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DIRECTORY • OF N OR1"HAMP·TON SHIRE. INDEX 'IO THE TOWNS AND VILLAGES. • PAGE PAGBI PAGil Abthorpe •••.•••.•••••.•••..• 28 Higham Ferrers . • • • • • • • • • • • • 9 Oundle • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 21 Brac;klcy .................... 2 Irchester • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • • 30 Peter'borough •••. , ••••••••• ~. 23 Braunston ••••••••••••••••••• 5 lrthlingborongl1 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 9 Rothwell • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • • • • • • }C) • Buckby, Wog •••••••••••••••• 5 lsli p • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 27 Thrapstone • • • • • . • • • • • • • • . • • • 26 Corby ••••••••••••••••••••••• 3 Kette1ing • • • • • • • • . • • • • • . • . • • l 0 Towcester. • . • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • 28. DavClltry •••••••••••••••••••• 4 Kingsthorpe. • • • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • 13 W arkton • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 10 Duston .••••.•••••••••••.•••• 13 Kislingsbury. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •. • 14 W eedon • 411 •••••••••• ·- • • • • • • • 4 Geddington .................. IO Long Buckby • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • 5 Weldon.. • • • . • • • . • • • . • • • . • . 3 Green's-Norton •.•••••••••••• 28 Northampton ••••••••••••• , •• 12 Wellingborough •••.•••••••••• 30 Hardingstone ••••.••••••••••• 13 W e5to11 Favel ••••••••••••••• , 13 NORT AJllPTONS IRE. ·THIS is an inland county, lying obliquely across the Rliddle of England, and is in contact with more l'utTotmding shires than any otlu~r in the kingdom. Tl) the north atttl ·north-west it has the cottllnes of Lini:Oln, Rutlaud aud Leicester, fmm the two tormer and part of the latter of which it is divided by '&he river Welland; to the west it has Warwickshire; to the south Oxfm-dshire and Buckingham shirt>:; tn the east, Bedfordshire Rnd Huntingdousbire, with a small point of Cambridgeshir~. It.~ greatt>st length is sixty miles, and its breadth only about twenty-five: its circumference has bet'n vm·iously laid down, from one hundred an~ twenty-five 1niles to two hundred and sixteen ; in the returns to parJiamenc its art'a is stated to romprise ooe thousand and seventeen square miles, or six humlred and fifty thotJMnd eight hundred and eighty statute acres. lu size it ranks as the twenty-second county in England, aud in population as the twcuty-!'lc\"ettth. · NAME and ANCIENT HISTORY .-This conuty takes its uamc from the town of Nm'thampton; so called, it is Raid by some, from its situation on the nm-th ,.ide of the •·h·er Aufoua m· Nen-though others infer that it was so named in contradistinction to SouthamJ•ton. The inhabitants of Northampton~hlt·e, in the ancient Btitisb times, were a pa11: of the GJritttnii, 1-Vhn~ tet·ntot'Y was hy the Romatts inchtdt'd In the division .of FlafJia Caam"iensis, and by the Saxons in the kingdom of Met-cia. 'fwo Hmnau I"'adl' crossed this county-the .ff/utlirtg Street in its bi'Oadt>Kt .part, and a ,.i<"inal mad in itK nari'OWe><t. When the Dane!! invdrled Britain tliil'l purt of t.he country suffered severely by their devast:1tious; and uo place in the conuty expet·icuct'd the eftect-8 of their wanton fea-ocity tnore etuelly than the city of Pt!terborough, which, with it:o :oplcndid abbt-y, was destmyed by them, and lay in ruius fot· uearly a century,-when Ethehvald, uishol> of Wmchester, with the ~U~Sistance of King Edgar and his chancellor Adnlf, rebmlt the dty, and restor-ed t 1e monastery to its former Jnaguiticeoce. At the dissolution the abbey was com•erted by Henry VIII into a cathedral, which ~ustaiued tnoch damage during 'he chil war; bnt Rubsequently it was thoroughly repah·ed and beautified, and is now an interesting pile, in the Norman style of archit~<:tnrt>. In this edifire Queen Kathal'ine of Anagon, first wife uf Henry VIII, and Mary Queen of Scots, wt•t-e interrt'd-the former in the year 15;15; the funeral of the unfortunate Mcu'Y was solenmizt>d ltt're iu 1587: the body was brought from Fotheringay ca.~tlt', in this county <(wbe1-e t~ht: was beheaded), and committed, 011 the :nst of .lnly, to a '".tnlt on the south side of the choir; but iu l6l2, by ordel' of her son, James I, her •·emain11 were tr.tnslated to \Vt•stmin~t>r. In the pal'ish of Na..~b} (1!Uppo8ed to he the centre of England), W;tR rought., in Jnne, 164!1, the deci!4h·e battle ht>tween Chaties I autl the parliamentary forces uudet' Fairfax, which teJ"min:ltt>d In the total tfeft>at aud rniu of the royallst.q. SOIL and CLIMATE, PRODUCE, MINERALS and li<IANUFAC'TURES.