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diff --git a/25895.txt b/25895.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8fb702 --- /dev/null +++ b/25895.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2545 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Walk through Leicester, by Susanna Watts + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Walk through Leicester + being a Guide to Strangers + + +Author: Susanna Watts + + + +Release Date: June 24, 2008 [eBook #25895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WALK THROUGH LEICESTER*** + + +Transcribed from the 1804 T. Combe edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + + A + WALK + THROUGH + _LEICESTER_; + BEING + A GUIDE TO STRANGERS, + CONTAINING + A DESCRIPTION + OF THE + TOWN AND ITS ENVIRONS, + WITH REMARKS UPON ITS + HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES. + + + "Within this hour it will be dinner-time, + Till that I'll view the manners of the town, + Peruse its traders, gaze upon its buildings, + And then return and sleep within mine inn." + + SHAKESPEARE. + + LEICESTER, PRINTED BY T. COMBE, + AND SOLD BY + T. HURST, PATER-NOSTER-ROW, LONDON, + 1804. + + + + +ADDRESS. + + +The Editor of the following pages, while he has been solicitous to +furnish those who _travel_ with a POCKET CICERONE, feels at the same time +a wish that it may not be unacceptable to those who are _at home_. The +latter, though, in the subject of this survey, they trace an old, a +familiar scene, will still feel that it possesses that interest which the +native spot binds around the mind, and when they point out to their +intelligent visitors and curious friends the most memorable objects of +their antient and honourable Town, it is his wish that this little +companion may be found useful; he, therefore, while he rejoices in their +support and feels their liberality, inscribes it with respect and +gratitude, to the + + INHABITANTS OF LEICESTER. + + + + +A WALK +THROUGH +_LEICESTER_. + + +To the traveller who may wish to visit whatever is deemed most worthy of +notice in the town of Leicester, the following sketch is devoted. And as +the highly cultivated state of topographical knowledge renders +superficial remark unpardonable in local description, we shall endeavor +to produce, at the various objects of our visit, such information and +reflections as a conductor, not wholly uninformed, may be expected to +offer to the curious and intelligent, while he guides him through a +large, commercial, and, we trust, a respectable town; the capital of a +province which can honestly boast, that by its rich pasturage, its flocks +and herds, it supplies England with the blessings of agricultural +fertility; and by the industry of its frame-work-knitters, affords an +article that quickens and extends the operations of commerce. + +We now request our good-humoured stranger to accept of such our guidance; +whether he be the tourist, whose object of inquiry is general +information--or the man of reflection, who, wherever he goes, whether in +crouded towns or solitary fields, finds something to engage his +meditation--or the mercantile rider, who, when the business of his +commissions is transacted, quits his lonely parlour for a stroll through +the streets--we shall endeavor to bring before his eye as much of +interest as our scenes will afford: and as for the diligent antiquary, we +assure him we will make the most of our Roman remains; and we hope he +will not quarrel with the rough forest stones of our streets, when we +promise him they shall conduct him to the smoother pavement of Roman +mosaic. + +What may have been the name of the town we are about to traverse, before +the establishment of the Romans, cannot be ascertained; for the Britons +had no written monuments, and it cannot be expected that tradition should +have survived the revolutions, which, since that period, have taken place +in this island. King Leir, and whatever surmises may have been founded +on the similarity between his name and the present name of the place, may +safely be left to those who are more fond of the flights of conjecture +than the solid arguments of truth. + +After the establishment of the Romans, Leicester became one of their most +important stations; was known, we are well assured, by the name of RATAE, +and was a colony, composed of the soldiers from the legions, having +magistrates, manners, and language the same as Rome itself. Under the +Saxon dynasty it obtained the name of LEICESTER, compounded of _castrum_, +or _cester_, from its having been a Roman military station, and _leag_, +or _lea_, a pasture surrounded by woods, for such was antiently the scite +of the town. This name it has preserved, with less alteration in the +mode of spelling than almost any other town in the kingdom, through the +barbarous reigns of the Saxon kings, the oppressive system of the feudal +times, the dark gloom of monkish superstition, and the fatal revolutions +occasioned by the civil commotions of later ages. + +Such is, most probably, the true etymology of the name of the place we +are now proceeding to survey; for which purpose we will suppose the +visitor to set forward from the Three Crowns Inn, along a strait wide +street, called + + + +GALLOWTREE-GATE, + + +(corruptly pronounced _Goltre_), from its having formerly led to the +place of execution, the left side of which is the scite of the antient +city walls. + +At the bottom of this street, a building, formerly the assembly-room, but +now converted to purposes of trade, with a piazza, under which is a +machine for weighing coals, forms the centre of five considerable +streets. The + + + +HUMBERSTONE-GATE, + + +on the right, leads to a range of new and handsome dwellings, called +SPA-PLACE, from a chalybeate spring found there, which, though furnished +by the proprietor with neat marble baths and every convenient appendage +for bathing, has not been found sufficiently impregnated with mineral +properties to bring it into use. The Humberstone-Gate is out of the +local limits of the borough, and subject to the concurrent jurisdiction +of the county and borough magistrates; though in the reigns of Edward VI. +and Elizabeth, attempts were made to bring it exclusively under the +magisterial power of the town. It is part of the manor possessed by the +Bishops of Lincoln, in the twelfth century, and is still called the +_Bishops' Fee_. + +Southward from the Humberstone-Gate to the Goltre-Gate, very considerable +additions, consisting of several streets, have lately been made to the +town. + +Advancing forward, the visitor, on passing the weighing machine, enters +the + + + +BELGRAVE-GATE, + + +a street of considerable extent, in the broader part of which stands what +may justly be deemed one of the most valuable curiosities of the place; +it is a _milliare_, or Roman mile-stone, forming part of a small obelisk. +This stone was discovered in 1771, by some workmen, digging to form a +rampart for a new turnpike-road from Leicester to Melton, upon the foss +road leading to Newark, and at the distance of two miles from Leicester. +Antiquarians allow it to be the oldest _milliare_ now extant in Britain; +and perhaps the inscription upon it is older than most others that have +been found upon altars, or other monuments of Roman antiquity in this +island. It is about three feet long, and between five and six in +circumference. The inscription, when the abbreviations are filled up, +may be read thus-- + + Imperator Caesar, + Divi Trajani Parthici Filius Divus, + Trajanus Hadrianus Augustus, + Potestate IV. Consulatu III. A Ratis II. + + Hadrian Trajanus Augustus, + Emperor & Caesar, the son of the most illustrious Trajan Parthicus, + In the 4th year of his reign, and his 3d consulate. + From Ratae (Leicester) 2 miles. + +Such is the inscription on this _milliare_, which our industrious +antiquaries seem faithfully to have extracted from among the ruins of +time and the injuries of accident; an object, which exhibits a curious +instance of the civilization introduced by the Roman arms into this +island; for the erection of marks to denote the distance from place to +place, is an accommodation, at least to the travelling stranger, which +unpolished nations never devised; and which the inhabitants of Britain +never generally enjoyed from the final departure of the Roman legions, +till the last century, when mile-stones were again erected along our +principal turnpike roads. The unlearned visitor, it is confessed, will +be apt to view, with some degree of disappointment, the object of which +we are speaking, and about which much busy conjecture, and learned +antiquarian research has been employed; for indeed, its appearance is +neither singular nor striking, the engraving being but slight, and the +letters rudely formed. But the ingenious observer will esteem it a +valuable curiosity; not only because it clears up the long doubted +question, whether the RATAE of Antoninus's Itinerary was the present +Leicester, but because it is one of those objects which assist the +reflecting mind in connecting the past with the present; and, by +confirming from sensible evidence the records of history, give greater +weight and effect to the lessons she may teach. + +The situation in which this stone is at present placed, has often been +thought improper; for it is undoubtedly exposed to injuries from the +wantonness of play, and is so little conspicuous from its place in the +obelisk, that nothing appears necessarily to attract the attention of the +stranger. A situation more private, though not wholly so, would be more +proper; such a one as the garden of the Infirmary would afford: it would +there have all the publicity the curious could wish, and all the security +the antiquary could desire. + +Our visitor, continuing his walk along this street, which, as he probably +will know, is on the great road from the metropolis to the north-west +part of the kingdom, arrives at a scene of busy traffic. Here, among +numbers of newly-erected dwellings (proofs of the increasing population +of the town) is the public and principal wharf on the navigable canal, +near which is an iron foundery. This canal was formed, in consequence of +a bill passed in 1791, for the purpose of opening a communication with +the Loughborough canal, and through that, with the various navigations, +united to the Trent. The line of the canal from Leicester to +Loughborough is near sixteen miles in extent, and serves to supply +Leicester with coal, lime, and the greater part of all the other heavy +articles, which the consumption of a place, containing sixteen thousand +inhabitants, requires. + +The rates of tonnage, according to the act, from Loughborough to +Leicester, are-- + +For coals 1s. 2d. per ton. +Iron, timber, &c. 2s. 6d. + + + +Quantity of the articles brought by this canal: + + _tons_ +Coal annually consumed in Leicester and its vicinity 35,000 +Ditto forwarded to other canals 18,000 +Merchandize for Leicester 4,000 +Ditto sent down (chiefly wool) 1,600 + + + +Thus, whether we consider the saving of corn, &c. consumed by the horses +employed in land carriage, the comparative cheapness of the conveyance, +or the improved state of our roads, relieved from such heavy weights, it +must be acknowledged that this canal adds more than might have been +expected to the convenience of Leicester, and the greater part of its +county. Indeed, these _water-roads_, as navigable canals may be termed, +reflect the greatest honour on the ingenuity of man, exemplified in their +formation, and prove most strikingly to the