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The compact county of Leicestershire is one of the more anonymous of the English shires, though Leicester itself is saved from mediocrity by its role as a focal point for Britain's Asian community. West Leicestershire has rather more to offer, for although its rolling landscape is blemished by a series of industrial settlements, things pick up markedly at Ashby-de-la-Zouch , a pleasing little town graced by the substantial remains of its medieval castle, and at Calke Abbey , a dishevelled country house set in its own estate. In east Leicestershire, the farmland is studded with long-established market towns. None of them are particularly enthralling, but genial Market Harborough does hold several attractive old buildings and an interesting museum. To the east of Leicestershire lies England's smallest county, Rutland , reinstated in 1997 following twenty-three unpopular years of merger with its larger neighbour. Rutland has three places of note, beginning with Oakham , the county town, and Uppingham , both rural centres with some elegant Georgian architecture. Even prettier is the tiny stone hamlet of Lyddington . Getting around Leicestershire and Rutland can be problematic. Train lines radiate out from Leicester, most usefully to Market Harborough and Oakham, and there's a good network of bus services between the market towns, but these fade away in the villages where, if there is a bus at all, it only runs once or twice a day.
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