RUTLANDSHIRE, an inlaud county of England, is bounded N. and N.E. by Lincolnshire, S.E. and S. by Northamptonshire, and W. by Leicestershire ; and lies between 51° 31' and 52° 46' N. lat., 0° 23' and 0° 49' W. long. Its greatest length from north-ea.st to south-west is nearly 20 miles ; its greatest breadth at right angles to the length is 16 miles. The area is 150 square miles, or 95,805 statue acres : the population in 1841 was 21,302; in 1851 it was 22,9S3. In area and amount of population, it is far below tho rest of the English counties.
Surface, Geology, Hydrography, and north eastern part of the county consists of a somewhat elevated plain or table-land, skirted on the southern side by the valley of the Wash, which opens on the west into the more expanded vale of Catmosa. The rest of the county consists of valleys whose general direction is east and west, divided from each other by narrow ranges of low hills. There are no very elevated points in the county; Manton, betwceu Oakham and Uppingham, is said to be the highest.
The county is included iu the district occupied by the lower forma tions of the oolitic series. The great oolite forms the north-eastern table-land above mentioned, and occupies also the higher ground ou the southern side of the county from Stamford to within two miles of Uppingham : the prevailing rock is a close-grained buff limestone clouded with blue. The remainder of the county is occupied by the red or reddish-brown ferruginous sands which separate the great eolith from the subjacent lies. These are covered in many places, especially near their junction with the lists, which takes place just on the north-western border of the county, by vast accumulations of trausported blocks of gravel. There aro quarries of good building stone at Ketton, between Stamford and Uppingham, just on the border of the district occupied by the great oolite.
Rutlandshire belongs chiefly to the basin of the Wash. The Welland, one of the rivers flowing into the iestuary of the Wash, skirts the county between Rockingham and Stamford, separating it throughout from Northamptonshire. This river is not navigable above Stamford,
where it quits the county altogether. The Wash rises just within the border of Leicestershire, and flows eastward through this county into Lincolnshire, where it joins the Welland below Stamford. The Chater also rises in Leicestershire, and flows parallel to the Wash : it joins the Welland just above Stamford. The Eye brook bounds the county on the south-west, and joins the Welland below Rockingham. The Wreak, which joins the Soar, a feeder of the Trent, rises in Rutlandshire near Oakhatn, and flows northward into Leicestershire, draining a small district in the north-west of the county, which is thus included in the basin of the Humber.
The Oakham Canal is a prolongation of the Melton Mowbray naviga tion, from Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire to Oakham. It follows a circuitous course, passing through the vale of Catmoes, and has a total length of 15 miles, of which about six and a half miles are in Rut landshire.
The principal roads are, the coach road from London to Melton Mowbray, and the Great North road. The former enters the county on the south side just beyond Rockingham in Northamptonshire, and runs northward through Uppingham and Oakham into Leicestershire. The Great North road crosses the eastern side of the county between Stamford and Grantham. A road from Leicester to Stamford crosses the county from west to east, passing through Uppingham, and fol lowing the valley of the Welland; and two roads run from Oakham into the Great North road—one at Stamford, the other at Stratton between Stamford and Grantham.
The Syston and Peterborough railway on leaving Stamford passes through Ketton, Luffenham, Manton, Oakham, and Ashwell in this county. The section of the Great Northern railway between Peter borough and Newark crosses the eastern angle of Rntlentishire between Byhall and Es.eendine.