1821.] Compendium of County History-Rutland. COMPENDIUM OF COUNTY HISTORY. RUTLAND. "Love not thyself the less, although the least thou art; SITUATION AND EXTENT. 11 Boundaries, North-East and East, Lincoln; North-West and West, Leicester; South, Northampton. Greatest length, 18; greatest breadth, 15; circumference, 58; square, 200 miles. Province, Canterbury. Diocese, Peterborough, excepting the parishes of Empingham, Ketton cum Tixover, and Lyddington cum Caldecote, in Lincoln. Circuit, Midland. ANTIENT STATE AND REMAINS. British Inhabitants, Coritani. Roman Province, Flavia Cæsariensis. Station, Bridge Chesterton, but Antiquaries disagree as to its antient name. Saron Heptarchy, Mercia. Antiquities. Oakham Castle and Hall; Church and Hospital.-Churches of Empingham, Essenden (its South door-way the most antient specimen of architecture in this county), Exton (the handsomest church in Rutland), Ketton (spire 180 feet high), Stretton, Tickencote, and Tynwall. Monuments in Ashwell and (of the Digbys) in Drystoke Churches. Lyddington Hospital, originally a palace of the Bishops of Lincoln. Preston manor house. The first time a Peer of the realm comes within the precinct of the manor of Oakham, he forfeits a shoe from his horse, to be nailed on the castle-gate; and should be refuse it, or a compensation in money, the bailiff is empowered to take it by force. This custom originated at the first erection of the castle in the reign of Henry II. as a token of the territorial power of its Lord, Walcheline de Ferrers, whose ancestor, who came over with the Conqueror, bore, Argent, six horse-shoes pierced Sable; designative of his office of Master of the Horse to the Dukes of Normandy. At Ryall was buried St. Tibba, a virgin anchorite at Godmanchester, who was the patroness of Falconers; and the present hunter's cry of "Tantivy" is probably a corruption of an old ejaculation for the assistance of "Sancta Tibba."-Ryall was the residence of Waltheof, the powerful Earl of Northumberland and Huntingdon, the first person recorded as suffering decapitation in this kingdom, being beheaded at Winchester in 1075. Tickencote Church, being in a state of complete decay, was rebuilt in 1792, by Mrs. Eliza Wingfield (buried in it 1794), but many interesting remains of antiquity were scrupulously preserved, and the modern erection is a complete representation of the antient building. PRESENT STATE AND APPEARANCE. Rivers. Chater, Cotsmore, Guash or Wash, Little Eye, Welland, Inland Navigation. Oakham Canal. Lake. Oakham Canal Reservoir, near Langham. Eminences 12 Compendium of County History-Rutland. [Jan. Eminences and Views. Manton, the highest ground in the county; Preston and Bee Hills; Beaumont Chase; Burley House; Rakesborough Hill; Teigh Village; Wissendine Hills; Witchley Common. Natural Curiosities. Catmose Vale: Lyfield Forest, including Beaumont Chase: red ochry land about Glaiston, whence by many authors is derived the name of Rutland, quasi Red land: numerous marine exuviæ in the lime-stone: Tolthorpe medicinal water and chalybeate springs between Teigh and Market Overton (the strongest in the county); at Hambledon, Lyndon, Martin's-thorpe, Normanton, and North Luffenham. Public Edifices. Oakham Gaol; School; Hospital; and Market Cross. Uppingham School, and Hospital. Seats. Burley-on-the-hill, Earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham, Lord Lieutenant of the County. Preston, William Belgrave, esq. Peerage. Rutland dukedom and earldom to Manners.-Of Essenden, Cecil barony to Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury. Members to Parliament. For the county, 2. Produce. Corn, particularly barley. Cheese, some of the rich kind called Stilton (from having been first sold at an inn at Stilton in Huntingdonshire), is made in the parish of Leafield, and in Catmore Vale. Timber. Lime-stone. Building stone. Manufactures. None of importance. Stocking knitting; a few tammies. POPULATION. Hundreds 4, and Soke 1. Whole Parishes 52, and part of Parishes 1. Market towns 2. Houses 3402. Inhabitants. Males 7931; females 8449; total, 16,380. Families employed in agriculture, 2025; in trade, 1028; in neither, 505; total, 3558. Baptisms. Males 247; females 222.-Marriages, 113.-Burials, males 145; females 153. Places having not less than 1000 Inhabitants. 1016. Near Essenden, the Danes at first repulsed by the inhabitants and the men of Stamford, under the Baron of Essenden; but the Saxons being disordered in the pursuit, the Danes were finally victorious. 1381. At Burley-on-the-hill, the warlike Henry Spencer, Bp. of Norwich, assembled the troops with which he defeated the Norfolk insurgents under John Litester, during the time of Wat Tyler's insurrection. 1470. At Horne, April 27, Lancastrians, principally Lincolnshire men, defeated, and 13,000 slain by Edward IV. As the fugitives cast off their coats which impeded them in their flight, this engagement has been styled the Battle of Lose-coat-field. The Lancastrian commander, Sir Thomas Wells, and 1821.] Compendium of County History-Rutland. 