In the region formerly peopled by the British Coritani - on the borders of what once was the northern division of the Mercian kingdom - and at the south-eastern angle of the renowned forest of Sherwood rises an abrupt ridge of rocks, from whose base pleasant meadows stretch southward to the margin of the meandering Trent.

On the summit and on each side of this rocky ridge - running parallel with the river - lies the ancient borough of Nottingham, the metropolis of the hosiery and lace trades. Bounded on one hand by the Castle rock and the precipitous Park hill, on the other by the rocks of Sneinton and the wood-crowned steeps of Colwick - the church of St. Mary rising boldly between - the town may be said to occupy a hollow basin, sloping towards the south, so that, while sheltered from the northern and eastern winds, it enjoys at the same time a sweet southern and south-western exposure.

Nottingham lies 53 degrees north latitude and 1 degree 13 minutes west longitude from the meridian of Greenwich; is a market and borough town; is the capital of the county and archdeaconry to which it gives its name; is situated in the diocese of Lincoln and in the midland circuit of England; and is one of the largest county towns in the kingdom.

It holds a central position between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Portsmouth to the north and south, and between Newcastle-under-Lyne and Boston to the east and west; is in the south western division of Nottinghamshire, at the junction of the hundreds of Broxtow, Thurgaton, and Rushcliffe; lies 125 miles north-west of London, 80 miles south of York, 20 miles south-west of Newark, 14 miles south of Mansfield, 15 miles east by north of Derby, 27 miles north of Leicester, 33 miles west by south of Lincoln, and 38 south by east of Sheffield. Nottingham is about the centre of England, measuring from north to south only, but measuring east, west, north, and south, Northampton is exactly equidistant from the east, west, and south, but much further from the north than Nottingham. Northampton must, therefore, be considered as nearer the middle of England than Nottingham.

The town is built on a foundation of soft rock, the surface of which is covered with a sandy soil. This new red sandstone, fine grained and of a soft texture, is generally too perishable for architectural purposes. From its porous character, and consequent freedom from moisture, it forms one of the most desirable substrata on which a town could be built. Its cliffs or sections have a remarkably uniform appearance, and tend, in a considerable degree, to give a warm and agreeable effect to the surrounding scenery.

Mr. Joseph WHITE, in his paper on "The Medical Topography of Nottingham," has supplied an excellent description of the situation of the town. "It is in a situation above all others most desirable that Nottingham stands. The surface of the surrounding country is generally undulating, and a range of hills extends in a southernly direction from the borders of Yorkshire through the old forest of Sherwood, terminating about half a mile from the north bank of the Trent in a boldly-elevated rock, and on the southern slope of the rock the town has been built. Placed in the centre of England, enjoying the many advantages of a southernly aspect, sheltered on the north and north-east by the hills of the forest and of Mapperley, it is seldom that we find in any country so favorable a situation for a large and important town. The natural facilities for drainage are uncommonly good, the greater part of the town standing on an inclined plane, which rises nearly 200 feet in little more than a mile, and falling directly towards the river Leen on the south and the Beck on the east - these streams uniting at a short distance from the town, and soon afterwards discharging their waters into the Trent. Such, indeed, is the favourable inclination of the ground, that with a properly constructed sewerage, even the lower and flat portions of the town, which extend towards the meadow land, may, without any great difficulty, be completely and properly drained into the streams I have alluded to."

With regard to climate, Nottingham possesses many advantages over other inland towns. The situation of the place renders the young and delicate subject to inflammatory disease, and the aged to rheumatic affections, the air being exceedingly keen; but with keenness there is united a purity which on the whole makes the neighbourhood healthy. The low-lying plains situated to the southward are frequently inundated after the long-continued rains of the winter season; but improved drainage and the extension of the town meadowards promise to modify this evil. Its average temperature for the whole year, as taken from observations extending over ten years, is 40.73 degrees, or about 1 1/2 degrees less than that of London. Generally the winter months are some degrees warmer, and the summer months some degrees colder, than most English towns in a nearly similar latitude. The annual range of temperature, indeed, does not much exceed that of the southern portion of England.

"Though the annual range is so small," remarks Mr. WHITE, "the daily range is somewhat remarkable, and hence the frequently changing temperature at every season of the year, which renders the climate of Nottingham so trying to persons suffering from pulmonary disease. The elevation of temperature during the winter months may be readily accounted for. On each side of the town the hilly boundary is sufficiently high to arrest or moderate the wind from the cold quarters, and not high enough to cool, sensibly, the atmosphere by its elevation. Were those eminences considerably higher - were they, for instance, 1000 feet or more, instead of 200 or 300, as they actually are, the chilly atmosphere embracing their summits, and descending by its gravity to the lower town, would more than counterbalance the protection they might afford from the north and north-easternly winds; but being, as nearly as possible, of the requisite elevation for the purposes alluded to, we can easily account for the fact of a less intensity of frost occurring in severe winters in this neighbourhood than in many localities in a similar or even more southernly situation. The same causes which produce so mild a temperature evidently tend to deprive the atmosphere of an undue amount of moisture; and, as might be anticipated, we find the amount of rain which falls considerably below the average, whilst the average height of the barometer is high, and the difference between the temperature of the air and that of the dew point considerably above the ordinary range."

