NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, an inland county of England, nearly in the centre of the kingdom. It is of an irregular and very extended figure, being about sixty-seven miles in length. In the widest part it is thirty miles, and in the narrowest not more than eight miles in breadth. The extent, according to the returns collected by Mr Rickman, is 646,810 acres. The land is thus appropriated:—About 290,000 acres are in arable cultivation, 235,000 acres are in pasture, and about 86,000 are uncultivated, or occupied as forests and woodlands. The county contains one city, eleven market-towns, 301 parishes, and is divided into 1901 liberties.

The population, according to the official returns at the four decennial enumerations, amounted in 1801 to 131,757, in 1811 to 141,353, in 1821 to 162,483, and in ι 183l to 179,300. The annual value of the whole real property of the county, as taken in the year 1815 for the purposes of the property-tax, was L.942,162. The burials, including both the registered and the unregistered, in the ten years from 1821 to 1831, appear to have been about one in fifty of the whole number of inhabitants then living. The illegitimate births were one in twenty-five of the whole number born.

The occupations of the people, according to the returns arranged by Mr Rickman in 1831, were as follow:
[table]

From its oblong shape, lying obliquely across the middle of the kingdom, Northamptonshire comes in contact with, and is bounded by, a greater number of other counties than any other division of England. Proceeding from the north, on its western side, it touches upon Lincolnshire, Rutlandshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, and Oxfordshire; and on its eastern side it is bounded by Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Cambridgeshire. The whole of the county is within the diocese of Peterborough, with the exception of three parishes which are included in the see of Lincoln.

Northamptonshire is generally a pleasant country, with such undulations as give an agreeable variety; but, owing to the numerous enclosures, the prospects are not in general extensive, except upon the summits of the higher hills. The centre of the county is a level elevation, from which the rivers have their rise, and, descending in opposite directions, take a course both to the German Ocean and the English Channel.

The agriculture of this county partakes so much of the nature of the several counties that border on it, as to be almost as various, and not to merit any particular description. The most important rural pursuit is the grazing of cattle, for which the excellent pastures are admirably adapted. The cattle, when fattened, are sent in weekly droves to the market of Smithfield for the supply of the metropolis, where they are highly esteemed. The arable land produces excellent wheat, beans, and oats; but the soil in [7:16:251]general is not well calculated to raise good barley. The artificial grasses, clover, trefoil, sainfoin, and rye-grass, are very extensively cultivated, and, aided by turnips, form important articles of food for the flocks and herds.

Within this county there are several large forests belonging to the crown, with two chases, over which the king has certain rights. The largest of these is the Forest of Rockingham, in the northern part of the county, extending over 11,000 acres. The land, in many instances, belongs to individuals; but the royal deer have, under certain restrictions, the range over the whole. Whittlewood Forest contains about 5000 acres. It is stocked with about 1000 deer; a proportion of which, according to ancient prescription, are killed annually for the royal household, and for the great officers of the government, who receive them as a matter of right attached to their appointments. This forest contains much excellent naval timber, which is reserved for the use of the government; but, from the reports of the commissioners, it appears to be very negligently preserved, and very injudiciously managed. Salcey Forest is about 1850 acres in extent. This tract was formerly covered with most valuable ship-timber, but has furnished for the navy only a very small proportion of what it is capable of. The mixture of opposite interests in this kind of property diminishes its productiveness to all the parties interested in it. The underwood does not belong to the crown. The individuals who own it cut it down every twenty-one years. During the following nine years it is enclosed, and for the remaining twelve it is open for the deer to feed on the land. The crown enjoys only this right of pasture and the timber trees. The pasture does not belong exclusively to it, for many of the surrounding parishes possess also a right to turn their cattle into the forests, under ancient grants and prescriptions, and with limitations of a complex nature, which are productive of perpetual dissensions and litigations. The rangership of these forests is hereditary in the Dukes of Grafton, who have, during the last century, derived from it a very large income, whilst the revenue to the crown has been very trifling, scarcely amounting to L.200 per annum upon an average of the last hundred years.