thinking mind, how boundless +are the advantages of civilized life, and how inviolable the security +afforded to property by laws, wisely framed and judiciously enforced. + +The view from this spot, across the Abbey Meadow, extending on the +opposite side of the canal, with the ruins of the Devonshire mansion, +commonly termed the _Abbey_, from its being the scite of _St. Mary de +Pratis_, will, by most visitors, be considered, at least, as very +pleasing; but as we mean to conduct our traveller to that place, we +shall, at present, forbear to particularize it. + +We shall immediately, along a lane, called Arch-deacon's Lane, about the +middle of which is a Meeting house, with a small burial ground, belonging +to the General Baptists, guide our stranger to + + + +ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH. + + +This structure is rendered venerable by its tower, whose pinnacles and +trefoil-work, with the niche, or tabernacle, on the corner of the south +wall of the church, would have even shown it, had not its date been +confirmed by Bishop Alnwicke's register, 1441, to have been the work of +the era of the regular gothic. From this tower, a ring of ten bells, +well known for their excellence, sound in frequent peals of harmony along +the meadow and river below. + +This, when the other churches of Leicester were given to the abbey by +Robert Bossu, was annexed as a prebend to the cathedral of Lincoln, by +the bishops of that diocese to whom it then belonged. The right of +presentation is vested in the person holding the prebend, and the parish, +with the neighbouring dependent parish of Knighton, is exempted from the +jurisdiction of the Arch-deacon of Leicester. The inside of the church +is handsome; the nave and side aisles are supported by gothic arches, +whose beauty and symmetry are not concealed by aukward galleries. The +organ was erected by the parishioners in 1773. + +Several elegant modern monuments adorn the walls, and in the north aisle +is the alabaster tomb of Bishop Penny, many years abbot of the +neighbouring monastery of St Mary de Pratis. In the church-yard the +military trophies of a black tomb commemorate Andrew Lord Rollo. This +nobleman was an instance of the attraction which a martial life affords +to an elevated mind, for he entered the service at the age of forty, when +generally the habits and inclinations of life are so fixed, as scarcely +to admit any change. After many years of severe and dangerous services, +he died at Leicester, as the inscription informs us, on his way to +Bristol, for the recovery of his health, 1765. + +It is to be observed of this and the other churches in this place, that +the entrance is by a descent of several steps; a circumstance proving +incontestibly, that the ground without has been considerably raised, +since no reason could induce the founders of these sacred edifices to +sink the floors beyond the natural level; nor is the surface of the +church-yards alone, higher than the floors of the churches; so caused by +the continued interment of the dead: but the general level of the +pavements of the streets is also higher; from which it must be inferred, +that the ground on which the present houses are built has been every +where raised, and that very considerably. That the rubbish produced by +buildings, and particularly the consumption of fuel, should produce this +effect, is what any one may readily believe; and the Bishop of Llandaff +calculates in his Chemical Essays, that the quantity of coal consumed +annually in London, would raise an area of ten miles square, a full inch. + +But notwithstanding it may safely be affirmed that a much greater +quantity of fuel is at present consumed, and more rubbish produced +annually in Leicester, than at any other period whatever, yet the seeming +paradox may easily be proved, that little, if any alteration in the level +of the town is made now. For the demand of all the refuse of the yards +for the purposes of agriculture, and the ordinary attention paid to +sweeping the streets, prevent any accumulation of soil: the change of +level then, of which our churches afford such indubitable proofs, can +only have taken place when the streets were unpaved, and made the +receptacle of every kind of offal from the houses; and when the yards, +uncleared for the purposes of improved agriculture, were choaked by +accumulated filth; the whole almost ever yielding in abundance those +noxious steams, the loathsome parent of pestilences, which, in former +days, frequently proved the scourges of our larger towns, and too often +spread their contagion to the villages. Hence the entrance into our +churches, among other good sentiments, may excite in the reflective mind +a gratitude for the improved comforts the inhabitants of large towns now +enjoy; and the same circumstances may also call forth the exertions of +benevolence to promote still greater cleanliness, and to remove from the +habitations of man those effects of filthiness, which, in proportion to +their extent, are always offensive, and sometimes fatal. + +Westward from this church-yard, extends a street strait and wide, but +meanly built, called + + + +SANVY-GATE. + + +Here nothing can be traced worthy of observation, except the etymologist +stops to glean the remark that _Sanvy_ is derived from _sancta via_, the +antient name of the street, so denominated from the solemn procession +that passed through it on Whitsun Monday, in its way from St. Mary's to +St. Margaret's. In this procession the image of the Virgin was carried +under a canopy, with an attendant minstrel and harp, accompanied by +representatives of the twelve apostles, each denoted by the name of the +sacred character he personated, written on parchment, fixed to his +bonnet; these were followed by persons bearing banners, and the virgins +of the parish. Among other oblations they presented in St. Margaret's +Church two pair of gloves; one for the Deity, and one for St. Thomas of +India. + +The stranger, having visited St. Margaret's Church, may proceed up the + + + +CHURCH-GATE, + + +about the middle of which he will pass through an area of about an acre +and a half, the property of Sir Nigel Gresley, Bart. now used as a wood +yard; but formerly given by Queen Elizabeth to the freemen of Leicester, +for the practice of public sports, and especially archery; whence, from +the butts, or shooting marks erected in it, it is called _Butt-close_. + +There is good reason to believe that plots of ground were once destined +to the like purposes in almost every village, and butts erected for the +practice of that art, to which several of the most important victories of +the English were certainly owing. The use of the _arbalest_, or +cross-bow, was certainly very antient in Europe, and was the weapon that +proved fatal to Harold at the battle of Hastings: but the long bow was +not familiar to the English, or, perhaps, not known in Europe, till the +return of Edward the First from the Holy Land, where he became sensible +of its superior advantages from his conflicts with the Saracens. + +From this period till the time of Charles the First, frequent orders were +issued by the kings, and acts of parliament were passed, enforcing and +regulating the exercise of the long bow. Persons of all ages, from seven +years old and upwards, were obliged by penalties to appear at stated +times, each with his bow of a length equal to his own height, and, at +least, a brace of arrows, to try his skill and strength before the butts +near their respective places of residence; and by a statute of Henry the +Eighth, no one under twenty-four was allowed to shoot at any mark, at a +less distance than eleven score, or 220 yards, a distance of greater +length than our _Butt-close_ is at present; yet it is certain that the +adjoining orchard once formed part of it, and other encroachments may +have been made on it, probably at the north end. + +The great execution that may be done by the bow, from the rapidity of its +discharges, and the confusion a flight of arrows is likely to occasion, +especially among cavalry, has inclined some to contend that it is a +weapon in excellence superior to the musket. But the difficulty of +procuring, in any great quantity, the proper wood for the formation of +bows, the expense of arrows, and, above all, the long practice and +training, even from infancy, necessary to form an archer capable of +drawing _an arrow a cloth-yard long_, {23} will ever secure the +preference to the latter weapon, which, though as commonly used, perhaps +less certain of hitting the mark, is however capable of doing much +execution at double the distance to which the bow will carry {24}. + +Crossing the Butt-close, to the alley on the right, we pass the +_Presbyterian_, or GREAT MEETING HOUSE, built, as appears by a date on +the walls, 1708; the congregation of which was first established in 1680. +The seats are calculated to accommodate eight hundred persons. An organ +was erected here in 1800, a valuable advantage to the choir, who form a +musical society, cultivated with great care, and justly celebrated for +its excellence. + +In an opposite lane, now called Causeway-lane, but formerly St. John's, +leading to the Town Goal, the scite of St. John's Chapel, is a small +place of worship appropriated to the service of the _Romish Church_. It +is secluded from observation, being situated behind the house of the +officiating priest, and is a neat miniature representation of the +peculiar decorations with which the members of that religion adorn the +places where they offer up their public devotions. + +Opposite the Great Meeting is a Meeting House newly erected by a society +of_ Independents_, which will seat six hundred persons; and in the +adjoining lane, which has undergone a nominal degeneracy from _St. +Peter's_ to _Woman's Lane_, is another, erected 1803, by a society +calling themselves _Episcopalian Baptists_. Between these two latter +buildings, is an area used as a _Bowling Green_, and _Tea Garden_, with +many small structures erected for the general purposes of amusement; it +is known by the name of the _New Vauxhall_. Among this various +assemblage of edifices stands one, which from its size will attract the +attention of visitors; it is a spacious House for the reception of +Lunatics, under the direction of Dr. Arnold. From hence we pass an +irregular street, now called the + + + +SWINE MARKET, + + +formerly _Parchment Lane_; which may afford interest to the mind tho' not +to the eye; for the reflective Traveller will not regard as unimportant +the humble dwellings of those Manufacturers whose industry supplies the +commercial wealth of the nation. + +From this street we arrive at a spot still called the + + + +EAST-GATES, + + +tho the gates of the ancient town were, some years ago, taken down to +render the passage more commodious. In the massy wood of these gates +were found balls of a large size, which probably had lodged there ever +since the assault made upon the town by king Charles's forces in 1695, +when according to a note in the pocket-book of one Simmonds, a +quarter-master in the King's army, which is now preserved in the Harleian +library, "Col. Bard's Tertia fell on with scaling ladders, some near a +flanker, and others scaled the horne work before the draw-bridge on the +east side." + +We now advance along the + + + +HIGH-STREET, + + +observing on the right hand, about half way up, a lofty hexagon turret, +whose top is glaz'd for the purpose of a prospect seat. It bears on the +inside, marks of considerable antiquity, and is a remain of the mansion +of Henry Earl of Huntingdon, called _Lord's Place_. It has a winding +stair-case of stone, with a small apartment on each story, and is now +modernized with an outward coating of brick. + +From hence we enter a street, which was formerly upon the great north +road; it leads to Ashby-de-la-zouch, and changing its denomination at +different places, intersects the town from the southern extremity, where +stands the Infirmary, to the North Bridge, a space of a mile and one +eighth; where it is crossed by High-Street and St. Nicholas' Street, it +takes the name of + + + +HIGH-CROSS-STREET, + + +from a plain doric pillar bearing the name of High Cross, and which +formed some years ago one of the supporters of a light temple looking +building of the same name, that served as a shelter to the country people +who here hold a small market on Wednesdays and Fridays for the sale of +butter, eggs, &c. Here the members of parliament are proclaimed, and +here also may be seen on Michaelmas day, the grotesque ceremony of the +poor men of Trinity Hospital, arrayed like ancient Knights, having rusty +helmets on their heads and breast-plates fastened over their black +taberdes proclaiming the fair. + +Some paces lower the massy stone front of an edifice adorned with +rusticated pillars points to the eye the _County Goal_, erected in the +year 1791, at the expense of six thousand pounds. The spectator may +prehaps be led into a reflection on the violation of propriety, when he +sees the Roman Fasces and Pileus encircled by heavy chains decorating an +English prison. Under these symbols the name of the Architect is fully +conspicuous, and it may be observed as an example of sudden vicissitude, +that the builder of this fabrick became, as a debtor, its first +inhabitant. + +This prison, to which the county bridewell is now added, was erected, +upon the scite of the old goal, some years after the benevolent Howard +visited Leicester, and is built with solitary cells after the plan +recommended by that celebrated philanthropist. + +The mention of a character so widely expanding beyond the customary +sphere of human action irresistibly arrests the attention of the heart +that glows into admiration at striking examples of virtue, and of the +head that feels interest in tracing the motives which influence the +conduct of man. + +Separated from the county prison, by a lane called _Free-School Lane_, is +a rude heavy building, adorned with the Royal Arms. This is the FREE +GRAMMAR SCHOOL, the aera of whose original foundation has been thought +uncertain; but upon the authority of the learned topographer Leland, it +is ascertained to have been founded by one of the three Wigstons interred +in the collegiate church in the Newark, and who, according to the same +writer, was a Prebendary of that church. This, if not the same person, +was brother to him who founded the Hospital dedicated to St. Ursula, now +called _Wigston's Hospital_. The master of that Hospital, had formerly +the privilege of recommending, if not appointing the master and usher of +the school, but this right is now exercised by the Mayor and senior +Aldermen.--The present building was erected by the Mayor and Burgesses, +in the fifteenth of Elizabeth, who granted them for that purpose, the +materials of the adjoining church of St. Peter. + +On the opposite side of the street projects the gabel end of a building +once part of the _Blue Boar_, afterwards _Blue Bell_ inn, in ancient +times undoubtedly the principal inn of the place. The old over-hanging +window gave light to a chamber in which stood the bedstead, which has +been celebrated by the name of _King Richard's Bedstead_, from the +circumstance of his having slept in it a few nights preceding Bosworth +Fight. + +Antiquaries have spoken of this bedstead as belonging to the king rather +than to the master of the house; and this opinion has been thought +favoured by the circumstance of a large sum in gold coin, partly of +Richard's reign, accidentally discovered in its double bottom. The +bedstead is of oak, highly ornamented with carved work, and is now, in +the possession of Tho. Babington Esq. M.P. There seems but little reason +to suppose that a Royal General while attending the march of his Army, +should unnecessarily encrease his baggage by so cumbrous a piece of +furniture, or that a Sovereign, guarded by nearly all the military force +of the Nation, should find it expedient to hide his gold like a private +unprotected person. The bedstead therefore, it may safely be inferred, +belonged, not to a monarch, but to the master of a good inn; and the +money was secreted in it by some person anxious to secure his property +from the dangers threatened by times of civil distraction. + +At the bottom of _Blue Boar Lane_, which takes it name from the inn, is a +small Alms-house, founded 1712, by Matthew Simons Esq. for six Widows, +and endowed with 20_l._ 10_s._ annually. + +The next observable object in the High Cross Street, is the TOWN GOAL. +It is a commodious building, with a handsome stone front, and built after +the plan of Howard--the Architect, Mr. W. Firmadge. + +In taking down the old Goal for the erection of the present edifice, in +the year 1792, incorporated with the walls of the cells were discovered +the remains of the chapel of St John, supposed to have been destroyed +during the contests between Henry the Second and his Son. A regular +stone arch belonging to this chapel, of a circular form, with ornaments +of cheveron work, was carefully taken from among the ruins of the old +goal, and preserved by that industrious Antiquary and Historian of +Leicester, Mr. Throsby. + +The small Hospital of St. John, to which this chapel belonged, joins the +prison; it supports six Widows who subsist on a very scanty stipend +arising from various annual donations. Bent's Hospital, being the ground +floor of the same building, supports four Widows on an endowment equally +small. + +We are now approaching one of the most valuable traces which Leicester +affords of our Roman Conquerors, a relick of their tesselated floors; +preserved with great attention, in the cellar of Mr. Worthington, +opposite the town prison. It was discovered in the year 1675, about four +feet and a half under the surface of the earth, which beneath was found +to consist of oyster shells to a considerable depth; it was sunk from its +original portion on one side being considerably inclined from the +level.--This pavement, which is an octagon three feet diameter, +represents a Stag looking intently upon the modestly-inclined countenance +of a figure seemingly female, with her arm resting affectionately against +his neck; in front stands a boy, whose wings and bow plainly indicate him +to be a Cupid; he appears about to discharge an arrow at the breast of +the female; a circumstance which renders it very certain that the subject +must be the amours of some fabulous personages, but assuredly not _Diana +and Actaeon_; nor yet as some Antiquaries have hastily supposed, +_Cypressus_ lamenting the death of his favourite stag. Indeed in the +whole of the _Metamorphoses_, no story cm be found bearing the slightest +resemblance to the subject before us. + +The elegant and picturesque Gilpin has chosen to denominate this pavement +"a piece of miserable workmanship," which can only be owing to the manner +in which he injudiciously viewed it. By placing the light in a proper +position, the spectator will observe that the effect of the whole piece +gives the idea of good design, shade, and relief; and will be clearly +convinced that it could not have been wrought by a hand which had not +made considerable progress in the art of painting, as is evident from the +rounding of the arm of the female, the foreshortening of the stag's horn, +and the animated expression of each countenance. The tesserae are of +various sizes, mostly square, but where a narrow line of light was +required, as in the strait Grecian nose of the female, they are small and +long. They appear to be a composition, and are of three or four distinct +shades, the darkest a brown approaching to black, the next a warm or red +brown, and the lightest, which forms the ground work, an ochery white. + +The admirers of this art, so much practised by the Romans as a decoration +of their magnificent buildings, an art which has survived so long as to +have obtained an established manufactory in modern Rome, will ascertain +the pavement in question to be one of the first specimens of antient +mosaic, and will, with gratified attention, here behold form and shade +called up from that unmanageable material, a piece of baked earth. + +The commonly received opinion of these pavements having been the floors +of baths, as founded on the circumstance of their being discovered three +or four feet under the surface of the earth, is not conclusive; for the +soil has been raised by accidental accumulation; and had not this been +the case, the depth of three or four feet would not have been sufficient +for a Bath as it could not have allowed room for submersion. Neither +does the vault with a floor and walls of tesselated work, and pipes in +the roof, discovered near Leicester in the reign of James the first, the +memory alone of which is preserved by our indefatigable topographer, Mr. +Nichols, render such an opinion in any respect more certain; but that +some of them were floors of sitting rooms may be justly inferred, from +the flues constructed under them for the purpose of conveying heat. + +In examining the specimens of the mosaic art, we are tempted to draw a +far different conclusion from that adopted by the truly learned author of +the _Munimenta Antiqua_, who strongly adduces the number of _fragile_ (as +he terms them) tesselated floors found in Britain, as a proof of the +slightness of the superstructures erected by the Romans. Now, surely it +is not to be expected that a people whose architecture in their own +country was so strikingly characterized by massiveness & splendor, +should, in this island, which though a distant was a durable conquest, +and improved by all their arts and industry, have departed from their +usual principles. And farther, the taste and costly magnificence +discoverable in these curious remains must lead to the conclusion that +they could not have committed them to slight or ordinary buildings, for +they were decorations which the experience of more than fourteen hundred +years has scarcely surpassed. Even the looms of modern Brussels, in +elegance and beauty of pattern, cannot fairly outvie the Mosaic Carpets +of the antient Romans. + +The next object that engages the eye is the church of _All Saints_, +projecting on the west end into the street, exhibiting in its clock an +humble copy of the machinery of St Dunstan's, in London. It is a small +neat church with three aisles and a low tower, and nothing in its +architecture attracts regard. This vicarage with that of _St Peter's_, +which was annexed to it in the reign of Elizabeth, includes the antient +parish of _St Michael_, and part if not the whole, of that of _St. +Clement_. + +A monument in this church-yard commemorates a character greatly +distinguished by his large donations to the poor--_Ald. Gabriel Newton_. + +Of the prevalence of alms-giving in Leicester, this parish, together with +the rest, bears full testimony, in a long list of benefactors, from the +Royal Grant of Charles the first of forty acres of land in Leicester +forest, to poor housekeepers, (which now produces annually 33l. 11s. 4d +{42}) to the donor of the penny wheaten Loaf. From the returns to +Parliament in the present reign, when accounts were made of all the +charitable donations in the kingdom, it appears that there are donations +in the parishes of Leicester, in land and money (including the endowments +of the lesser Hospitals) mostly vested in the trust of the Corporation +and by them distributed, to the annual amount of upwards of 800l.