Geology.— An irregularly shaped district of country south of the valley of the Trent and adjoining Derbyshire is occupied by Carboniferous rocks, forming the Leicestershire coal-field. In the north-west Charnwood forest is formed of crystalline and slaty rocks, of special interest to geologists, since, as they contain no fossils and occupy an isolated position, it is impossible to determine their age, although they have been variously classed as Cambrian, Silurian, and Laurentian. Further south, the remainder of the county to the west of the river Soar is occupied chiefly by red sandstone rocks of Triassic age, while to the east a blue clay of the same age, mixed with marl, predominates. In several districts, especially in the north-east, there are beds of limestone of Oolite age, and drift deposits overlie all the other formations. At Whitwick there is a remarkable vein of dolerite lying between the Coal-measures and the New Red Sandstone. The Coal-measures, which underlie the New Red Sandstone, are workable in the western and eastern districts of Moira and Coleorton, the total area of productive coal extending to 15 square miles. The available coal in the Moira district is estimated at over 450,000,000 tons, and in the Coleorton district at over 380,000,000 tons. In 1870 the amount of coal produced was 599,450 tons, but for some years it has exceeded 1,000,000 tons, the number of collieries being about thirty. At a depth of 593 feet in the Moira coal-field there is a spring of salt-water, the brine of which is brought to Ashby-de-la-Zouch for use in scorbutic and rheumatic affections. Limestone is worked in various portions of the county, freestone is plentiful, gypsum is found, and a kind of granite, which is extensively used for paving purposes, is obtained at Charnwood forest, Mount-Sorrel, Sapcote, and Stoney-Stanton.

Agriculture.— The climate is mild, and, on account of the inland position of the county, and the absence of any very high elevations, the rainfall is very moderate. The soil is of a loamy character, the richest district being that to the east of the Soar, which is occupied by pasture, while the corn crops are grown chiefly on a lighter soil resting above the Red Sandstone formation. The following table gives a classification of holdings according to size, with the area under each class of holding :— [table]

A large number of the holdings between 100 and 300 acres are possessed by owners who farm their own land. In 1881 the total area of arable land was 473,998 acres, of which 91,952 were under corn crop, 22,033 under green crop, 25,302 rotation grasses, 317,869 permanent pasture, and 16,842 fallow; 740 acres were under orchards, 345 market gardens, 125 nursery grounds, and 11,252 woods. It will be observed that the proportion of pasture is very great. The pasture land is especially rich along the banks of the rivers. Of corn crops 33,675 acres were under wheat, 27,724 barley, and 23,330 oats. The number of cows in 1881 was 33,863, the total number of cattle being 123,681, an average of 26 to every 100 acres under cultivation, the average for England being 16‘9. Th⅛re are many dairy farms for the manufacture of cheese, the famous Stilton cheese being made near Melton Mowbray. Horses numbered 18,085, the number used for agricultural purposes being 12,243. The breed was much improved by the importation by the well-known agriculturist Bakewell of mares from Flanders. As the county is famed for fox-hunting, there are many excellent riding horses. The number of sheep in 1881 was 263,383, an average of 51 to every 100 acres under cultivation, the average for England being 62 ’ 4. The famous New Leicesters, introduced by Bakewell, are the most common, but the Old Leicesters are still bred, and there is also a race of sheep peculiar to Charnwood forest. Pigs in 1881 numbered 21,765. According to the return of 1874, the land in 1872-73 was divided among 13,848 proprietors, possessing 519,524 acres, with an annual rental of £1,493,378, 10s. Of the owners only 35 per cent, possessed more than 1 acre, and the average value per acre all over was £2, 16s. Among the principal proprietors are the duke of Rutland, possessing 30,109 acres; Lord Donington, 10,174; Earl Howe, 9755; the earl of Stamford and Warrington, 9012; and the earl of Dysart, 8420.

Manufactures.— The staple manufacture of the county is hosiery, for which the wool is obtained chiefly from home-bred sheep. Its principal seats are Leicester, Hinckley, and Loughborough. Cotton hose are likewise made, and the other industries include the manufacture of boots and shoes, elastic webbing, silk plush for hats and lace, agricultural implements, bricks and pottery, and artificial manures.

Administration and Population.— Leicestershire comprises six “hundreds,” the municipal and parliamentary borough of Leicester (122,351), and five other towns with a population of over 5000, viz., Loughborough (14,733), Hinckley, partly in Warwickshire (7673), Ashby-de-la-Zouch (7465), Melton Mowbray (5766), and Market Harborough(5350). The population of thecounty, which in 1801 was only 130,030, was 215,867 in 1841, 269,311 in 1871, and 321,018 (155,429 males and 165,589 females) in 1881, the increase within the last ten years being 19 - 2 per cent.

