RUT 



R U T 



but, like moll undertakings which owe their origin to parlia- 

 mentary grants, it has proved unfuccefsful, and remains a 

 monument of the folly of expecting to force trade by 

 fuch means. The fum expended was 20,000/. by par- 

 ::t, and as much more raifed by mortgage on the 

 eftate of colonel Conyngham ; a man who, however he 

 might be millaken in his calculations of advantage, was 

 too honourable and patriotic to be fufpe&ed ot an inten- 

 flead. Rutland is 153 miles N.W. from Dublin. 

 N. lat. 54 : 56'. W. long. 8° 18'. Journals of the Houfe 

 of C. 



RUTLANDSHIRE, one of the central counties of 

 ided on the north, north-weft, well, and 

 fouth-weft, bv Leicellerfhire ; on the fouth and fouth-eait 

 by Northamptonrhire ; and on the eall and norlh-eaft by 

 the countv of Lincoln. It is the fmalleft (hire in the king- 

 dom, cxtep.ding only about 18 miles in length and 15 in 

 breadth ; its circumference being 60 miles, which gives an 

 area of 200 fquare miles, or i2S,ooo acres. According to 

 the parliamentary returns of 181 1, it contains 3417 houfes 

 and 16,380 inhabitants. 



The ii'ijlory of this county, in remote times, is fo inti- 

 mately connected with that of the furrounding counties, 

 that they can Scarcely be feparated. Previous to the arrival 

 of the Romans it formed part of the territories of the 

 Coritani ; and after the latter were forced to fubmit to 

 the, imperial authority, it was included in the province of 

 Flavia-Cadarijnlis. During the Saxon heptarchy it formed 

 part of the kingdom of Mercia, under eighteen (ucceflive 

 monarohs ; and when the Saxon kingdoms became united 

 into one, it leems to have belonged to the crown ; as we 

 find that Edward the Confeffor bequeathed it to his queen 

 Edith, and after her demife to Weftmintter Abbey. His 

 will, which is it ill extant, lays, " I will, that after the de- 

 ccafe of queen Eadgith my confort, Rotelond, with all its 

 appurtenances, be given to my monaftery of St. Peter, and 

 be furrendered, without delay, to the abbot and monks there 

 ferving God, for ever." So anxious, indeed, was the king 

 to fecure this obituary grant to the abbey, that he endea- 

 voured to render more certain the obfervance of his will by 

 a kind of anterior deed of gift, bearing date in the 251I1 

 year of his reign. This grant, however, was but of fluirl 

 duration, for when William the Conqueror afcended the 

 throne, he refumed poiiellion of Rutlandshire as crown land, 

 and merely allowing the monaftery to receive the tithes, di- 

 vided it among fome of his neareft relatives, and his moll 

 powerful adherents. Thefe iirft Norman grantees were 

 Robert Malct, great chamberlain of England ; Gilbert de 

 Gaunt ; carl Hugh ; Aubrey, tlv clerk, and leveral others. 

 Some manors were likewife granted to the conqueror's niece 

 Judith, afterwards countefs of Huntingdon ; and to Maud, 

 countefs of Albemarle, his half filler. Confiderable pof- 

 feffions, however, were referved to the crown; and in the 

 reign of Edward II. it pi hundreds of Martiniley, 



Alllo, and Eafl hundred, all of which that monarch grs 

 to the lady Margaret, wife of Piers de Gavefton, duke of 

 Cornwall, to be held by her during the royal pleafure. The 

 hundred oi \Vi as then rty of Guy de 



Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, but his fon Thomas being 

 a minor at his lather's death, Edward gave that eftate to 

 Hugh Spencer the elder, on the pretence of it • bung in 

 laii faction of a debt due to him of 6770/. During thole 

 tranfaiflions, the prefent hundred of O 

 mentioned: it is therefore conjettured 1 re fbi ed 

 ot Martinfley hundred. 