--see +Nichols.-- + +A short space below the church is the spot where formerly stood the North +Gates; here a narrow lane, which once obtained the name of St. Clements, +from its leading to that church, but which is now degraded into +_Dead-mans Lane_, is the passage to a Meeting House, belonging to the +Society of Quakers. The street continuing in a right line, now takes the +name of + + + +NORTH-GATE STREET. + + +and conducts us to a bridge over the Canal, beyond which is the _North_ +or _St. Sunday's Bridge_. This is an elegant stone structure, erected in +1796 and when viewed from the Abbey meadow below, it forms with the trees +and slopes beyond it a very pleasing scene. Its three arches are small +segments of a large circle. + +At the foot of the bridge in an area enclosed by a low wall, and +distinguished by a few scattered grave-stones, the church-yard of _St. +Leonard_ meets the eye. The church, of which no trace remains, was +demolished by the Parliament Garrison in the reign of Charles the first; +as from its convenient situation it might have covered the approach of +the enemy, and given them the command of the bridge. The parish still +remains distinct, and the occasional duty is performed by the minister of +St. Margaret's. + +We cannot leave the North Bridge, without remarking that near this spot +once stood an establishment, which as it related to a privilege +exclusively royal, that of coining money, has ever been thought to confer +honor on the places where it was allowed to be exercised. It is +undoubtedly proved from the series of coins that has been collected, that +money was coined at the _Mint at Leicester_, in regular succession from +the reign of the Saxon king Athelstan, down to Henry the second. The +_Monetarii_, or Governors of the mint, were entitled to considerable +privileges and exemptions, being _Socmen_, or holders of land in the Soc, +or franchise of a great Baron, yet they could not be compelled to +relinquish their tenements at their lord's will. They paid twenty pounds +every year, a considerable sum, as a pound at the time of the conquest, +contained three times the weight of silver it does at present. These +pounds consisted of pennies, each weighing one _ora_ or ounce, of the +value of 20 pence. Two thirds of this sum were paid to the king, and the +other third to the feudal Baron of Leicester. + +The Leicester coins of Athelstan and Edmund the first have only a rose +with a legend of the king's name, that of the Moneyer, and Leicester; +from Etheldred the second, they bear the impress of the royal head and +sceptre, with the same stile of legend unchanged. + +In this series of Leicester coins, which has been engraved with accurate +attention in the valuable work of Mr. Nichols, the triangular helmets, +uncouth diadems, and rudely expressed countenances of our Saxon +Sovereigns, exhibit, when opposed to a plate of Roman coinage, a striking +contrast to the nicely delineated features of the laurelled Caesars. In +no instance of comparison does the Roman art appear more conspicuous. +The great quantity of coins of that scientific people which have been +found at Leicester, is an additional testimony of its consequence as a +Roman town; these, unfortunately upon being found at different periods, +have paffed into various hands, and altho' some few gentlemen here have +made collections, yet it is to be regretted that by far the greater part +of the coins have been taken from the town. Had those found in the last +century been thrown together into one cabinet, Leicester might have +exhibited at this time a respectable series of Roman coinage, both in +brass and silver, from the emperor Nero, down to Valens. Leaving those +whose taste shall so direct them, to pursue the train of reflections to +which this most curious subject may lead, we return to our route. From +the North Budge two streets branch out, that on the left the + + + +WOOD-GATE, + + +leading to the Ashby-de-la-Zouch road, and that on the right, the + + + +ABBEY-GATE, + + +conducting us to the Abbey. + +The name of _Abbey_, so dear to painting, poetry, and romance, naturally +raises in the mind an idea of the picturesque and the aweful; but we are +now approaching no gothic perspectives, no "long drawn aisles and fretted +vaults," and scarcely able to bring a single instance of assimilation, we +visit indeed an Abbey only in name; yet we visit a spot well adapted to +the purposes to which it was appropriated. Sequestered, surrounded by +pleasing objects, and dignified by the not uncertain evidences of +history, it offers to the thinking mind all those interesting sensations +which a review of past times, important events, and manners now no more, +can possibly produce. + +An antient brick wall with a small niche of stone is the first indication +of its boundaries. This is said by Leland, to have been built by Bishop +Penny who was Abbot of this Monastery in 1496. This prelate continued in +his Abbacy till he was translated to the See of Carlisle, and even then, +when spared from his episcopal duty, he delighted to dwell among his +brethren in this religious retreat, and was interred in the neighbouring +church of St. Margaret. Tracing the wall, we enter the grounds by a +modern gateway, and perceive, among orchards, gardens, and potatoe +plantations (the land being occupied by a Gardener and Nursery-man) the +front wall, facing the north west, of the mansion, once belonging to the +Earls of Devonshire, which, as Mr. Grose has ascertained from a MS. in +the British Museum, was built out of the ruins of the Abbey, long after +its dissolution. The massy stone stanchions of the windows of this house +which still remain entire, and the firmness of the walls, shew the +durability of the materials. They still retain the traces of that fire +by which the forces of Charles the first on their retreat northward after +their defeat at Naseby, destroyed that mansion, a few days before, the +quarters of the king himself. + +In these gardens, nearly thirty acres in extent, no traces now remain of +the refectory, the cells of the Abbot and twelve Canons, the structures +raised in the year 1134, by the great Robert Bossu, Earl of Leicester; +neither is there, as might have been hoped, one vestige of that noble +church, believed to have been built by Petronilla, the wife of his son +Robert Blanch-mains, and adorned with the pious donation of a braid of +her hair wrought into a rope, to suspend the lamp in the great choir; an +offering at which some of our modern females who sacrifice their tresses +with other views, may perhaps smile. Nor has the diligence of the +enquiring Antiquary been more successful in the discovery of any traces +of the tomb of Cardinal Wolsey, that great example of fallen ambition; +who, after a life of more than princely magnificence, stripped of his +honours, deprived of his eight hundred attendants, came here, sick, +almost solitary, and a prisoner, performing a wearisome journey on an +humble mule, to crave of the Abbot "_a little earth for charity_." + +But, however barren this spot may seem to be of antient relicks, it is +not wholly destitute of objects calculated to revive in the thinking +mind, the events to which we have been alluding; for in the small garden +or court before the main front of the present ruins are still to be seen +the delapidated towers of that gate-way thro' which Wolsey entered in +melancholy degradation, and thro' which other great, more prosperous, and +often royal visitors were admitted with their stately trains. + +Returning by the first entrance, and passing this interesting gate-way, +and the antient stone wall of the Abbey, overhung with profuse ivy, the +visitor will find himself well recompensed for the trouble of a traverse +along the Abbey meadow, from the Bleach-yard at the angle of the wall, to +the navigation bridge at the bottom of North-gate street. + +On crossing the antient bed of the Soar, the eye will immediately take +its flight over a fine level plain containing at least five hundred acres +of perhaps the richest soil in the kingdom, for that may truly be said of +the _Abbey Meadow_. The right of this tract is vested partly in a number +of proprietors who claim the hay, and partly in the inhabitants of +Leicester, who possess the privilege of here pasturing their cows till a +certain period of the year. + +This ample area was formerly used as a race ground, but that annual sport +is now removed to the South-side of the town, having been here frequently +incommoded by the floods from the Soar. + +It has lately, at various reviews been dignified by a display of that +admirable patriotism, which, while it reflects honor on the British name +in general, is found in particular to glow with equal zeal and firmness +in the breasts of the Volunteers of Leicester and its County. + +The view to the North-ward is simply ornamented by the church and village +of Belgrave, whose inhabitants in 1357, in consequence of a dispute with +the Abbot concerning the boundaries of the Stocking Wood, blockaded the +North Bridge, and the Fosse, with a determination of depriving the Monks +of their usual supply of provision from their _Grange_, or Farm at +Stoughton. This view forms a pleasing contrast to the towering churches +and close grouped houses of Leicester. The eye of taste will however +soon turn from these objects and dwell with greater pleasure on the noble +ivied walls bounding the Abbey domains; it will proceed to contemplate +the mingling angles of its ruins, and in the back ground, the rich tops +of the woods in the neighbourhood of Beaumont Leys. This scene however, +will not serve merely to amuse the eye, but will naturally lead the well +informed visitor to interesting and affecting thoughts, while he +contemplates the spot in which, in former times, were acted all the +striking rites of the Romish Church, tho' he may lament the superstitious +errors into which a dark and ignorant age had plunged mankind, he need +not join with the destroyer of these venerable institutions in lording +then memory with odious crimes, nor deem them even wholly useless. Pity +and a regard to truth will lead him to acknowledge that, tho' their +worship was less pure than the reformed service now happily established +in this Island, yet it was calculated, by its address to the senses, to +keep alive the remembrance of the faith of the Gospel, and to prevent the +warring Baron and his rude vassals from relapsing into heathenism. Let +it also be remembered, that Monks, odious as we are wont to consider +them, were at one time, the only inhabitants of Christendom, who were at +all acquainted with such sciences as then peered above the mists of +overwhelming ignorance. Of history, they may be said to be the modern +fathers, and tho' perhaps, like the age in which they lived, in some +respects, blind themselves, they led, not indirectly to the enlightening +of the present age. But in their own times they were far from useless; +their monasteries were ever ready to receive the wearied traveller, and +many persons of family, tho' of broken fortunes were honorably maintained +at their board. The poor were gratuitously relieved from their kitchens, +and that in a manner, upon the whole, more favorable to