The county returns six members to Parliament,—two for North and two for South Leicestershire, and two for the borough of Leicester. It has one court of quarter sessions, and is separated into nine petty sessional divisions, with which the police divisions are nearly identical. The borough of Leicester has a commission of the peace, a separate court of quarter sessions, and also its own police. The county is almost wholly in the diocese of Peterborough, and contains 331 civil parishes, townships, or places, as well as parts of other parishes. It is included in the Midland circuit, and assizes and quarter sessions are held at Leicester.

History and Antiquities.— Before the Roman invasion Leicestershire was inhabited by the Coritani, and under the Romans it formed part of the province of Flavia Caesariensis. The principal Roman roads are the Watling Street, which forms for 20 miles the south-west boundary of the county from Dovebridge near the Avon to near Atherstone, where it enters Warwickshire; tire Fosse road from Lincolnshire, which enters the county at Six Hills, and passes by Leicester to Watling Street; the Via I>evana from Colchester, which enters the county near Medbourne, and joins the Fosse at Leicester on its way to Chester. The principal Roman stations were Ratae (Leicester), Verometum (supposed to have been Borough Hill), Mandιιesscdwm (Mancetter), and Benoncs (High-cross). Roman coins, urns, tesselated pavements, military weapons, and domestic utensils and other remains have been found in several places, especially at Leicester, Rothley, Wanlip, Harby, Bottesford, Hinckley, Sapcote, and Melton Mowbray. Two miles from Leicester a Roman milestone of the time of the emperor Hadrian was discovered in 1771. Under the Heptarchy Leicester was included in the kingdom of Mercia. Afterwards it was overrun by the Danes, from whom it was recovered by Ethelfleda. The most noteworthy event connected with the county was the battle ot Bosworth Field, where Richard III. was slain 22d August 1485; but it was frequently the scene of contests in the reigns of John and of Henry III. and during the Revolution period.

The principal monastic foundations in Leicester were priories of Black Canons at St Mary Pre near Leicester founded in 1143, and at Breedon founded in 1144, priories of Benedictines at Hinckley in 1173 and of Benedictine nuns at Langley near Breedon in the time of Henιy I., a collegiate church at Leicester founded in the reign of William I., a priory of canons of St Augustine at Launde in the reign of Henry I. (now changed into a museum), houses of the Knights Hospitallers at Dalby and Heather, a priory of St Austin at Bradley, a preceptory of Knights Templars at Rothley in 1230, a house of Franciscans at Leicester founded by Simon de Montfort, a friary of St Augustine called St Catherine’s, also at Leicester, and a convent of canons regular of St Augustine at Kirkby, founded in 1359. The principal old castles are those of Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Kirkby-Muxloe.

The principal histories of Leicestershire are those of Nichols, 1*90, 4th edition 1795-1820, Throsby, 1790, and Curtis, 1831. See also Domesday Book of Leicester, 1862; walcott, Chantries of Leicester, 1874; Hull, Geology of the Leicester Coalfield, 1860; Aveline, Geology of part of Leicester, i860; Judd, Geology of part of Leicester, 1875; Harrison, Geology of Leicester and Rutland, 1876. For a fuller list see Anderson, Topography of the United Kingdom, 1881.

Leicester, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of England, and the chief town of the county of Leicester, is situated at the intersection of several railway lines, in a gentle hollow on the river Soar, 97 miles north-north-west of London, and 27 south of Nottingham. The town is well built, the streets are spacious and regular, and the sanitary and water arrangements are very satisfactory. The most important of the churches are St Martin’s, near the site of an old Franciscan convent, restored in 1881 at a cost of £20,000; St Mary’s, Early English and Norman, originally built in the 12th century, and restored in 1861 at a cost of £10,000; All Saints, an ancient structure in the Early English style, restored in 1875; St Margaret’s, a beautiful and spacious building erected in 1444, Early English and Decorated, recently restored at a cost of £6000; and St Nicholas’s, in the Early Norman style. Of the old castle two gateways are still standing, and also a portion of the Norman Hall. The other principal buildings are the old town-hall, formerly the guild-hall of Corpus Christi, the new town-hall erected in 1875, the town museum, the school of art, and the public baths, erected in 1879 at a cost of £11,000. One of the ornaments of the town is the memorial clock-tower erected in 1868 in honour of Simon de Montfort and three other less known persons connected with the district. In the neighbourhood of the town are the remains of the abbey of Black Canons, founded in 1143. On the site of St Margaret’s church was the old Saxon cathedral, and in the adjoining abbey Cardinal Wolsey was buried. Besides Trinity Hospital, founded in 1331 by Henry Plantagenet, earl of Leicester, and Wyggeston’s Hospital, founded in 1513, there are a large number of minor charities. There is a fine promenade from the town to the Victoria park and racecourse, in addition to which the Abbey park of 40 acres has lately been opened. The staple trade of Leicester is hosiery, including stockings and all kinds of fancy goods. There are also iron-foundries, and manufactures of boots and shoes, elastic webs, and sewing cotton. The population of the municipal and parliamentary borough, 17,005 in 1801, had increased in 1871 to 95,220, and in 1881 to 122,351.

