Divisions for Ecclesiastical and Legal county is in the archdeacoury of Northampton and diocese of Peterborough. It is included in the Midland Circuit; the assizes and quarter-sessions are held at Oakham, where is the county jail. County courts are held at Oakham and Uppingham ; which aro also tho scats of Poor. Law Unions. The county returns two members to the Imperial Parliament.
History and Al atiquities.—Thls county appears to have been included in the country of the Coritani; and upon the Roman conquest of Britain it was included in the province of Flavia Cresariensis. A Roman road (Ermine-street) crossed the eastern side of the county in the line of the present North road. Some remains of a Roman station are near Great Casterton.
Under the Saxons this county was included in the kingdom of Mcroia. In the reign of John, Rutland, than first mentioned as a county, was assigned to his queen Isabel as part of her dower. An Earl of Rut land in mentioned in a charter of Henry I. The first earl known to history was Edward, eldest son of Edmund of Langley, who was the fifth son of Edward IIL The title was inherited by Richard, duke of York, and by his son, a boy of 12 years of age, who was stabbed by Lord Clifford after the battle of Wakefield in 1460. The earldom was revived by Henry VIII., and conferred on the family of Roos : it afterwards came to the Manners family, in whoso favour it was raised to a dukedom, which still exists.
In 1381 Henry lo Spencer, bishop of Norwich, assembled a force at Burley in this county to snppreas the insurrection of the commons in Norfolk, under John the Litestcr, or Dyer. In 1468 the Lincolnshire
insurgcnta under Sir Robert Wells were defeated with great loss by Edward IV., at Hornfield in Empingham parish. The battle is com monly known as the battle of Lose-coat-field, from the fugitives throw ' ing off their coats in order to escape more swiftly.
The antiquities of the couuty are chiefly ecclesiastical. Tickencote, Little Casterton, Empingham, Easendine, and Ketton churches, all on the east side of the county, date from the Norman period. Tickler cote was rebuilt in 1702, and only the elaborately-ornamented arch between the nave and chancel, and part of the groining of the chancel, with the font, remain. Easendine is a small church, with nave and chancel, and a gable for two bells at the western end : the architecture is partly Norman, partly early English : the south doorway is Norman, with sculpture in the tympanum and eLsewhcre.
Statistics: Religious Worship and to tho Returns of the Census in 1851, it appears that there were thou in the twenty 91 places of worship, of which 53 belonged to the Church of Hikeland, 13 to Methodist*, 12 to Baptista, 6 to Independents, 1 to Quaker., and 1 to Mormons. The total number of sitting. provided was 17,399. The number of dayechoola was 113, of which 39 were public eeboola, with 2175 scholars, and 74 were private, with 1230 scholars. Of Suoday-schools there were 58, with 3033 scholars. The Rutland Farmers' and (hullers Club had 40 members, with 80 volumes in its library.