13 and Sir Thomas de Launde were taken prisoners, and shortly afterwards beheaded. EMINENT NATIVES. Barker, Thomas, philosophical and theological writer, Lyndon, 1722. Wing, Vincent, author of Almanack called by his name, Luffenham, 1619. MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. At Burley-on-the-bill, James I. visited his favourite George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, when Ben Jonson's masque of "The Gypsies" was first performed, all the actors being noblemen. In 1606, when Charles I. was on a visit here, Jeffrey Hudson, the dwarf of Oakham, was served up to table in a cold pie. The park contains 1085 acres. The terrace is 300 yards long, and 12 broad. The front of the house, exclusive of the colonnade connecting it with the offices, is 196 feet long. The painted saloon which extends the whole breadth of the house, is 66 feet long, 36 wide, and 55 high. The house contains many valuable portraits and other paintings*. In Exton Church are many very sumptuous monuments, of which the most remarkable are those of Robert Keylway, lawyer, 1580; Sir James Harrington, progenitor of very many noble families, 1591; Anne Lady Bruce (in a shroud and coffin), 1627; Baptist Noel, Viscount Campden (by Grinling Gibbons, cost 10007.), 1683; Lieut.-gen. Noel (by Nollekens), 1766; and Baptist Noel, fourth Earl of Gainsborough, and his lady (by Nollekens), she died 1771. A great part of Exton Hall, which contained a fine collection of paintings, was burnt down, May 24, 1810. The deer park contains 1510 acres. At Lyndon was buried WILLIAM WHISTON, divine and mathematician, 1752. North Luffenham was the rectory, residence, and burial-place of Robert Johnson, Archdeacon of Leicester, the founder of Oakham and Uppingham Free Schools and Hospitals. He died in 1616. Uppingham was the rectory of the excellent JEREMY TAYLOR, afterwards Bp. of Downe and Connor. He was married here to Mrs. Phoebe Laudisdale, May 27, 1639. BYRO. "Round the old Market Cross is the following Inscription; Pray for the good Earl of Bath, and good Master William Barnabe, the builder hereof, 1580, and for William Lord Fitzwarren."" From this account, the Reader, unacquainted with the local circumstances of the place, would suppose that the Cross at present remained. No vestige, however, of this Cross continued in its original situation, in the market-place of the town, at the period of Mr. Lysons's publication, but the inscription appears to have been copied by him from the MSS. (preserved in the British Museum) of Captain Symonds, who visited this town in 1644. The writer of this article has lately recovered several fragments of this Cross, through the kindness of a gentleman residing in a neighbouring village, whose immediate ancestor preserved them on their removal from their antient situation. The principal of these fragments appears to have been the upper portion of the shaft, and contains, within Gothic niches rudely sculptured, representations of eight of the Apostles; the four Evangelists having probably occupied some other part of the Cross. No part of the Inscription remains on any of the mutilated fragments. Yours, &c. * See View and Account of Burley Hall, in vol. XC. ii. 393,-EDIT. H. W. B. Mr. 14 Anacronisms of the " Author of Waverley." Mr. URBAN, R Dec. 29. EGRETTING equally with your Correspondent "A. B." (who in p. 320, in vol. XC. has exposed some anachronisms in the "Monastery)," "that one who can write so well should write so carelessly;" I beg to demonstrate, that the "Monastery" is not the only one of those fascinating productions from the pen of the Author of Waverley," which is liable to animadversion. For instance, in "Old Mortality" the guards under the Duke of Monmouth, at the Battle of Bothwell Brig, are described as charging with the bayonets; whereas that formidable weapon was not introduced into this country till the reign of William III. In "Ivanhoe," he expressly emblazons the seal of Philip II. as "three fleurs de lis;" the Arms of France at that period were semée of fleurs de lis, and continued so to be borne till the reign of King Charles V. when the substitution of the present bearing took place; which alteration was adopted by our Henry IV. in lieu of the quartering of antient France, borne from the period of Edward the Third's assumption thereof. In the comparison of the crown or coronet worn by Rowena at the tournament, to one of "leaves and pearls alternately," he designates the latter a ducal coronet. The knight who arrests Albert de Malvoisin, announces himself as " Henry Bohun, Earl of Essex, Lord High Constable of England." Now, the family of Bobun had not the title of Essex till the 12th of Henry III.; nor had Henry de Bohun ever that of Hereford, and consequently not the office of Constable, till 1199, the last year of Richard Coeur-de-Lion; and as the scene is laid at the period of Richard's return from captivity, which was in 1194, De Bohun was not then in possession of the high office assigned him by the author. As "A. B." asserts, that the assignment of the works in question to Sir Walter Scott, "is strengthened by the liberal employment of that feeble expression, he undid,' which so frequently disgraces the most beautiful pussages, &c."-it may probably be deemed further strengthened by the knowledge, that, as the authors are equally fond of displaying "the pomp of Heraldry" in their works, so are [Jan. they equally prone to err therein; for although the Falcon of Marmion soaring "Sable in an Azure field," is certainly false heraldry, yet I believe the recurrence of colour on colour, though rare, is sometimes to be met with in old bearings: it might, however, have been avoided, as the Arms of the hero of the "Tale of Flodden Field," are not those borne by the Lords Marmion*. In the 12th note to Canto 4, he says, "If you will believe Boethius and Buchanan, the double tressure, counter - fleur-delised Or, (!) langued and armed (!!) Azure, was first assumed by Achaius, &c." (Probably it was the terrific emblazonry of this bearing that occasioned the Master of the Mint to clip what he imagined were claws, and which drew on him the angry remonstrance of one of your Correspondents).