Leicester was an ancient British town, and under the name of Ratae or Raliscorion an important Roman station. It was also one of the five old Danish burghs, and until 874 it was an ecclesiastical see. Its charter of incorporation was obtained from King John, and from the 23d of Edward I. it returned two members to parliament. Parliaments were held in the town by Henry V. in 1414 and by Henry VI. in 1426. Richard III., who passed anight in it on his way to the fatal battle of Bosworth, was buried in the Franciscan convent. The town was stormed by Charles I., May 31, 1645, and recovered by Fairfax in the June following. See the Histories of Throsby (1777), Robinson (1791), and Thompson (1871).

LEICESTER, Simon de Montfort, Earl of. See Montfort.

LEICESTER, Robert Dudley, Earl of (c. 1531- 1588). This favourite of Queen Elizabeth came of an ambitious family. They were not, indeed, such mere upstarts as their enemies loved to represent them; for Leicester’s grandfather—the notorious Edmund Dudley who was one of the chief instruments of Henry VII.’s extortions—was descended from a younger branch of the barons of Dudley. But the love of power was a passion which seems to have increased in them with each succeeding generation, and though the grandfather was beheaded by Henry VIII. for his too devoted services in the preceding reign, the father grew powerful enough in the days of Edward VI. to trouble the succession to the crown. This was that John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, who contrived the marriage of Lady Jane Grey with his own son Guildford Dudley, and involved both her and her husband in a common ruin with himself. Robert Dudley, the subject of this article, was an elder brother of Guildford, and shared at that time in the misfortunes of the whole family. Having taken up arms with them against Queen Mary, he was sent to the Tower, and was actually sentenced to death; but the queen afterwards not only pardoned and restored him to liberty, but appointed him master of the ordnance. On the accession of Elizabeth he was also made master of the horse. He was then, perhaps, about seven and twenty, and was evidently rising rapidly in the queen’s favour. At an early age he had been married to Amy, daughter of Sir John Robsart. The match had been arranged by his father, who was very studious to provide in this way for the future fortunesof his children, and the wedding was graced by the presence of King Edward. But it was not a happy marriage. The lady lived alone at Cumnor Hall in Berkshire, the house of one Anthony Forster, and there in the year 1560 she died under circumstances which certainly aroused some suspicions of foul play. The scandal was the more serious as it was insinuated that Dudley stood so high in the queen’s favour that he might reasonably hope to marry her, and that a murder had been deliberately planned to remove an obstacle to his advancement. The point, it must be owned, is not free from obscurity, and recent revelations from the archives of Simancas prove that even before the unhappy lady’s death it was said there was a design to poison her. After the event, however, the story was that she had broken her neck by a fall down stairs, and, suspicious as the case may appear, there is much to be said in favour of Dudley’s innocence, which cannot be discussed within our limits. Certain it is that he continued to rise in the queen’s favour. She made him a Knight of the Garter, and bestowed on him the castle of Kenilworth, the lordship of Denbigh, and other lands of very great value in Warwickshire and in Wales. In September 1564 she created him baron of Denbigh, and immediately afterwards earl of Leicester. In the preceding month, when she visited Cambridge, she at his request addressed the university in Latin. The honours shown him naturally excited jealousy, especially as it was well known that he entertained still more ambitious hopes, which the queen apparently did not altogether discourage. The earl of Sussex, in opposition to him, strongly favoured a match with the archduke Charles of Austria. The court was divided, and, while arguments were set forth on the one side against the queen’s marrying a subject, the other party insisted strongly on the disadvantages of a foreign alliance. The queen, however, was so far from being foolishly in love with him that in 1564 she recommended him as a husband for Mary Queen of Scots. But even this, it was believed, was only a blind, and indeed it may be doubted how far the proposal was serious. After his creation as earl of Leicester great attention was paid to him both at home and abroad. The university of Oxford made him their chancellor, and Charles IX. of France sent him the order of St Michael. A few years later he formed an ambiguous connexion with the baroness dowager of Sheffield, which was maintained by the lady, with great appearance of truth, to have been a valid marriage, though it was concealed from the queen. Long afterwards, in the days of James I., their son, Sir Robert Dudley, a man of extraordinary talents, sought to establish his legitimacy; but his suit was suddenly brought to a stop, and the documents connected with it sealed up by an order of the Star Chamber, without any reasons being assigned.

