SCENERY OF LEICESTERSHIRE. €3 



conspicuous in every walk. These woods also abound in some 

 places with the Bear's Garlic, the Red Campion, Ragged Robin, 

 and Herb Robert. 



" I ought not to omit mentioning Grooby Pool, which is de- 

 scribed by Leland, a distinguished antiquary of the sixteenth 

 century, as a ' faire and large pole.' He says, ' there is a faire 

 and large parke by the place, a vi miles in circumpasse, there 

 is also a poor village by the place, (Grooby, this place gives title 

 to the Greys, the present Earl of Stamford is Lord Grey of 

 Grooby) — and a little broke by it, and a quarter of a mile from 

 the place in the bottom, there is a faire and large pole as lightly 

 is in Leycestreshire, there issueth a broket out of this lake that 

 after committs by Grooby and there dryvith a mylle and after 

 resortith to the Sore River.' Grooby Pool in its present state 

 contains about forty acres, and is somewhat less than a mile 

 in circumference. It was formerly much larger, containing 

 between seventy and eighty acres, and extending, it is supposed, 

 to the Ashby-de-la-Zouch road ; but successive encroachments 

 of reeds and other aquatic plants have reduced it to its present 

 size. It is of an oval form, with a few slightly indented bays 

 and projecting points of syenitic rock on its margin. Its ut- 

 most length, drawn in a line, from the flood-gates, through the 

 island, to the opposite shore, is about 380 yards. It is in few 

 places more than ten or twelve feet deep, and the greater por- 

 tion is much more shallow. In the dry summer of 1S26, it 

 was drained very low, for the purpose of cleaning it out to the 

 extent of two or three acres, where the water-plants had nearly 

 choked it up. 



" Bradgate Park forms the south-eastern boundary of Charn- 

 wood Forest, and was in early times commonly called the 

 ' Waste.' Leland says it is ' a forest of xx miles or more in 

 cumpasse, having plenty of woode, the most part belonging to 

 the Marquisse of Dorset, the reste to the King, and the Earl 

 of Huntingdon.' The park in its present state is about seven 

 miles in circumference, and formed into several divisions by 

 means of stone-walls, the materials of which are found upon 

 the spot. It is mostly covered with fern, Pteris aquilina, and 

 the projecting bare and abrupt rocks, rising out here and there, 