The only navigable river in this county is the Nen or Nine. It rises in the western part, flows across, and then runs north, till it enters by Lincolnshire into the German Ocean. The Welland rises in the county, then forms the boundary between it and Leicestershire and Rutlandshire, and only becomes navigable after entering Lincolnshire at Stamford. The other rivers, the Ouse, the Avon, the Learn, and the Charwell, although they have their sources in Northamptonshire, are but inconsiderable rivulets till they enter the contiguous counties. The benefits of internal navigation have been very freely bestowed here by the canals, which afford great facilities to internal intercourse. The Oxford Canal connects it with that city. The Grand Junction Canal, communicating on one hand with London, and on the other with Liverpool and Manchester, passes through this county. The Grand Union Canal connects it with Leicester. Thus the heavy products, especially coals, are brought to every part on very moderate terms. Great advantage to this county is anticipated from that great work, now hastening to its completion, the London and Birmingham Railway, which will enter it near Stony Stratford, and proceed more than thirty miles, when it will advance through a corner of Leicestershire to Warwickshire.

The remains of Roman and Saxon antiquities are very numerous. Amongst the former, the Watling Street Road, he Ermine Street Road, the camps of Arbury, of the Boroughs, and of Rainsbury, and the tesselated pavements it Cotterstock, at Stanwick, and at Woodford Field, have ingaged the attention of Stukely and other eminent antiquaries. As there were more than sixty monasteries and other religious houses at the period of the Reformation, traces of which may still be seen, they, with the baronial castles, present a wide field for the researches of the lovers of antiquity; but the bare enumeration of them would be incompatible with the limits of this work.

The manufactures of this county are chiefly of a domestic nature, and carried on in the dwellings of the workmen. Boots and shoes are made for foreign markets, and, in war, for the supply of the army. Both fine thread and silk lace are made, and afford employment to the females, who are taught the art in schools for that purpose, and attain great perfection. The principal places for collecting the lace are Northampton and Wellingborough. A large quantity of horse-whips were made at Daventry, and, though diminished in some degree, the trade is still continued there.

The titles derived from this county are Duke of Grafton; Marquis of Northampton; Earls of Peterborough, Fitzwilliam, Spencer, and Harrington; Viscount Sackville; Barons Braybrooke and Lilford; and as second titles, Baron Burleigh to the Marquis of Exeter, Viscount Milton to Earl Fitzwilliam, Viscount Brackley to the Earl of Bridgewater, and Baron Finch to the Earl of Winchelsea. By the reform act this county is formed, for the purpose of electing members of parliament, into two divisions, distinguished into North and South, each returning two members. The election for the northern division is held at Kettering, and the polling places are, that town, Peterborough, Oundle, Wellingborough, and Clipston. The election for the southern is held at Northampton, and, besides that town, at Daventry, Towcester,and Brackley. The boroughs of Brackley and Higham Ferrers were by the same law disfranchised.

The most celebrated natives of Northamptonshire have been, Robert Browne, the founder of the sect of Independents; Mrs Chapone; John Dryden, the poet; Fletcher, the dramatist; Fuller, the historian and divine; Harrington, author of the Oceana', Hervey, author of Meditations and other works; Knolles, the historian of the Turks; Dr William Paley; Bishop Wilkins; and Thomas Moolston.

The catalogue of all the noblemen and gentlemen’s seats in this county would extend to a long list, and we therefore can only notice the most remarkable of them, viz. Castle Ashby, Marquis of Northampton; Aldwinckle, Lady Lilford; Althorp, Earl Spencer; Apethorpe, Earl of Westmoreland; Brinworth, Walter Strickland, Esq.; Burleigh, Marquis of Exeter; Canons Ashby, Sir J. E. Dryden; Cottesbroke, Sir James Lanham; Courteen Hall, Sir William wake; Dean, Earl of Cardigan; Drayton, Duke of Dorset; Easton Neston, Earl Pomfret; Ecton, Samuel Isled, Esq.; Fawsley Park, Sir Charles Knightley; Finedon Hall, Sir William Dolben; Horton, Sir Robert Gunning; Kirby, George Finch Hatton, Esq; Lamport, Sir Justinian Isham; Lilford, Lord Lilford; Martin’s Thorpe, Earl of Denbigh; Milton Abbey, Earl Fitzwilliam; Rockingham Castle, Lord Sondes; Salcey Forest, Earl Euston; Wakefield Lawn, Duke of Grafton; Wal-grave, Sir James Langham; Whittlebury, Lord Southampton.

The towns having a population exceeding 1400 are the following ∙.
[table]