religion and +morality than they are now by those parish rates, which the abolition of +monasteries, and the partition of their property among private +individuals, have rendered so oppressively necessary. To these valuable +purposes the revenues of our Abbey were fully competent, for it possessed +the advowsons of thirty six parish churches in Leicester and its County, +which together with lands in various places, and rights in particular +districts, produced annually for its disposal more than one thousand +pounds. + +Quitting the Abbey meadow, and passing the North lock, we still continue +our walk along pleasing rural scenes. The sweeps of the river which here +beautifully meanders, wash, almost closely, a large extent of town, +affording an agreeable prospect on the left, and a slope finely +diversified with groves and pasturage descends gently to the meadows on +the right. Approaching the Bow-Bridge, we pass a plot of ground +insulated by the Soar, called the Black Friars, once the scite of a +monastery belonging to the Augustine or Black Friars, of which no traces +now remain. That arm of the river which flows under the west bridge, is +by some supposed, from its passing under the scite of the old Roman town, +to be a canal formed by that people for the convenience of their +dwellings. It is now called the _New Soar_, and whether it can +authentically boast the honor of being a Roman work, the antiquary may +perhaps endeavour in vain to decide. A tunnel or Roman sewer, was +discovered in 1793, at an equal distance between the Roman ruin, called +Jewry Wall, and the river, and in a direct line towards the latter, which +contained some curious fragments of Roman pottery. + +Tho' it be the leading purpose of this survey to point out existing +objects, those who lament the loss of such antient remains as were justly +to be prized, will pardon a brief tribute to the memory of _Bow-Bridge_. +That single arch of stone, richly shadowed with ivy, spanned, at the +corner of this island, the arm of the Soar. Its beautiful curve, +unbroken either by parapet or hand-rail, well merited the name with which +some Antiquaries have graced it, the _Rialto Bridge_. On the top of the +bow, feeding on the mould which time had accumulated upon the stony +ridge, flourished a spreading hawthorn; this with the stream below, when +sparkling under the reflection of the western sun, the broken shrubby +banks, and the distant swell of Brad-gate Park hill, formed a picture +which has often allured the eye; a picture, that, as it repeatedly +arrested the painter's hand, we can hardly say is now no more. + +Of this Bridge, the learned author of the _Desiderata Curiosa_, who has +mistaken it for the adjoining one of four arches, has given a plate in +which is represented a troop of horsemen with banners, carrying the dead +body of Richard the third, thrown upon a horse, over a bridge which never +exceeded three feet; a width fully sufficient for the purpose for which +it seems to have been constructed, that of affording a foot passage from +the monastery of the Augustines to a spring of pure water some yards +distant. This spring till within a few years, was covered with a large +circular stone, having an aperture in the centre, thro' which the monks +let down their pitchers into the water, and retained the name of _St. +Austin's Well_. + +But tho' not over this bridge, yet over the adjoining one, known also, +probably from its vicinity to the other, by the name of _Bow-Bridge_, the +monster Richard really passed, proud, angry, and threatening, mounted on +his charger to meet Richmond; and over it, the day after the battle, his +body was brought behind a pursuivant at arms, naked and disgraced, and +after being exhibited in the Town-Hall, then situated at the bottom of +Blue-Boar Lane, was interred in the church of the Grey-Friars near St. +Martins. + +The name of this king excites in the mind a sensation of horror;--and +tho' it required the overwhelming evidence of human depravity furnished +by the French revolution, to make the author of the "Historic Doubts," +believe his crimes possible, the concurrent testimonies both of +Lancastrian and Yorkist Chroniclers, too well demonstrate them. Tho' the +latter may have endeavoured to soften the picture, and Shakespear may +have thrown upon it the darkest shades by working up his deformity of +body and mind into a picture of diabolical horror, the original, the +undoubted traits are preserved by both parties; traits, which so far from +being peculiar to Richard, marked likewise the other characters of the +contending houses. Nor did he deviate widely from the manners of the +times when he "_waded thro' slaughter to a throne_." + +A pleasing woody road leads from Bow-Bridge to Danett's Hall, the seat of +Edward Alexander, M.D. The ground here rising in a gentle slope obtains +a command of the town, and that the dryness of the soil and agreeableness +of the situation, mark it as a desirable spot for residence, even the +taste of the antient Romans may prove; for in the plot of ground known by +the name of the "great cherry orchard," remains a relic of one of their +houses. This is a fragment of a tesselated floor, discovered a few years +ago, but covered over by a former possessor of the estate. It is +composed of tesseroe of various sizes, forming an elegant geometrical +pattern, but how far it extends, has not yet been ascertained. + +Among the great number of these pavements found at Leicester, are three +very perfect ones discovered in the ground belonging to Walter Ruding +Esq. adjoining the old Vauxhall, near the west bridge--they also are +composed in curious and exact patterns, and form entire squares; but are +now filled up. Of these, together with that in the great cherry orchard, +very accurate plates are given in Nichols. + +To the westward of Danett's Hall, and West-cotes, the seat of Mr. Ruding, +is a lane or bridle road, commonly called the Fosse, but various reasons +lead to the belief that it is not part of the antient Roman road of that +name. The unvarying testimony of tradition has clearly proved that the +road from the town westward lay, in the reign of Richard the third, over +Bow-Bridge. By attending to the Fosse, which runs nearly in the line of +the Narborough road by West-cotes, it will seem likewise necessary to +conclude that the approach to Leicester, in the time of the Romans, was +also over a bridge situate near that spot; for as it is certain that the +Fosse did pass thro' Leicester, and the Romans in forming their roads +scrupulously adhered to the strait line, they would cross the old Soar +near this place. + +When the Romans penetrated into Britain under the reign of Claudius, they +found it almost in every part, crowded with woods, and infested with +morasses; and as the natives well knew how to avail themeslves of these +fastnesses, the island could never be considered as effectually conquered +till it was rendered accessible to the march of the legions, and means +were provided for speedy communication of intelligence from even the most +distant parts of the provinces. On this account their Cohorts early +applied themselves to the task of forming roads; nor did they cease their +labours till in the time of Antoninus, they had opened passages thro' the +island in all directions. In the reign of that emperor, these works, +connected with others which they had already constructed on the +continent, formed a great chain of communication, which, passing thro' +Rome, from the Pict's wall, or north west, to Jerusalem, nearly the +southeast point of the empire, was drawn out to the length of 4080 Roman, +or as Mr. Reynolds has shewn, of so many British statute miles. Along +these roads proper relays of horses were stationed at short distances, +and it seems that couriers could travel with ease above an hundred miles +a day. Two of these roads, as already observed, passed thro' Leicester. +One, the _Via Devana_, leading from Camalodunum, or Colchester, in Essex, +to _Deva_, of west Chester, a distance of about two hundred miles, has +been lately discovered by some ingenious and able Antiquaries of the +University of Cambridge. + +It enters Leicestershire in the neighbourhood of Rockingham; continues a +strait road for many miles till it nearly reaches Leicester, and passing +thro' the town it is found to leave the county near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. +The other road, called the _Via_ _Fossata_ or Fosse, always known, and +every where remarkable, traverses the island in a north-east direction, +from near Grimsby on the coast of Lincolnshire, passes thro' Bath, and +terminates at Seaton, a village situated on the coast of Devonshire, a +distance of more than two hundred and fifty miles. This road enters +Leicesteshire at a place called Seg's Hill, on the wolds, or antiently +wild and uncultivated parts of the county; from thence it passes the +village of Thurmaston and approaches the East gates of Leicester, by the +street called the Belgrave Gate. On the south-west of the town it is +again recognized in the Narborough road, and from that village it +proceeds again a solitary lane till it enters Warwickshire at High Cross, +where it crosses the no less celebrated Roman road, the Watling-Street. +It is well known that in the formation of these roads, the Romans spared +no cost and labour. From the remains of some of them it appears that +upon a bed of sand they spread a coating of gravel, upon which the +pebbles, and sometimes hewn or squared stones were laid, firmly compacted +together in a bed of cement. This, we have reason to believe, was the +structure of such of the roads in this island as are distinguished by the +title of _Street_, a word derived from the Latin _Strata_, meaning formed +of layers. But such pains were not, it is probable, taken in all cases; +and from the name of one of the roads passing thro' Leicester, the +_Fosse_, an abbreviation of the Latin _Via Fossata_, meaning the way +ditched, or dug, we cannot but conclude that it was a road raised by the +spade and formed with a rampart, and probably covered with gravel in the +manner of our present turnpike roads. The same may also be said of the +_Via Divana_, whose rampart, now covered with grass, the ingenious +discoverers observed in many places. + +When the Saxons subdued this island, after the departure of the Romans, +to preserve a ready communication between distant places formed no part +of then rude and simple policy. Hence the best roads of the Romans were +neglected by them, and since the Romans had either forbidden, or the +inclination of the Britons had dissuaded them from erecting villages on +the line of public roads, those roads became useless, and their lasting +materials are only to be found, tho' not distinguished, in the +foundations of the neighbouring habitations. As it would always be more +easy to carry away the materials of a Roman road than dig for them in a +quarry, it has happened that those materials have been in general so +intirely removed, as to leave almost no where any other trace, than +history and tradition, of their existence. + +From the departure of the Romans in 445, to the beginning of the +eighteenth century, the roads of this Island received little or no +improvement from the legislative powers, except by an order in the reign +of Henry the second, that roads should be cleared of woods and made open +that travellers might have leisure, if they should find it prudent, to +prepare to resist the almost armies of robbers which were spread over the +face of almost every