Leicestershire, a midland county of England, surrounded by Nottingham, Lincoln, Rutland. Northampton, Warwick, and Derby shires. It; has a maximum length and breadth of 44 miles by 40, and contains 803 sq. m., or 514,164 acres. Pop. (1801)131,081 ; (1841)215,867 ; (1901)433,994. Its surface is for the most part undulating tableland, the highest ground being at Charnwood Forest in the north-west, where Bardon Hill attains 853 feet above sea-level. The Soar, itself an affluent of the Trent, which for a short distance borders the county on the north, is, with its tributary the Wreak, the principal river. The soil, varying in fertility, is generally loamy : in the north-west are valuable coal-mines, also granite, slate, and limestone quarries, but, the greater part of the county being under pasture, the quantity of corn grown is comparatively small. The principal objects of agriculture are grazing and sheep and cattle breeding, Leicestershire being especially noted for its breed of the former. The chief manufactures are of hosiery and boots and shoes ; basket-making is carried on at Castle Donnington; and Stilton cheeses are for the most part made in this county. Leicestershire comprises six hundreds, the parliamentary borough of Leicester, and the municipal borough of Loughborough, and 332 parishes, almost entirely in the diocese of Peterborough, and, for judicial purposes, in the Midland Circuit. Leicester is the assize town, and other towns are Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Hinckley, Loughborough, Lutterworth, Market Harborough, and Melton Mowbray, the last two being great hunting centres. There are four parliamentary divisions. In the battle of Bosworth Field (1485) Richard III. lost his life ; whilst Leicestershire worthies have been Wyclif, Cardinal Wolsey, Lady Jane Grey, Mary, Queen of Scots, Beaumont the dramatist, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Cleveland the poet, George Fox, Simpson the mathematician, Dr Johnson, Lord Macaulay, Hobart Pasha, Colonel Burnaby, and last, but not least, Daniel Lambert. See works by Burton (1622; 2d ed. 1777), Nichols (4 vols. 1795-1815), and Curtis (1831).