On the east, west, and north sides of Nottingham gradually ascending hills serve at once to protect and beautify the borough, whose rocky site rises in broken declivities, the Leen being occasionally fringed on its north bank with precipices, chief among which is the formidable one surmounted by the castle. The Leen flows under the shadow of this great rock, and at a short distance to the south-east falls into the Trent a little below the Trent Bridge. This "thirty-armed" river, as MILTON calls it, sweeps in an easternly direction through pleasant meadows half-a-mile southward of the town. It has been conjectured that the tide at one time flowed up to the ancient borough; certain it is that in days gone by the stream covered a much larger space in the valley, and bore on its bosom many a stately craft; but even now, when the ancient glory depicted by the pen of history has faded, the broad river, fair and swiftly-flowing, remains a goodly feature of the scene.

The traveller by the London road, on descending Ruddington hill, is delighted with the view of Trent valley, bounded by the precipitous rock on which the town stands. The castle rises on the summit of a lofty crag to the left, the long range of buildings between it and the church of St. Mary assuming a crescent shape. Eastward of St. Mary's hill, the ground again slopes in a similar fashion, Poplar and a portion of Sneinton slumbering n the hollow basin - the suburbs, of which the church is prominent feature, gradually rising to a considerable height. The prospect is bounded on the east by the lofty hills of Mapperley and Colwick, and on the west by the spacious park, crested with a semi-circular terrace of elegant villas and bordered by hundreds of gardens rich in fruit-trees and flowers.

The foreground of the picture embraces the Trent and the Leen, broad meadows whose beauties have been sung by many minstrels, the railway and the station which so well typify the spirit of the age, the canal with its wharves and warehouses, the giant corn-store built near the Iron Way, and a goodly number of gigantic factories. On approaching by the Newark road from the east of the lengthened line of buildings become foreshortened, St. Mary's tower and the castle being mingled in one mass; but the Trent and the noble old bridge and the flood road are seen to great advantage, as also are the rocks and caverns of Sneinton. In the meadows numerous streets are already laid out, and many houses are at present in course of erection, while some are already occupied. Ere many years have elapsed we may expect to find that the modest crocuses have given place to a crop of bricks. At Sneinton the extension of the town has led to the demolition of many a rocky mound and time-wrinkled cave.

The stranger approaching from the north by the Mansfield road, on reaching the raceground hill sees stretched before him a broad, long street, lined with handsome newly-built houses, and leading into the heart of the town; beyond the borough he descries Trent vale, the rising grounds of Gotham, and away in the dim distance the valley of Belvoir and the hazy hills of Leicestershire. The western approach, by the Derby road, commands a view of the castle, the terrace encircling the north side of the park, the barracks, and in a northernly direction the old treeless forest, its summit studded with a row of windmills, and at its base the populous communities of Radford and Ison Green.

The railway traveller, entering from the west, sees the town for the first time in one of its most attractive aspects: he is probably prepared to find a dingy mass of factories, but as the train winds slowly round the base of the park he is agreeably surprised to perceive sweet rural villas, luxuriant gardens, and a romantic castle-crowned rock mingling in the lovely panorama which greets the pilgrim at the outskirts of the borough.

The town and suburbs are well supplied with pure water, which at the beginning of the present century was a desideratum. Gas is good in quality and moderate in price, but it has been introduced into comparatively few dwelling houses. The prolific coalfield extending through the adjoining parishes of Radford, Wollaton, Trowell, Basford, Nuttall, Bilborough, Strelley, Shipley, Ilkeston, Eastwood, Pinxton, &c., has continued to supply the town with coal for a long series of years.

The framework-knitters, from the crowded state of their dwellings and the character of their occupation, are an unhealthy and short lived class. The lace-makers, who work in factories, attain an average age of 22 years, or 4 years more than the framework-knitter. The female operatives engaged in the hosiery and lace trades, whether working at their own homes or in the warehouses, suffer severely from those diseases of debility so common among the younger population of a large manufacturing community; and it is not difficult to trace the origin of the serious diseases of after life to causes contracted by the injurious occupations of the child. The high rate of infant mortality is almost unparalleled, and the visiter to the cemetery cannot fail to be sorrowfully surprised at the vast number of little graves which lie scattered in that home of the dead.

