Rutland Record 27 – From Militiamen to Stone Age Hunters Unlikely bedfellows are brought together in the new issue of the Rutland Local History & Record Society’s annual journal, the 27th Rutland Record, just published. As always, this publication contains articles on different aspects of the county’s past as well as notes on the activities of local organisations involved in work on its archaeology, history, museums and archives. The first article, by Robin Jenkins of the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, is about the history of the Rutland Militia, an article prompted by a Record Office exhibition on the 250th anniversary of the Militia Act of 1757. Those who served in the militia were selected by ballot: you couldn’t avoid selection, but if you could afford it you could pay a fine or hire a substitute to serve in your place. It’s hardly surprising, then, that some locals chose to avoid military service in this way, as Robin demonstrates, drawing on surviving archives to illustrate his article. The early development of Rutland’s railways formed the subject of the RLHRS’s annual Bryan Matthews lecture in 2005, and in the second article in this issue John Wales has now put pen to paper to record the basis of his talk on that occasion. The history of the Welland Valley line from Market Harborough to Peterborough and the importance of the Midland route from Kettering to Nottingham, over the Harringworth viaduct, are brought out in this study. The county’s shortest line, from Seaton to Uppingham – less than four miles, is also featured, as well as other components of the complex of lines that criss-crossed Rutland in the latter part of the 19th and the earlier 20th centuries.