The alpeel of the country in Rutlandfhirc is, generally 

 fpeaking, very beautiful, being much diverfified bv gently 



Vol. XXX. 



riling hills, running call and well, with vallies about half a 

 mile in breadth intervening, fo that every three or four 

 miles prefents a new view to the eye of the traveller. The 

 principal vale is that of Catmofc, in the centre of the county, 

 which Camden defcribes as " a plealant and fertile valley, 

 perhaps from Coet Maes, which fignifiea in Britifti, a woody 

 plain." On the north fide of this vale the ground rifes, 

 and level with its fummit a flat tract extends lor feveral 

 miles to the northward, forming a kind of table land, look- 

 ing down upon the fertile and well-wooded plains of Lei- 

 celler, Nottingham, and Lincoln-fiiires. The fouthern dif- 

 trift confills, in a great meafure, of one widely expanded 

 vale, moilly open land, which ftretches into Northampton- 

 shire ; and on tlu- weftern borders, the remains of the old 

 foreft of Lielield are well wooded, and fink in the dillance 

 into the Leicellerfliire plains. 



The climate of this county is generally reckoned good 

 and healthy, but has no peculiarity demanding notice. The 

 foil is various, but is, upon the whole, fertile. The moll 

 prevalent kind is a Itrong reddifh loam, intermixed with keal, 

 lying upon an under-llratum of blue clay ; but almoft every 

 farm has a mixture of poor clay, hazel earth, white ftony 

 land, black clay and gravelly clay. This great variation of 

 foils within a fmall fpace caufes each fort to be much more 

 valuable than it would be, were one kind prevalent through- 

 out an entire lordlhip. 



The modes of agriculture adopted here differ, as may be 

 fuppofed, in fome degree on the different ioils, and alfo on 

 the inclofed and uninclofed lands. Upon the uninclofed 

 arable lands, except upon fome of the light foils, the old 

 courle of two crops and a fallow is yet pradlifed. On the 

 light foil, a turnip crop is fubllituted for the fallow, and bar- 

 ley i3 fown inftead of wheat for the enfuing crop. The 

 fecond crops on both foils are peas, or peas and beans. A 

 few farmers in the eallern dillridt fow barley and broad 

 clover after fallow, mowing the clover for a ■iecond year':', 

 crop, and feeding it oil' with fheep when it is conlidered as 

 proper for a courfe of wheat. The farmers have an idea 

 that winter ploughing is hurtful to the land, and confe- 

 quently they lay their manure on the fallows, where it re- 

 mains till the fpring. 



The inclofed lands confift moilly of the light foils, on 

 limeltone bafes ; and of the heavy red loam. Thefe arc 

 principally under the Norfolk hufbandry of four years' rota- 

 tion, and without feeding off, except in the turnip crops ; 

 but another mode is likewife praclifed, of taking two crops 

 of fpring corn after breaking up the clover, then turnips, 

 next barley with rye-grafs and clover, after which there are 

 three or four years' Sheep-feeding, when it is broken up 

 1 tor fpring corn. The firft of thefe methods is bene- 

 ficial for railing a large crop of wheat, and the fecond is 

 equally advantageous for fliecp flock, and hence each has its 

 warm advocates among the farmers. 



. 1- are va iou ; freehold 

 and copyhold, but i ral. A tew farmers 



hold their lands by 1 ales of feven or twenty-one years' dura- 

 tion ; but by far the greater proportion of land is held at 

 will from year to '. Rents, in 1806, a ..bout 



1/. it. per acre, but they are now much increafed. Above 

 three-fourths of the parifhes are 1 om lythes, 



r by modus, or being made tree. Farms differ much 

 in li/.e, running from 15 to 640 acres, but the large farms 

 w in number. 

 R.ef] iralogy of Rutlandshire there ; 3 n - 



pt that there is at Ketton " a 

 kind ot ftone very proper and famous for buildings;" and 

 in leveral plai lone, conlilling of a hard and loft 



^ (.: Species, 