The modern parts of the town have many attractive streets, containing houses of a superior character, constituting in every respect most eligible residences. Beyond the parochial boundaries are elegant houses of the best description, occupying excellent sites. In most parts of the town, especially in the poorer districts, the dwellings are crowded together in a manner highly prejudicial to the public health. Numerous instances exist in which not more than 9 1/2 yards, or from that to 11 yards, are afforded for each inhabitant, being more than double the proportion of the densest wards in Leeds. Another bad feature is displayed in the close proximity of good houses to those of the very lowest class, particularly in the numerous cases in which superior buildings fronting the streets are backed by yards and inclosures densely packed by the poor.

With the extension of the town, however, many improvements are being effected. Self-contained cottages for the laboring and pent-up poor are being built. The better order of houses now erected combine elegance with comfort. The sanitary committee of the Town Council has efficiently promoted the good objects for which it was established. There is now, as already stated, a copious supply of water; drainage has been extended and improved; public cemeteries have been formed, and extensive recreation grounds opened on every hand.

Since the passing of the general inclosure act many new streets have been laid out, none of which, however, are yet (1853) completed. These lie in the meadows, in the clay fields, and in the fields between Mansfield road and Radford. In the last-mentioned locality some progress has been made in paving the new thoroughfares. In Sneinton numerous buildings have been erected during the past few years, and many more are at present in course of formation. While the inclosure buildings have opened, and in some instances levelled, new roads, equestrians and pedestrians are obliged in dry weather to wade through seas of sand, and during the rainy season he heavy layer of mud renders them almost impassable. "Those localities in which the largest extent of building has been going on," says an extensive brick manufacturer, "are now (Nov., 1852) unapproachable, and houses and factories under contract for early completion are standing in a half-finished state, it being a matter of utter impossibility to convey material to them." The power to complete these streets rests entirely with the inclosure commissioners.

The Midland railway places the town in direct connexion with Loughborough and Leicester, Newark and Lincoln, Mansfield, Codnor Park, and Derby. The Ambergate line unites with the Great Northern at Grantham, and thus provides a different route to the metropolis in competition with that of the Midland Company. Though a less favored centre of railway communication than the neighbouring borough of Derby, still Nottingham possesses a fair share of those handmaids of commerce.

Many elderly inhabitants remember when the lace metropolis was a small market borough. They have seen the town walk our into the country and make the acquaintance of the neighbouring villages. They have seen the pasturage supplanted by proud edifices, and the pleasant garden with its flowers and butterflies and its luscious fruits give way to the warehouse of a utilitarian time. Where the itinerant tinker halted to enjoy the cool shade of the umbrageous tree, and to let his donkey crop the gorse and thistle, the ceaseless hum of machinery and the bustle of trade now deafen the ear.

We may still trace the division of the town, as it was when it contained two boroughs - a change affected at the close of the eleventh century, and which indicates the existence of disorder among the mixed races who at that time composed the inhabitants. The line of separation, it is supposed, ran almost in a straight line from north to south through the town. Beginning at the Trent bridge it passed through the meadows, along Sussex street, Drury hill, Bridlesmith gate, High street, Clumber street, and so to the northern boundary of the borough wall on the Mansfield road, a little beyond the present Robin Hood and Little John public house. The side of the line which included the castle was inhabited by the French or Norman population; the eastern side by the Anglo-Saxons. The eastern part of the town meadows and fields were of course in the English borough, and the western division in the French borough.

The plans in Thoroton tell what the town was two hundred years ago. Parliament street, Broad street, and Goose gate at that time formed the northern boundary of the borough; Water lane and Sneinton street, the eastern; thence to St. Mary's hill, save in Bellar gate, and Barker gate, there was a beautiful area of pasture land and gardens. The north sides of Broad marsh and Chesterfield street, with Narrow marsh, Fisher gate, and Willoughby row, bounded the town on the south; while a colony of tanyards lay between Turncalf alley and the Flood road.

A hundred years ago the view of the town from the top either of the Derby or Mansfield roads revealed in the foreground of the gently sloping declivity a fine display of gardens and pasturage, dotted at intervals with sweet though homely cottages, quaintly thatched with straw. In the background rose the tower of St. Mary's and the spire of St. Peter's with its elegant crocket work, and the fine array of mansions which at that period occupied a prominence now possessed by repositories, not of gentle blood and high breeding, but of the products of the machines busily at work in the humble dwelling of the artisan and in the groaning factory. DEERING has delineated the town as it was in his day; but "could the worthy doctor," as John SUTTON has remarked, "rise from the graveyard of St. Peter's with his flowing surtout, his powdered wig, three-cornered hat, high-heeled shoes, and silver buckles, and be placed in the meadows, his surprise now would be, that so fine a view should have been so wofully damaged." A century ago the town was a mile and three-quarters in circumference. Beyond this limit there lay, perhaps, some sixty scattered tenements. The total number of houses was 2300; of inhabitants, 11,000.