county. Roads, being no longer regulated by any +system, to pass from place to place so as to avoid as well as might be +the inconveniences of woods, bogs, and sloughs, became the only business +of the traveller. It was thus by accident the line of our present roads +was formed, and to this their frequent circuits and other inconveniences +are owing. + +During the period above mentioned they were in general so bad as to be +useless for the passage of any other carriages than carts, and for these +only in the summer season; so that the people inhabiting the same country +as the Britons, who are said to have had numbers and great variety of +cars of all kinds, were so exclusively confined to the use of horses and +mules, that scarcely any other mode of conveyance was known even in +London, and this so late as in the reigns of Elizabeth and James the +first; for it is certain that when the great Shakespeare fled from his +country and came to town, his first means of subsistence were the +pittances he might earn by holding the horses of the persons who had come +from different parts of London to see the plays then performed at the +Bankside Theatre. + +It is not indeed to be asserted that till the eighteenth century our +roads never received any repairs, for necessity would frequently call for +something of the kind in most places; nor yet that Toll Bars were +antiently wholly unknown; for it is certain that a Gate or Bar was first +erected in the reign of Edward the first, at a place now called Holborn +Bars in London, for the purpose of collecting tolls for the repairs of +the roads. But it must be allowed that the art of constructing a good +and firm road was ill understood, and worse attended to; and when, in the +beginning of the last century, turnpike roads were first made, it was +imagined that the only good form was that of a ridge and furrow lying +across the road on the line of its direction. Turnpike gates were also +in many places considered as such impositions that even in the beginning +of the reign of George the second, some persons contested the payment, +several were frequently seen together, especially at newly erected gates, +suffering an interruption in their journey rather than submit to what +they deemed an imposition. Every one who understands the true +conveniences of life will rejoice, that both the formation and repairs of +roads, and also the usefulness of turn-pike tolls are now better +understood; that even countries once held to be inaccessible are now open +at all times and at all seasons to the traveller, and that most of our +roads are now so well suited to the purposes not only of convenience but +of pleasure, that we have no reason to lament the destruction of the +Roman ways, or even not to think that we have within these few years +greatly surpassed them in the expedition of our mails and all the +conveniences and comforts of travelling. + +On this western side of the town, where its environs afford the +attraction of woody scenery, the stranger is invited to prolong his +stroll round _Ruding's Walk_. This walk, tho' a continuation of the +plantation that encloses West-cotes, is liberally left open by its +possessor, who generously shares with the public the pleasure of his cool +and shady scenery. Where the walk, after winding thro' a flourishing +shrubbery, enters a grove of tall and venerable elms, the churches and +buildings of the town, broken by the intermediate trees of the paddock, +and the long line of distance varied by villages, scattered dwellings and +corn-mills, unite in a rich and pleasing prospect. + +On turning towards the West, the lover of contrast may for a moment call +to his imagination the dark, heavy, and almost impenetrable forest which +covered these lands in the twelfth century, and depicture figures of the +inhabitants of Leicester bearing from thence their allowed load of wood, +the supply for their hearths, and for this privilege, paying at the West +bridge, their toll of _brigg silver_ to their feudal Baron. To this +picture he will oppose the present scene of pasturage, flocks, and free +husbandmen, cultivating the earth under the protection of just and equal +laws. The slightest glance at past ages is a moral study, that renders +us not only satisfied but grateful. + +We cannot pass West-cotes, without noticing an object in the possession +of Mr. Ruding, highly interesting to the admirers of the fine Arts. This +is a picture in painted glass, representing Mutius Scaevola affording +Porsena an astonishing proof of his resolution by burning that hand which +had assassinated the secretary instead of the king. The exquisite +finish, and perfect preservation of this small piece bespeak it of the +antient Flemish school, whose artists according to Guicciardini, invented +the mode of burning their colours into the glass so as to secure them +from the corrosion of water, wind, or even time. There is no department +of the delightful art of painting that so much excites wonder as this. +When, in examining this piece, it is considered that every tint and +demi-tint of the highly relieved drapery, every stroke of the distant +tents and towers, was laid on in a fusile state; that delicate command of +skill which could prevent the shades from liquefying into each other, and +arrest every touch in its assigned place, so as to produce the effects of +the most finished oil painting, cannot be sufficiently admired. + +Entering the town we pass the Braunston Gate, to the bridge of the same +name, crossing the old Soar, and soon arrive at the West bridge, which +crosses the new Soar. From hence the canal, taking the name of Union +Canal, proceeds toward Market Harborough. On the corner of an old house +upon the bridge, is an antient wooden bracket, which formerly supported a +bell, by some supposed to have been used by the mendicant brothers of the +neighbouring monastery of St. Augustine, who here took their station to +beg alms, or, which is more probable, it might have been the bell +belonging to the porter of the gate which stood here. + +The street called Apple-gate, that leads us to the church of St. +Nicholas, will not be passed without interest by those who recollect that +on this spot, where the ground rises in a gentle ascent from the river, +the Legions of Rome established their town; and we are now arrived at an +object which brings them more forcibly to remembrance, a massy arched +wall, commonly termed, from its bounding the quarter antiently inhabited +by the Jews, the _Jewry Wall_. + +This ruin, so minutely described by many Antiquaries, will afford to +curious and learned observers, a valuable specimen of the mode of +building practised by the Romans, but the uses for which it was designed, +will, most probably, for ever elude their researches. They will not +however, forbear their conjectures concerning it; of these, two have +obtained most credit; one, that it was a temple of the Roman Janus; and +the other, the Janua, or great Gate-way, of the Roman town. The latter +seems chiefly supported by the assertion of the learned Leman, that the +line of the Fosse, having joined the Via Devana, runs thro' this spot. +But whoever minutely examines the arches, will not easily overcome the +objections which the work affords to oppose this opinion; or assign a +reason why a city no larger than our Ratae should have a Gateway with so +many openings; nor does any satisfactory answer occur to the query why a +gate should be placed in what seems to have been the central part of the +antient city. And perhaps all the evidence for the other opinion rests +upon the dark sooty coat that encrusts the interior of the arches; an +appearance which the smoak of the town would easily produce in one +century. Indeed, little, it seems, can be concluded from the present +outside of the work; for as we cannot conceive that the Romans would have +elected so rough an edifice, it must be supposed that the present remains +were originally coated with workmanship more worthy of such polished +builders. If, however we must indulge a conjecture, we shall be led to +imagine, from the slight remain of ornament, which is only the fragment +of a niche, that this wall was either part of a Roman temple or bath. +Still however such an opinion rests, and must rest, on nothing but +conjecture, since the remains are too scanty to afford sufficient data +for a settled opinion. Thus may we take our leave of this remarkable +object, which, tho' incontrovertibly of Roman origin, and likely to exist +when the church built with its stolen spoils shall be no more, must +continue for ever, as it is at present, an interesting mystery. + +The adjoining church of St. Nicholas is a small edifice of very rude and +consequently very antient construction. It has evidently been built at +different periods. It consists only of two aisles, the north one having +long since been taken down; the south aisle is gothic, and the other, +properly the nave, is of that massy unornamented style, in use before and +at the conquest; from the circumstance of its being built with the +materials of the neighbouring Roman work, it will perhaps be no +anachronism to assign to it a date prior to that period. The tower is +also Saxon; and the spire having been damaged by the wind is now taken +down. + +The area, eastward of the churchyard, is called _Holy Bones_; bones of +oxen having been there dug up in sufficient numbers to induce the belief +that it was once a place of sacrifice. The church of St. Augustine which +stood on this spot, is supposed to have been destroyed before the +conquest. + +At the corner of this area is a charity school, established on the bounty +bequeathed by Ald. Gabriel Newton, for the clothing and educating thirty +five boys; and in the terms of the founder's will, "instructing them in +toning and psalmody." + +In a lane not far from St. Nicholas' church, called Harvey Lane, is the +meeting house of the Calvinistic Baptists, which is capable of containing +500 persons. + +From St. Nicholas' street, we again arrive at the High-Cross, and proceed +southward, along High-Cross-Street. In this street, in the house of Mr. +Stephens, are the remains of a chantry or chapel, established for the +purpose of saying masses for the dead, once belonging to St. Martins +church. They consist of a range of windows, exhibiting in curiously +painted glass, a regular series of sacred history. + +The next object, worthy of attention, at which we arrive, is an elegant +gothic building, with an inscription "_Consanguinitarium_, 1792." It +consists of five neat dwellings, to which is annexed a yearly stipend of +upwards of 60l. and was built by John Johnson, Esq. a well-known +Architect as a perpetual home for such of his relations as may not be +favored by successful fortune. + +Turning down a narrow alley, called Castle Street, we arrive at a +spacious area, on the right of which is a charity school, built in 1785, +belonging to the parish of St. Mary, which clothes and educates 45 boys +and 35 girls. + +The visitor will now have a full view of St. Mary's church, antiently +known by the distinguishing addition of _infra_ or _juxta Castrum_, a +building in which he will perceive, huddled together, specimens of +various kinds of architecture, from the Norman gothic of the north +chancel, to the very modern gothic of the spire; a mixture which evinces +the antiquity of the church, marks the disasters of violence, accident, +and time, and proves that the neighbourhood of the castle, within whose +outer ballium or precincts it stood, was often most dangerous. That +there was a church, on