Clipsham, and Casterton being famous beyond the boundaries of the county. The Great Oolite and Estuarine beds prevail towards the S.E. Glacial deposits of boulder clay, sand and gravel, mask the older strata in many places.

Industries.—In the E. and S.E. districts the soil is light and shallow. In the other districts it consists chiefly of a tenacious but fertile loam, and in the vale of Catmose the soil is either clay or loam, or a mixture of the two. The prevailing redness, which colours even the streams, is owing to the ferruginous limestone carried down from the slopes of the hills. The name of the county is by some authorities derived from this characteristic of the soil but the explanation is doubtful. The E. of the county is chiefly under tillage and the W. in grass. Nearly nine-tenths of the total area (a high proportion) is under cultivation, wheat being by far the most important grain crop. Turnips and swedes occupy the greater part of the area under green crops. The rearing of sheep (Leicesters and South Downs) and cattle (Shorthorns) occupies the chief attention of the farmer. Large quantities of cheese are manufactured and sold as Stilton. Agriculture is practically the only industry of importance, but there is some quarrying and boot-making.

The main line of the Great Northern railway intersects the N.E. corner, and branches of that system, of the London & North-Western, and of the Midland railways, serve the remainder of the county.

Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient and administrative county is 97,273 acres, with a population in 1891 of 20,659, and in 1901 of 19,709. The county contains five hundreds. There are no municipal boroughs or urban districts. The county town is Oakham (pop. 3294), and other towns are Uppingham (2588) and Ketton (1041). The county is in the midland circuit, and assizes are held at Oakham. It has one court of quarter sessions, but is not divided for petty-sessional purposes. There are 58 civil parishes. The county is in the diocese of Peterborough, and contains 42 ecclesiastical parishes or districts, wholly or in part. It returns one member to parliament.

History.—The district which is now Rutland was probably occupied by a tribe of Middle Angles in the 6th or 7th century, and was subsequently absorbed in the kingdom of Mercia. Although mentioned by name in the will of Edward the Confessor, who bequeathed it to his queen Edith for life with remainder to Westminster Abbey, Rutland did not rank as a county at the time of the Domesday Survey, in which the term Rutland is only applied to that portion assessed under Nottinghamshire, while the S.E. portion of the modern county is surveyed under Northamptonshire, where it appears as the wapentake of Wiceslea. Rutland is first mentioned as a distinct county under the administration of a separate sheriff in the pipe roll of 1159, but as late as the 14th century it is designated “Rutland Soke” in the Vision of Piers Plowman, and the curious connexion with Nottinghamshire, a county which does not adjoin it at any point, was maintained up to the reign of Henry III., when the sheriff of Nottingham was by statute appointed also escheator in Rutland. Of the five modern hundreds of Rutland, Alstoe and Martinsley appear in the Domesday Survey of Nottinghamshire as wapentakes, Martinsley at that date including the modern hundred of Oakham Soke; East hundred