Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/387

Rh RUTLAND. 37fi RUTLANDSHIRE. Near the shore is the Brow well and hamlet where the poet Burns spent several of the last weeks of his life. At an early period salt was manufactured here, which was made exempt from taxes by a grant of James VI. It is a burgh of barony, and is privileged to hold markets and fairs, by a grant in favour of Sir John Murray in 1509. This par. is in the presb. of Annan and synod of Dumfries. The stipend of the minister is about 262. There are a Free church, two parochial schools, and a parochial library ; also a grammar school, endowed with 300 merks, Scotch. The Karl of Mansfield is principal landowner. RUTLAND, an islet near Aran Island, co. Donegal, Ireland, 4 miles N.W. of Dunglow. RUTLANDSHIRE, an inland co. and the smallest in England, bounded N. by Leicestershire and Lincoln- shire, E. by Lincolnshire, S. by Northamptonshire, and W. by Leicestershire. It lies between 51 31' and 52 46' N. lat., and between 23' and 49' W. long. Its extreme length from N.E. to S.W. is nearly 20 miles, and its greatest breadth from N.W. to S.E. is about 16 miles. Its area is 150 square miles, or 95,805 acres, nearly all of which is arable. The population in 1851 was 22,983 ; in 1861 it was 21,861, occupying 4,641 houses 183 were uninhabited, and 16 were in process of construction. The amount assessed for property tax in 1861 was 160,120 ; the total amount, according to the poor-law valuation, was 150,012, and the net rateable value was estimated at 135,317. From a his- torical point of view Rutland is uninteresting. It seems (o have formed a portion of the kingdom of the Coritani, and to have been included in the province of F/avia Ctesariensis on the conquest of Britain by the Romans, and a Roman road named Ermine Street was formed across the eastern side of the county : this road may still be traced in a bank about 4 feet high. Other Roman remains are preserved at Great Casterton, where a mili- tary station formerly existed on a well-chosen position, guarded on the S. and W. by the river Wash. The county or shire was under the Saxon heptarchy included with the kingdom of Mercia. It is referred to in Domes- day Book as Roteland, and was crown land, having been bequeathed by Edward the Confessor to his queen Edith, and on her decease to Westminster Abbey. Under Wil- liam the Conqueror the lands 'were divided among his Norman followers, but the tithes remained to the abbey. From this time till the reign of Henry II. it was crown manor, being merged in the adjoining shires of North- ampton and Nottingham, and in the reign of John it is first named as a county, and formed part of the dower of his queen Isabel. In 1468, during the wars of the rival Roses, Edward IV. gained a signal victory over the followers of Henry VI., under Sir Robert Wells, at Hornfield, in this county. The flying soldiers threw off their coats that they might more readily escape, and the battle is consequently known as Lose Coat Field. Ed- ward, son of Edmund of Langley, and grandson of Edward III., is the first known Earl of Rutland, though a person is referred to under that title in the reign of Henry I. The race became extinct on the death of the young son of Richard Duke of York, after the battle of Wakefield, in 1460, when he was stabbed by Lord Clif- ford, who had previously killed his father ; but it was revived under Henry VIII. in favour of the family of Koos, and was subsequently conferred on the Manners family. In 1703 it was raised to a dukedom, in which form it still continues. The general aspect of the county is diversified, abounding in valleys and gently- rising hills. The Vale of Catmose, which occupies the centre of the county, and in which stands the town of Oakham, is the largest and most fertile in Rutland. It forms part^of the basin of the river Welland, and extends from the W. to the centre of the county. To- wards its eastern limits are slight elevations separated by vales about half-a-mile in breadth. The effect is much improved by the numbers of private residences, which arc perhaps more frequent here than in any equal extent of country in England. The principal rivers are the Welland, the Gwash, or Wash, and the Eye. The Welland forms the south-eastern boundary of the county along the Northamptonshire border, and then passes into Lincolnshire. It is not navigable above Stamford in the last-named county. The Gwash, a tributary to the Welland, flows across the centre of Rutland. The Eye, which forms the boundary with Leicestershire on the N., also flows into the Welland at Rockingham. The Oakham canal runs in a winding course N.W. from Oakham, and joins the Melton Mowbray Navigation near Melton Mowbray. It is 15 miles long, of which nearly half belongs to this county. The principal roads are the road from London to Melton Mowbray, passing Upping- hain and Oakham, and the great N. road, which runs through the eastern edge of the county. Other roads are numerous, and kept in excellent order. The Rugby and Peterborough line, and a branch of the Midland railway from Syston to Peterborough, pass through the county, and afford easy communication with the rest of the country. Rutlandshire is included in the district occu- pied by the lower formation of the oolitic series. The prevailing rock is a close-grained limestone ; quarries of good building-stone and of limestone, both hard and soft, are found in many places. A substratum of the lower oolite is found on the N. and E., with a thin eoil, which has been much improved by sheep and turnip farming ; and in other parts lias prevails, the soil of which is rich clay and loam. In the S. and S.E. districts clay of shallow staple is mostly found on limestone rock, and in other places a strong red loam resting on blue clay. The name of the county is said to have been given in consequence of this reddish colour of the soil, which also seems to indicate the presence of iron ore, as also do several chalybeate springs through the county ; hut no further traces have yet been discovered. The climate is mild and healthy. The soil is almost universally loamy and suited for agriculture, which is extensively practised on the most improved principles. The W. of the county is chiefly under grass, and the eastern parts are devoted to tillage. In 1836 there were not 30 acres of waste land, and now scarcely an aero is lost. The produce is principally barley, but wheat and oats are also largely grown, and a considerable extent is laid down in permanent pasture. Great attention is paid to the rearing of cattle and sheep, for which last the county is celebrated. The lias clay furnishes the richest pastures, which will produce, in the opinion of some graziers, 40 to 50 stone of meat per acre in each year. The low meadow lands through which the Welland and Gwash flow are liable to floods, which considerably increase their fertility. The sheep most approved of are of the improved Leicester breed, but some graziers prefer South Downs. The cattle are almost exclusively short horns, but North Devons, Hereford, and Scotch breeds are also met with. Horses are for the most part large and strong, the Suffolk punches being much liked ; and tho hogs fattened for market are mostly of the Suffolk and Berkshire breeds. Dairies are not numerous ; butter is prepared for the London market. Large quantities of cheese are made and sold as Stilton. The farms are generally small and held from year to year, and farm buildings, though old fashioned, are neat and substantial. The manufactures are small and unim- portant ; a considerable trade is done in corn and coals. Of the population over twenty years of age in 1861, 381, or 3 per cent., belonged to the liberal professions ; 5,091, or 397 per cent., were employed in domestic occupations ; 183, or 1-4 per cent., were engaged in commerce; 4,334, or 33'9 per cent., in agriculture ; 2,211, or 17'3 per cent., at various industrial pursuits, and 599, or 4'7 per cent., were unclassed. Several coppices and tracts of wood- lands are scattered through the county, which was formerly distinguished for extensive native woods and plantations ; but these are now almost wholly destroyed, and the plantings are generally confined to ornamental copses and demesnes. They still, however, occupy nearly 3,000 acres. Seafield, or Lyfield forest, once occupied the greater part of the soke of Oakham, and Beaumont Chase, adjoining, extended over a consider- able portion of Martmsley hundred. For civil purposes