this spot in the Saxon times, seems almost +certain, from some bricks apparently the workmanship of that people, +found in the chancel; and the cheveron work round the windows of this +chancel proves that the first Norman Earl of Leicester, Robert de +Bellomont, when he repaired the mischiefs of the Norman conquest, or +rather of the attack made by William Rufus upon the property of the +Grentemaisnells, constructed a church on a plan nearly like the present, +and adorned it with all the ornaments of the architecture of his times. +This Earl founded in it a college of twelve canons, of whom the Dean was +most probably one, and among other donations for their support, he +endowed it with the patronage of all the other churches of Leicester, St. +Margaret's excepted. These, his son and successor, Robert, surnamed +Bossu, converted into regular canons, and removed them, with great +additional donations to the Abbey in the meadows. He seems however to +have continued an establishment of eight canons in the collegiate church, +tho' with revenues comparatively small, since their income, at the +dissolution of the monasteries, was valued only at 23l. 12s. 11d. That +the number of these canons remained unchanged at the time of the +dissolution, appears probable from the circumstance of seven cranes and a +socket for an eighth being still found in a kind of press, or ark, as it +is called, in the vestry, for the purpose of suspending the priests' +vestments. + +The inside of the church is spacious and commodious, and has lately been +rendered still more so by converting the gothic arches of the south side +of the nave into one bold semicircular arch whose span is 39 feet, and +erecting a gallery in the wide south aisle, said to have been built by +John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster. + +In the great choir or chapel called Trinity choir, at the east end of the +great south aisle, (for the aisles of our churches were formerly often +divided into chapels, but of which in this church no traces now remain), +was held a _Guild_ or Fraternity, called _Trinity Guild_, founded in the +reign of Henry the Seventh, by Sir Richard Sacheverel, Kt. and the good +Lady Hungerford. Collections were made four times a year, of the +brethren and sisters belonging to this Society, whatever it might be, for +Antiquaries have not rendered the point sufficiently clear, but from +their meetings being held in churches, it is most probable that they were +of a religious nature. The money when collected was applied to meet +various expenses, but chiefly to pay the wages of their priest, perhaps +their confessor, and to supply their great feast held annually on Trinity +Sunday, for which, according to the account of the steward and wardens, +the following articles were purchased, A.D. 1508. + + s. d. + +A dozen of Ale 1 8 +A fat Sheep 2 4 +Seven Lambs 7 0 +Thirty Chickens 1 11 +Two gallons of Cream 0 8 +0.5qr. of Malt 2 0 +Fourteen Geese 4 3 + +From a curious and ingenious Mathematical Essay on the comparative prices +of similar articles in different ages, presented to the society of +Antiquaries, we have here the pleasure of offering to the attention of +our visitor, the following valuable remarks. + + "The generality of readers when they look into the records of antient + times, are forcibly struck by the seeming lowness of the prices of + every article of common demand, when compared with the modern prices. + When they find that an ox was formerly sold for a few shillings, and + the price of a quarter of corn calculated in pence, they are led to + envy the supposed cheapness of those ages, and to bewail the + distressing dearness of the present. Nothing however can be more + absurd than the whining complaints founded upon such facts; for since + the cheapness of living depends not so much upon the price given for + every article of prime necessity, as upon the means by which, to use + a common expression, the purchase may be afforded, we must, if we + wish to form a proper judgment on the subject, rightly compare these + means as they existed in different ages, otherwise our conclusions + will be not only idle, but sometimes mischievous. + + "It is very certain that money is a commodity, no less than the + articles it is employed to purchase, and like them, its absolute + value is depreciated or lowered by abundance. Since the discovery of + America, the quantity of gold and silver brought into general + circulation, and of late, the general and extensive use of paper + money which represents real specie, produces the same effect as would + arise from a still greater encrease of it. From this natural + depreciation alone of the value of coin, it follows that were all + other circumstances to have continued the same, the relative value of + money would have decreased, or a greater number of pieces of the same + denomination would be now required to produce the same effect as + formerly, and therefore that it will be necessary to multiply any sum + of money of the present age, into some certain number, in order to + learn the effect of the same sum in an assigned preceding age." + +From this multiplication it is demonstrated that the price of the dozen +of Ale, for which the Trinity Guild paid 20d. is equivalent to something +more than 6d. a quart;--the fat sheep at 2s. 4d. to 1l. 11s. 4d.--the +seven lambs at 7s. to 16s. each;--the thirty chickens at 23d. to rather +more than 2s. 6d. the couple;--the two gallons of cream at 8d. to 2s. 8d. +a quart;--the half quarter of malt at 2s. to 3l. 4s. the quarter;--the +fourteen geese at 4s. 3d. to nearly 5s. each. + +In the reign of the Norman kings, articles, but especially corn, were +dearer than at present. In Henry the sevenths reign meat was cheaper, +but other articles dearer than at present. We now return to the church +of St. Mary. + +In the year 1783, the spire which had several times been injured by +lightening, was so much shattered by a fresh stroke as to require to be +taken down to the battlements. It was rebuilt under the direction of an +architect, of the name of Cheshire at an expense, exclusive of the old +materials, of 245l. 10s. the height of the spire from the ground 61 +yards. In this church, in which for many years he officiated as curate, +is interred the Rev. W. Bickerstaffe, a man of great simplicity of +manners, and urbanity of disposition; who by his laborious and minute +researches materially assisted the Topographers of Leicester. + +Near the north door of this church is a passage leading under an old +fashioned building forming a gate-way into an area called the castle +yard. That the present structure was the gate-way of the castle when it +was tenable as a place of defence, cannot, for a moment be imagined; but +that there was always an entrance at this place we are well assured, for +the adjoining building on the left is known by the name of the Porter's +Lodge, and it must therefore be concluded that the present was built upon +the scite of the antient gate-way, and that it was constructed with the +timbers and other materials taken in later ages from some part of the +castle which had been taken down. + +At this gateway was preserved, till within a few years past, an antient +ceremony expressive of the homage formerly paid by the magistrates of +Leicester, to the feudal Lords of the castle. The mayor knocking for +admittance at the gate was received by the constable of the castle, while +the mace was sloped in token of homage; he then took an oath of +allegiance to the king as heir to the Lancastrian property; the latter +ceremony, agreeable to one of the corporation charters, is still +performed, but in private. The office of constable of the castle, which +in the beginning of the reign of Mary, was held by Henry duke of Suffolk, +with the annual fee of sixty shillings and eight pence, is now retained +only nominally. + +Opposite the gate-way stands a building most probably erected by the +first of the Bellomonts, tho' the modern front which meets the eye +effectually conceals all the outward traces of antiquity. The inside of +the edifice however is a room exceedingly curious. Its area is large, +being about seventy-eight feet long, twenty-four high and fifty-one +broad. It is framed into a sort of aisles, by two rows of tall and massy +oaken pillars, which serve to support a large and weighty covering of +slate. This vast room was the antient hall of the castle, in which the +earls of Leicester, and afterwards the dukes of Lancaster, alternately +held their courts, and consumed in rude but plenteous hospitality, at the +head of their visitors, or their vassals, the rent of their estates then +usually paid in kind. On the south end appear the traces of a door-way, +which probably was the entrance into a gallery that has often, among +other purposes, served as an orchestra for the minstrels and musicians of +former days. This hall, during the reigns of several of the Lancastrian +princes was the scene of frequent Parliaments, whose transactions our +provincial historians have carefully recorded. At present it is used +only for the holding the assizes and other country meetings, to which +purpose it is, from its length, so well adapted, that, tho' the business +of the civil and crown bars is carried on at the same time at the +opposite ends of the room, the pleadings of the one do not in the least +interrupt the pleadings of the other. + +The reflecting visitor, who may choose to compare the uses to which this +place is now applied, with the purposes for which it was built, will not +fail to derive from the comparison so very favorable to the present +times, a satisfaction most worthy the benevolent heart. Instead of the +rude licentious carousals of the Bellomonts, when the baron domineered, +even in drunkenness, over his assembled slaves, we often see large bodies +of the inhabitants of the county, men worthy of freedom and possessing +it, assembled to consider with decorum, and to decide with unawed, +unbiassed judgment, upon measures of no little importance to the kingdom +of England. And instead of the savage violence, or idiot folly which +mostly dictated the award of every kind of property, in those feudal +times, we see happily substituted the fair examination of the witnesses, +the eloquent pleadings of the barristers, the learned observations of the +Judge, and the impartial decisions of the Jury, nobly co-operating to +investigate truth, and to decide, according to right, the means alike of +happiness and virtue. In what manner, and by what degrees this happy +change was effected, the following well authenticated anecdote may serve +to shew. + +Robert de Bellomont, the first earl, sitting in the apartment of the keep +of his castle at Leicester, heard a loud shout in the neighbouring +fields. Enquiring into the cause, he found that it was given by the +partizans of a combatant who was then fighting a duel with his near +relation to ascertain the right to a certain piece of land in St. Mary's +field. The cruelty and absurdity of such a mode of decision seems to +have been forcibly impressed upon the mind of the earl, by this affecting +circumstance; and he agreed with the burgesses and inhabitants of +Leicester, on the payment of one penny for every house that had a gable +or gavel in the High-street (a payment afterwards known by the term +_gavel pence_) that all pleas of the above mentioned nature should be +determined by a jury of twenty four persons. + +From the county hall, or castle, as it is commonly called, a road to the +right leads to an antient gate-way strongly built