liiSTOR Y OF tEICESTERSHIRE. 31 London &c. It is a great convenience to the public, and has been highlr profitable to the proprietors. The greater part of the Soar made naviga­ ble forms the boundary between the counties of Leicester and N otting­ ham. The junction with the Trent opens a direct communication with Gainsbro', Hull, &c.; and through the Grand Trunk, with Liverpool, &c. The original cost of the navigation was only £7000, in seventy £100 shares, some of which have been sold for as much as £4800 each. The LEICESTER NAVIGATION, formed under acts passed in 1791 ancl 1797, commences at the basin of the Loughborough Canal, at an elevation of 125 feet above the level of the sea. It proceeds in an artificial canal southward to Barrow, and falls into the Soar between that village and Quorndon. With the exception of a short cut, the river here becomes na­ vigable, and continues so to its junction with the Wreak, near Cossington, where the navigation ascends the "Wreak for about a mile, and from that point a cut has been made, for the purpose of avoiding the shallows and windings of the Soar. It terminates in the latter at Leicester, where it communicates with the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Union CanaL As it opens a water communication with the coasts and populous parts of the kingdom, it is of great utility to the inhabitants of Leicester and the neighbourhood. The Charnwood Forest Canal, which is now disused, waa connected with the Soar Navigation by a railway to Loughborough, 21 miles in length, and its western end communicated with railways from the collieries near Swannington, and the lime works at Cloud Hill and Barrow Hill. The Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Union Canal was formed undt>r acts passed in 1793 and 1805, and commences near to West Bridge, in Leicester, at 175 feet above the level of the sea. It proceeds southward, in the bed of the Soar to Aylestone, where the cut commences, and runa for about three miles parallel with the river, to a short distance above En­ derby, whence it turns eastward, along one of the branches of the Soar to Wistow Hall and Newton Harcourt, in its route to Saddington Tunnel, which is 880 yards long. From this tunnel it proceeds in a sinuous course to Foxton and Gumley, where, after a course of 17 miles, it falls into the GRAND UNION CANAL, which was constructed under an act passed in 1810, and extends in a winding course from Market Harborough to Long Buckby, in Northamptonshire, where it unites with the Grand Junction. The Vale of Belvoir, at the north-east extremity of the county, is tra­ versed by the Nottingham and Grantham Canal. Though the tonnage rates on coals and merchandise have been greatly reduced, the rates, &c., received on the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Union Canal during the half year ending October, 1845, amounted to £6533. The number of tents carried on the canal during the same period was 114,685. The LEICESTER and SwANNINGTON RAILWAY was constructed under the powers of an act passed in May, 1830, and was opened in 1832'. It (!Ommences at the wharfs, near West Bridge, Leicester, and within th& .