-The general excellence nf the Northamp­ tonshire soiLS is as<.'l·ibed pas-tly to their sufficient depth, and pat·tly to the looseness and porous nature of the l'itony sub>~trdtum: they con~ist Of a deep stmng loam, iu gt-eater proportion than that of any other; a browui11h t>r ga-eyish loam, iu the ,·icitJity of Dave1m·y; the red laud, cou~u>ting of brown :md sunff-colom-ed ]oamf', an t-xtensi\·e tmc& to the north-west of Northampton, and other parts ; the white or gl'ey loam:., !!outh of the Nen; the ligh& thin soils of the nplaud district, near ~tamford ; and the soils of the natuml mt•adows and pastme la.nds of the \·ales, aud of the fen lauds north of P~terburmtKh .. The hi~ht'jlt grouml iu this county is m the -netghbourhood of Davcntry, where the Neu aud (.;harwell, whtch flow mto the f'astcrn sea, and the Leam, tenuiuatiug its course iu the western, ri.'>e within a small coUJpass; about Towcestcr, in the south, the t·ountry is liltewlse hilly, and the soil iutenuixed with clav amJ a sot·t of grit~toue. CLIMA'IE :-The air of N61'thamJllOnllhit·e i!! esteemed equaJ, if not superior, to tfmt of any connty iu the kingdom; and to this is attributed the cit·cunt:-Jtance of so many of the nobility aud gentry ha,·iug seat11 in it; 'so full is it of gentry; con<~ludes Nm·det·u in his description of it, 'that it may he called t!te Hemld's Garden! That emalJ tract of conntry about Peterborough tenued • Fen land' is, bowe,·er, often o\·erflowed by gt·eat fall!! of water from the upland!', in rainy seasons; bnt the inhabitants do not sutfe1· the water to continue a 11nfficient time on the ~round, ewn in wintet•, to affect tht' salubrity of the atmosphet·e. The PRODUCTS ·of Northamptonshire are m general the MUle with those of tlther f,u'Illing counties: horued cattle, ami othf'r animals useful to man. are fed to ext1-aordit1ary sizes; ilOI"Ses, of the lar~e black h•·eed, ru·e also t·eared ; and many flocks of sheep at•e grazed on the devated gt"OUttds : woad, fm· dyers' use, is culth·ated iu some part.~. The greate'>t dt.•fcct of this shire is the :ocarcity of fttd; yet it 11till possesses some considerable remains of its old forests particularly those of Rockinghao1, in tile north-west, and ofSalcey and \VhittlebUI'V iu ti:e south; by the constmction of the Union canal, however, coals ha,·e been iutmduced into the collnty 'from the Trent; and they at·e likewise obtained fmm Lyun, in Nm·folk, by meatJS of the Nen. In the agricultural npproptiation of this county, about JOO,OOO act·es at·e said to be arable, '250,000 pa.~turage, and 80,000 uuculth·ateiJ, including the woodlands : within the latte•·, however, numerous dee1·, hon;;es, cattle and sheep are fed; a great portion of the cattle and sheep an! afterwards fatteued on the 1ich ~trazing land of the county, and sent to the London market. The p1-evaili11g s}'SWm of husbandry is grazing. aml several of the farmet'S at·e justly noted for theh· 8kilfn1 manage­ ment of land and stock. From Northamptou westward a ~1-eat quantity of chccSt' is made; and in that part of the ooanty south of the C.oventry and London I'Oad are •mmerons dairies; the produce of these is chiefly buttet·, some of which iR sold in the metropolis as 'Epping butter.' Thi!! cnunty does uot abound in fruit trees, though there are a few productive orchards in different parts of it; and around No.thampton there is much garden ground of ac-Jmowledged superior quality, beside!'! orchards of dh·ers kinds of fruit. Nm-thampton is universally regarded as a fine and pleasant county; its surface is Jlectlliarly applicable to c:-ulth·ati(JD, as it does not present either dreary wastes 01' rugged mountains, and is e1·erywhere sufficiently regulat· for the purposes of husbandry and tillage. 1'he MINERAL productio11s include 11eithm· coal nor auy of the metals; bnt limestone is found in almost el"eJ'Y pat't of the shire, aud is u8ed, iu some instances, to form enclo:;;ure.q, and in making and I"t'pahing roadw, but more generally ie oouvertt'd into lime. F1-eestone is raised at Bracklt>v, at Kiugstho•·pe and some other places; and a whitish kind m slate, employed in roofing, is quarried in considerable quantities at Colly­ weston, aear Stamford. Good btick and tile clay, also, is procured in different distric:s of the county. The MANUFACTURES are not of much importatn:e: in some of the towns silk stockings are wove., and in others the fu111ale working class are eugagcd iu lace-making and wool-spinning. The manufacture of woollen fabrics was M cme period more extensh·e than at p1 esent ; this branch is nmv ronfiued to the production of moreens, lamiea and ~limancoes. Boots aud shoes, for the supply of the army and navy, the London market, and for ex~rtation, are manufactured ratht'l" extensi.. ely at Welliugborongh, NortJJampton, Dan-utry, aud iD the ne1ghbourbood of those towns; 1YOOlstapling constitutes the principal branch of trade at Towcester; and at Daventt·y whips at-e made in comiderclble quantities. The imports to NQrthamptonshire rrindpally consist of Jean caUJ.e.

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