You desire to perambulate the town - the castle your starting point. Standard hill is an open field, and you do not reach a house till you arrive at the corner of St. James's street. You pursue your way along the outside streets - Mount street, Chapel bar, the foot of Tollhouse hill, Upper Parliament street, Milton street, Lower Parliament street, St. John street, Coalpit lane, Hockley, Count street, Carter gate, Fisher gate, Narrow marsh, Broad marsh, Greyfriars gate, Chesterfield street, and Walnut tree lane. The town is compassed, and you are once more at the castle! No lazy volumes of smoke then lingered in a dark cloud over the town; pleasure grounds and luxuriant gardens and sweet little patches of grass - with a cow or a donkey, or mayhap both, grazing on the inviting herbage - varied the monotony of street scenery; few of the inhabitants could look from their dwellings without perceiving the branches of some umbrageous tree; and in the centre of the borough, from an illusion caused by the peculiar site, roof rose upon roof, the houses standing boldly out, each asserting its individuality - not as in these days, when they all go to form one dead, monotonous mass.

But there is a pleasant side to the picture of Nottingham as it was a hundred years ago. The blocks of houses at that time were detached, and the population spread over a greater space. The outlets from the market place to Parliament street, now masses of brick teeming with oppressed and pen-up life, were inclosed store-grounds and gardens. An extensive orchard shaded the pathway leading from Mount street to the lower end of Park row, and was bounded by the Baptist burial ground. Pleasure grounds connected with the rural villas extended from Park row to St. James's street, and thence to Friar lane was almost entirely gardens.

On the South parade, in Wheeler gate, in St. Peter's square and Peck lane, cattle browsed and crops were cultivated. Paddocks were attached to many respectable tenements. Mr. SHERWIN possessed a grass field in Pilcher gate. The now densely peopled region of Coalpit lane, rendered classic by the residence of Thomas MILLER, were then the site of a cherry orchard, belonging to Mr. SHERWIN, and from which Cherry street, and Cherry lane derive their pleasant appellations. Clumber street, Pelham street, Carlton street, Broad street, Parliament street, and George street, embraced a few buildings, several large gardens, an orchard, and extensive field shaded by upwards of a score of trees.

Indeed, trees were then a common feature of the street scenery of the town. In a little close at the bottom of Woolpack lane lay a small cluster. Two venerable sycamores graced the open space in front of the Leather Bottle inn. A picturesque row of elms stretched along a portion of the west side of Stoney street, which became in consequence a much frequented promenade. Where now the Leen is hid from sight, pleasant lines of willow trees on each bank hung pendant above the crystal stream which ran murmuring past. Parliament street prided itself on a majestic row of Poplars, while seven goodly elms adorned the South parade, forming a conspicuous feature in the market place which we could wish to see restored. One of these trees, at the back of the premises formerly in the occupation of William and Mary HOWITT and now tenanted by Mr. HOLROYD, woollen draper, was recently removed.

MORITZ, a professor in one of the German universities, who travelled on foot through the greater part of England in 1784, says of Nottingham: "This of all towns I have yet seen except London seems to me one of the best, and is undoubtedly the cleanest. Everything here wore a modern appearance, and a large place in the centre scarcely yielded to a London square in point of beauty. Nottingham lies high, and makes a beautiful appearance at a distance with its neat high houses, red roofs, and its lofty steeples."

"When we descend from the castle hill to the town," remarks a recent writer, "we come to as dense a mass of streets, perhaps, as is to be found in England: narrow courts, and houses built back to back, everywhere abound. There are a few good streets and open thoroughfares, but the number is too small. It is rather a perplexing town for a stranger to walk through the first time; there is no straightforward thoroughgoing artery from east to west, or from north to south. The market place is rather westward of the middle of the town - and a fine market place it is; but in no direction is there a good straight street from thence to the margin of the town: we have to wind around many crooked and steep streets to reach the commercial centre of the place." The formation of Albert street has somewhat improved the central part of the town; though the completion of the plan, by which it was originally intended to form a direct entrance into the market place, is much to be desired.

Nottingham is at the present time remarkable for the number of self-made men which it contains - men who, from the humblest positions, have by their professional ingenuity and perseverance reached the highest honors which the town can bestow. Educational institutions and the increased supply of literature are imparting a more elevated tone to the popular mind, a love of literature and are is being developed, while the poor man's home is now more frequently than it was in days gone by the home of taste. As to the female population, who have earned for the town an enviable fame, they merit all the praises of the minstrel and the sober topographer. LAIRD, in his account of Nottinghamshire, dilates with evident delight upon the neatness, beauty, and becoming carriage of the young females who were to be met with at every step in the market place making the family purchases; and a more recent writer asserts that "Nottingham might vie with any town in England for its well grown and well dressed women of the operative class, who, on a Sunday, throng the park and public walks."