In 1575 Queen Elizabeth visited the earl at Kenilworth, where she was entertained for some days with great magnificence. The picturesque account of the event given by Sir Walter Scott has made every one familiar with the general character of the scene. Next year Walter, earl of Essex, with whom Leicester had had some differences, died in Ireland, not without suspicion of poison, and Leicester’s subsequent marriage with his widow again gave rise to very serious imputations against him. This marriage, like the former, was kept secret at first; but it was revealed to the queen in 1579 by Simier, an emissary of the duke of Alençon, to whose projected match with Elizabeth the earl seemed to be the principal obstacle. The queen showed great displeasure at the news, and had some thought, it is said, of committing Leicester to the Tower, but was dissuaded from doing so by his rival the earl of Sussex. In February 1582 Leicester, along with a number of other noblemen and gentlemen, escorted the duke of Alençon on his return to Antwerp to be invested with the government of the Low Countries. In 1584 he inaugurated an association for the protection of Queen Elizabeth against conspirators. About this time there issued from the press the famous pamphlet, believed to have been the work of Parsons the Jesuit, entitled Leicester's Commonwealth, which was intended to suggest to the people that the English constitution was subverted and the government handed over to one who was at heart an atheist and a traitor, besides being a man of infamous life and morals. The book was ordered to be suppressed by letters from the privy council, in which it was declared that the charges against the earl were to the queen’s certain knowledge untrue; nevertheless they produced a very strong impression, and were believed in by some who had no sympathy with Jesuits long after Leicester’s death. In 1585 he was appointed commander of an expedition to the Low Countries in aid of the revolted provinces, and sailed with a fleet of fifty ships to Flushing, where he was received with great enthusiasm. In January following he was invested with the government of the provinces, but immediately received a strong reprimand from the queen for taking upon himself a function which she had not authorized. Both he and the States General were obliged to apologize; but the latter protested that they had no intention of giving him absolute control of their affairs, and that it would be extremely dangerous to them to revoke the appointment. Leicester accordingly was allowed to retain his dignity; but the incident was inauspicious, nor did affairs prosper greatly under his management. His nephew Sir Philip Sidney was slain at the unsuccessful siege of Zutphen, and complaints were made by the States General of the conduct of the whole campaign. He returned to England for a time, and went back in 1587, when he made an abortive effort to raise the siege of Sluys. Disagreements increasing between him and the States, he was recalled by the queen, from whom, contrary to the expectation of his enemies, he met with a very good reception; and he continued in such favour that in the following summer (the year being that of the Armada, 1588) he was appointed lieutenant-general of the army mustered at Tilbury to resist Spanish invasion. After the crisis was past he was returning homewards from the court to Kenilworth, when he was attacked by a sudden illness and died at his house at Cornbury in Oxfordshire, on the 4th September.

Such are the bare facts of Leicester’s life. Of his character it is more difficult to speak with confidence, but some features of it are indisputable. Being in person tall and remarkably handsome, he improved these advantages by a very ingratiating manner. A man of no small ability and still more ambition, he was nevertheless vain, and presumed at times upon his influence with the queen to a degree that brought upon him a sharp rebuff. On the other hand, Elizabeth stood by him, as we have seen, against efforts to supplant him. That she was ever really in love with him, as modern writers have supposed, is extremely questionable; but she saw in him some valuable qualities which marked him as the fitting recipient of high favours. He was a man of princely tastes, especially in architecture. At court he became latterly the leader of the Puritan party, and his letters were pervaded by expressions of religious feeling which it is hard to believe were insincere. Of the darker suspicions against him it is enough to say that much was certainly reported beyond the truth; but there remain some facts sufficiently mysterious to make a just estimate of the man a rather perplexing problem. (j. ga.)