The Clownish Blazons, to each Country long agoe,
Which those unlettered times, with blind devotion lent,
……
And Bells and Bag-pipes next, belong to Lincolneshire.
Of Malt-horse, Bedfordshire long since the Blazon wan.
And little Rutlandshire is tearmed Raddleman.
(23.230-2, 266-8)

Song 23 of Poly-Olbion provides a remarkable attempt to represent the distinctiveness of individual English counties in popular terms. He describes these sketches as ‘Clownish Blazons’, and in this context claims that Rutlandshire ‘is tearmed Raddleman’. Since this is the first place ‘raddleman’ appears in print, it is unclear whether it is a term from ‘long agoe’, or Drayton’s own creation. The term may be derived from the fact that raddle, or red ochre, a dye for marking animals, was mined in Rutlandshire. Rutlandshire is one of the few counties for which Drayton provides an alternative name rather than simply listing things for which it is known. Another example is ‘Hogs’, apparently a term for Hampshire, perhaps owing to its production of ‘hog’, a type of wool taken from young sheep.