afterwards Duke of Lancaster, &c. 1353. Besides the above, there were several Free-Chapels, Hospitals, Preceptories, Chantries, &c. founded in different parts of the county.

At the time of compiling that great national work, the Domes day Survey, Leicestershire was divided into four Wapentakes, or Hundreds: Framland, Guthlaxton, Gartre, and Goscote; and thus it continued till the twentieth of Edward the Third, when one of these was subdivided into Guthlaxton and Sparkenhoe; and afterterwards that of Goscote was divided into two, and denominated, from their relative situations, East and West. The whole of these are within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the See of Lincoln, and in the province of Canterbury. The county is under one Archdeacon, and six Deaneries. Burton, who published "a Description of Leicestershire," in 1622, treats of 115 Rectories, 81 Vicarages, and 105 Chapels, (33 in ruins) besides 75 Villages, Granges, Manors, &c. Ectou, in his Thesaurus, mentions 115 Rectories, 85 Vicarages, (200 Parishes,) and 110 Chapels, which were donatives, peculiars, perpetual curacies, &c. "but several of the chapels are now down, and some of the hamlets have not the trace of a dwelling *"

Mr. Nichols states, from the Domesday Survey, that the whole county, at the time that record was compiled, contained 34,000 inhabitants: and, according to the following table, this number was augmented to 130,080 in the year 1801, when the parliament ordered an account of the population of every county, &c. to be printed.

*Nichols's History, Vol. II. pt. 1. p. 1,

POPULATION,

POPULATION, &c. OF LEICESTERSHIRE,

AS PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF PARLIAMENT, IN 1801.

Uninhabited,

The circumference and extent of the county have not been satis

factorily defined. Mr. Nichols states the former to be "about 150 miles," whilst Mr. Monk* sets the same down at " about ninety-six miles." The latter writer also estimates its superficial contents at" 560,000 acres of land." In a table now before me, drawn up carefully from the best maps of the county, the number of square statute miles is set down at 816: and the acres at 522,240; by which calculation Leicestershire appears to be the twenty-sixth

in

*General View of the Agriculture of the County of Leicester," 4to.

in a scale of forty, where Yorkshire is the first, and Rutlandshire the last.

RIVERS. This county has not any rivers of importance; but those that pass through it "are convenient and ornamental." The chief are the Soar, the Swift, the Welland, the Avon, the Wreke, and the Anchor. The Soar, anciently called Leire, the largest of these, rises from two heads, or sources, in the south-western part of the county, and after receiving a small tributary stream near Whetstone, passes by the west and north sides of the town of Leicester. Thence it continues almost due north, and after passing close by Mount-sorel, receives two or three small rivers, and disembogues itself into the Treut a little north of the village of Radcliffe. From this place to Stanford, about a mile and half north of Loughborough, it constitutes the natural boundary be tween this county and Nottinghamshire; and in this short course of about nine miles, are five artificial cuts, or canals, made to avoid the windings of the river, &c. In the year 1634, Thomas Skipwith, Esq. obtained a grant from King Charles to make this river “portable,” or navigable, for boats and barges, from the Trent to Leicester. By an act of parliament in 1776, the river Soar was allowed to be made navigable from the river into which it empties itself to Bishop's-Meadow, within the liberty of Garendọn; aud a navigable cut was at the same time authorised to be made and maintained thence, near, or up and into The Rushes at Loughborough. This plan being accomplished in 1778, a canal was then opened at Loughborough, supplied by several neighbouring streams, and communicating with the Soar; which now brings up coals, &c. at a very easy price*.”

The Welland, according to Sir Thomas Cave, " hath his head at Sibertoft;" but, by Prior's Survey of the county, it appears to have three or four sources, or heads, near the south-east angle of the county; all of which unite at Medbourn, and leave the county between Caldecot and Rockingham, where another river joins it from the north. These bound the county. Near Husbands Bosworth,

*Nichols's History, &c. Vol. I. p. 140.

worth, the Avon has its source, and running westerly, forms the outline of the county to Dovebridge, where it enters Warwickshire and continues till it unites with the Severn, near Tewkesbury. Thus the latter river flows to the Irish Sea, or St. George's Channel; and the Welland, which has its source in the same part of this county, empties its waters into the North Sea, or German Ocean.

The Wreke, Wrekin, or Wreak, rises in the parish of Abkettleby, in the eastern part of the county, and passing by Welly, joins its waters with the Eie, or Eye, whose united streams fall into the Soar near Mount-sorel.

Leicestershire being more an agricultural than a commercial district, and deprived of any particular mines, has not equally participated with many other English counties in CANAL NAVIGATION. Some plans for this purpose have been projected, at different periods, and a few have been executed. In 1782, a bill was presented to parliament for making a navigable canal from Chilvers-Coton, in Warwickshire, to pass by Burbach, Hinckley, Sutton-Cheynell, Shenton, Market-Bosworth, Carlton, Congeston, Shakerston, and Snareston, in Leicestershire, whence it was to proceed through some parts of Derbyshire, and terminate on Ashby-Woulds, in this county. The object of this canal was to open a water carriage communication between the coal-mines on the Woulds and the several places already mentioned; also to facilitate the conveyance of lime, and goods of different kinds, and join with the Oxford and Coventry canals. "This scheme, being opposed by a variety of interests, failed of success." Another scheme, for opening a canal communication between the towns of Loughborough and Leicester, was strenuously proposed by some gentlemen in the county, in June 1785; again in 1786, and, in 1789, a bill for that purpose was introduced into the House of Commons, but "thrown out" on the second reading. In the year 1790, another public meeting, supported by Lord Rawdon, now the Earl of Moira, took place, and an act was obtained in the following year," for making and maintaining a navigable communication between the Loughborough canal, and the town of Leicester; and for making and maintaining a communication by rail

ways,

ways, or stone-roads, and water-levels, from several places and mines to the said Loughborough canal." The proprietors are styled in the act, "the company and proprietors of the Leicester Navigation;" and are fully empowered to carry their plan into immediate execution, under certain restrictions and provisions, particularly specified in the act.

In the year 1791, another act of parliament was obtained "for making navigable the rivers Wreak and Eye," from their junction, to join the former navigation. This plan was chiefly intended to open a water communication between the town of Melton-Mowbray, and the river Trent, for the conveyance of coal, lime-stone, lime, lead, &c.

In the year 1793, the royal assent was given to a bill for making "the Oakham Canal," from a town of that name, in Rutlandshire, to Melton-Mowbray. To complete this, the proprietors were authorised to raise the sum of 56,000l. in shares of 1001. each, with power to raise 20,000l. more, if such sum should be required. Besides the above, other bills have been planned and prepared for making other canals in the county; and several petitions were presented to parliament, by different land-owners, and the farmers of the district, against the passing of such bills*.

Leicestershire is

SOIL and natural CHARACTERISTICS. mostly a flat county, and is chiefly appropriated to the grazing system. It has obtained peculiar celebrity among agriculturalists for a breed of sheep, that is generally distinguished by the name of the shire and the late ROBERT BAKEWELL, of Dishley, acquired for himself and the county much popularity, by the experiments and improvements he made in the breed of cattle and sheep, and in different agricultural pursuits. In a subsequent part of the work will be given a few biographical particulars of this gentleman, whose successful plans, and zealous perseverance,

excited

* In Mr. Nichols's elaborate and comprehensive History, the reader will find abstracts of several of the bills which were obtained for making the dif ferent navigable cuts, &c. in this county.