—When to the foregoing is added the decoration of James IV. with the collar of " the Thistle brave of old renown," an order which was only instituted (I beg pardon of our Northern neighbours), or revived by James V., I think the charge of carelessness is not unfounded. Yours, &c. W. S. PROGRESS OF LITERATURE IN DIFFERENT AGES OF SOCIETY. and contemplative leisure, casts WHOEVER, with attentive mind his eye over the wide range of modern Literature, will often find topicks interesting and important in their consideration to the curious enquirer, which yet, to the generality of readers, have never formed a subject of specific notice. Assuming the period of modern Literature to have commenced at the epoch of the Reformation, when men's minds, in most countries of Europe, received a new and a powerful impulse, and their intellectual sight enlarged to higher views of classical Learning, Religion, and Philosophy 3-be will find that the tastes, genius, dispositions, and capacities of scholars, men of science, and of literary investigation, have exhibited themselves in various departments or spheres of lucubration, and been characterized by features eminently differing from each other in successive ages, as certain circum The Arms of the Lords Marmion were, Sable, an arming sword, the point in chief Argent. stances 1821.] Progress of Literature in different Ages. stances of a national kind have pointed the general tide of feeling and of thought. The period which included the reign of Queen Anne in England, and of Louis the Fourteenth in France, has long been considered as having been unusually fruitful in the production of men of genius and of taste; and whoever considers the number of eminent men who were then contemporaries, and views the strength, scope, and lustre of their genius, as displayed in their various works, will probably acknowledge the truth of the opinion. But a bias in favour of particular complexions of literary endowment, and of literary fame, has often developed itself,-led by the example of reigning patronage and of courtly influence. Thus, it has been noticed by writers, and among others by Warton, that, in the days of the First James, an inordinate love of pedantry, quibble, and pun, was mixed up in the character of literary men, which often stamped an air of the ridiculous on their studies. Many of the works of authors under the Protectorship were distinguished by cant and a ludicrous affectation of extraordinary sanctity of style and phraseology;-and the literature especially patronized by Charles the Second abounded in false wit, and an extravagant fondness for smart and sprightly turns, epigrams, and profligacy of allusion, as we are informed by Shaftesbury-who, himself a polite author, wrote when this childish attachment to point and witticism was on the decline, and a more manly and better-regulated state of thinking had commenced. But speculating with a more general and comprehensive review of the literature and the genius of the last three hundred years, and this period comprehends, with a very few exceptions, all that is actually worth the notice of the cultivated mind,—the contemplatist may be of opinion that sufficient grounds, from the prevailing feature and bias which marked each of these centuries, and the illustrious names which adorned the revolution of each, exists for a further distinction of the talents and sphere of lucubration in which the exertions of mind were displayed. He will probably think that the Sixteenth Century may, without impropriety, be distinguished as the age of 15 Polemics, and of Scholiasts, in which the researches and the talents of reformists and controversialists predominated, and the zeal and prodigious application with which the classicks of antiquity were studied, and their text revised, was conspicuous over every other branch of learning. That, in like manner, the Seventeenth Century, from the numerous writers of the first rank and lustre, who adorned the church and advanced the discove ries of science, might also, without impropriety, be designated the age of Divines and Philosophers, as, in the course of its Philosophy, or the knowledge of Nature's laws and operations, accelerated by the intellects and the studies of a Bacon and a Boyle, received an impulse, and achieved discoveries, which, as they were unprecedented, have scarcely since been paralleled-while the eminent genius, combined with piety, which shone forth in the upholders of our religion, was equally observable. That the Eighteenth Century equally merits to be termed the age of Poets, Historians, Critics in polite and elegant literature, and Moral Writers, -as liberal erudition was carried to a high state of refinement, Poetry received additional pathos and beauty, and a succession of Essayists struck out, in England, a mode of intellectual entertainment, original in its plan and attractive in its form and highly-popular mode of execution. If, then, we examine the subject a little more minutely, and contemplate the literary complexion of the Sixteenth Century, we shall probably find that its prevailing characteristick was a virulence of zeal in controversial and theological opinions, and on the other hand, unwearied ardour which talent and learning displayed in the revival and annotation of the antient classics. These signal and mighty changes in Religion were chiefly effected by the Cranmers, the Whitgifts, the Hoopers, the Luthers, the Melancthons, the Calvins, the Bezas, the Zuinglius's, the Knox's, the Bucers, and the Zuingles, while the indefatigable talents of Erasmus, of Julius Scaliger, of Isaac Casaubon, of Gerard Vossius, of Daniel Hiensius, of the Stephens's, and of Aldus, under the patronage of More, Wolsey, and other eminent men, went far in again restoring to the world the an |