and once furnished with +a port-cullis, and every requisite for defence. The embattled parapet +being much decayed, was taken down a few years ago, and its roof is now +reduced to one of an ordinary form. When this alteration was made, the +arms of the dukes of Lancaster by whom the gate-way was undoubtedly built +were destroyed on the outside; but on the inside, at the spring of the +arch, two mutilated figures, one of a lion, the other of a bear, +doubtless some of their devices, still remain. The lion passant, it is +well known, formed part of the arms of that family, and the muzzled bear +was a symbol used on the seal by Edward the first in his transactions +with Scotland. Nothing can be more probable than that the Lancastrian +princes would ornament their buildings with a figure which would serve to +preserve the memory of their descent from so renowned a monarch. + +The stranger must now be requested to pass thro' the uninviting doorway +of the adjoining public house; and he will be led by an easy ascent up to +the _mount_, or perhaps the scite of the keep of the castle, which tho' +lately lowered considerably for the purpose of converting it into a +Bowling-green, yet affords a pleasant station for a view of the environs +of Leicester, and is the spot from which the best idea can be formed of +the antient form and boundaries of the fortifications. + +It is well known that the fast Saxons built few or no castles, for having +nearly exterminated the Britons, during the long continued warfare that +preceded their conquest of that people, they had no occasion for strong +fortresses to secure the possession of the territories they had acquired; +and in the later ages of their dynasty they were too indolent and +ignorant to undertake such works with spirit and effect, notwithstanding +the frequent and sudden inroads of the Danes, rendered such places of +retreat highly necessary, and the great Alfred earnestly recommended +their construction. Hence the places of defence found in this island at +the conquest, were few in number, and those generally too slight to +resist the continued attacks of time. For this reason the antiquary need +not endeavour to extend his researches after the state of the castle of +Leicester beyond the time of the arrival of William the Norman. On the +division of the provinces made by that monarch, Leicester became part of +the royal demesne; a castle was erected to ensure the submission of the +inhabitants, and the wardenship of it entrusted to Hugh Grentemaisnell +baron of Hinckly, who possessed considerable property in the +neighbourhood. This castle, like other Norman works of the same kind, +would have its barbican or out-work, defending the gate and bridge over +the outer ditch would be commanded by a strong wall, eight or ten feet +thick, and between twenty and thirty high, with a parapet, and crennels +at the top, towers at proper distances, and a gate-way opening into the +town. It would, we may presume, extend from the river below the Newark +round by St. Mary's church, and then, turning towards the river again, +whose waters were brought by a cut across the morass lying on the west +side, to wash that part of the wall, and fill the ditch, would thus +enclose what was called the outer Bayle or Ballium. Within this, at a +distance not now to be ascertained, but probably not less than eighty or +an hundred yards, another, similar, but perhaps stronger fortification, +would extend from, and to the river, and this entered at the gates +already described, would enclose the inner Bayle, where stood the lofty +massy keep, the hall, and all the apartments and rooms belonging to the +noble and potent owners. Although the curious will be inclined to join +in the pathetic laments of the writer of the memoirs of Leicester, +(Throsby) that the just position of the castle and its extent in former +times cannot be known; yet strong probability will almost authorize us to +believe that the account here given does not vary very widely from the +truth; for these conjectures are directly confirmed by the well still +open on the top of the castle hill or keep, and by the entire remains of +a large cellar, forty-nine feet long and eighteen wide, nearly adjoining +the great hall, on the west. That more traces should not be discoverable +will not appear surprising when we consider what effects may be produced +by the decays of time and accident, by the accumulation of soil, and +encroachments of buildings. + +During the disputes concerning the succession, on the death of the +Conqueror, the Grentemaisnells seized Leicester castle, and held it for +duke Robert. This subjected it to the fury of the successful partizans +of William Rufus, and the castle lay for some time in a dismantled state. +In the next reign it was granted by Henry to his favourite Robert first +earl of Leicester, who repaired the damages and it became the principal +place of residence of himself and the second earl, Robert Bossu. The +third earl Robert surnamed Blanchmains, encreased his property and power, +by his marriage with Petronilla, or Parnel, the heiress of the +Grentemaisnells, but the violent temper of this earl involved him in +disputes with king Henry the second, whose forces under the command of +the Chief Justiciary, Richard de Lucy, took Leicester and its castle by +assault, and reduced both to an almost uninhabited heap of ruins. +Blanchmains regained however the favor of his king and was restored to +his estates, but both he and his son, Robert Fitz-Parnel engaging in the +crusades, the town of Leicester was but ill rebuilt, and the castle +remained in a state of delapidation for many years. Fitz-Parnel dying +without issue, the _honor_ of Leicester, as part of the Bellomont estates +were called, passed into the family of Simon de Montfort, in consequence +of his marriage with one of the sisters of Fitz-Parnels. But the +Montfort earls of Leicester, both father and son, were too much engaged +in the busy transactions of their times to pay much attention to their +property at Leicester. After the death of the latter, in the Battle of +Evesham, the Leicester property was conferred by Henry the third on his +second son Edmond earl of Lancaster, whose second son Henry, heir and +successor to Thomas earl of Lancaster, beheaded at Pontefract, in the +year 1322 made Leicester his principal place of residence, and under him +and the two next succeeding earls, the castle recovered and probably +surpassed its former state of splendor. + +When the dukes of Lancaster ascended the throne, Leicester tho' +frequently honored with their presence, received no permanent benefit, +and tho' several parliaments were held there in the reign of Henry the +sixth, the castle had so far decayed in the time of Richard the third, +that that monarch chose rather to sleep at an inn a few evenings before +his fall, than occupy the royal apartments in the castle. From this time +the castle seems to have made constant progress to decay, so that in the +reign of Charles the first, orders, dated the ninth of his reign, were +issued to the sheriff Wm. Heyrick, Esq. of Beaumanor (as appears from +papers in the possession of that family) "to take down the old pieces of +our castle at Leicester, to repair the castle house, wherein the audit +hath been formerly kept, and is hereafter to be kept, and wherein our +records of the honor of Leicester do now remain; to sell the stones, +timber, &c. but not to interfere with the vault there, nor the stalls +leading therefrom." + +From others of the same papers it appears that the timber sold for 3l. +5s. 8d. the freestone, and iron work for 36l. 14s. 4d. and that the +repairs above ordered cost about 50l. Thus was the castle reduced to +nearly its present state, and tho' the Antiquary may in the eagerness of +his curiosity lament that so little of it now remains, yet he must surely +rejoice in his reflecting moments that such structures are not now +necessary for the defence of the kingdom, and that the fortunes of the +noblemen are now spent in a way calculated to encourage the arts and +promote industry, rather than in maintaining in these castles a set of +idle retainers, ever ready to assist them in disturbing the peace of the +realm, and still more ready to insult and injure the humble inhabitants +in then neighbourhood. + +Descending from the castle mount, and passing thro' the south gale-way of +the castle yard, the visitor enters a district of the town called the +Newark, (New Work) became the edifices it contained were new when +compared with the buildings of the castle. They owed their foundation to +Henry, the third earl of Lancaster, and his son Henry first duke of that +title. By these two noblemen they were nearly finished, and what was +wanting towards their completion was afterwards added by John of Gaunt. +They must then have formed a magnificent addition to the antient dignity +of the castle. The remains of the walls which enclosed this area enable +us to affirm that its form was a long square, bounded on the north by the +castle, on the east by the streets of the suburbs of the town, on the +south by the fields, and on the west by the river. + +Judging from what remains of these walls, we feel inclined to maintain +that they were rather calculated to enclose, than strongly protect, the +buildings they surrounded; for if the walls now standing be the original +walls, they were not capable of resisting the modes of attack usually +practised in the age in which they were built; nor is the gate-way that +still remains entire, formed with towers to command, or with grooves for +a port-cullis to defend, the entrance. Indeed if the state of England +during the age of the founders be considered, magnificence rather than +great strength might be expected to be their object, and magnificent +truly were the buildings of the Newark. The gate-way now known by the +name of the Magazine, from the circumstance of its being the arsenal of +the county, is large and spacious, yet grandly massive; and the form of +its arches, which partake of the style of the most modern gothic, tho' +built at the time when, according to the opinions of the most learned +Antiquaries, that truly beautiful species of architecture was not +generally established, prove the ready attention of the founders to the +progress of the arts. + +This gate-way led to an area, which tho' nearly surrounded by buildings, +was much more spacious than the present wide street, an area worthy the +dukes of Lancaster. On the south another gate, similar to the Magazine +now standing, opened into the court opposite the strong south gate of the +castle, and on the west rose a college, a church, and an hospital, which +completed the grandeur of the Newark. These latter buildings formed a +lesser quadrangle or court, having on the north the present old, or +Trinity Hospital, built and endowed for an hundred poor people, and ten +women to serve them. On the south stood a church dedicated to St. Mary, +and cloysters; the former called by Leland "not large but faire;" the +"floures and knottes in whose vault were gilded," he says, by the rich +cardinal of Winchester; the latter, (the cloysters,) were both "large and +faire;" the houses in the compace of the area of the college for the +Prebendaries (standing on the west side) the same author says, "be very +praty," and the walls and gates of the college occupying the east side of +the court, he says, "be very stately." Nor did the princes of Lancaster +limit their designs to magnificent structures; this college was as well +filled as the hospital, for it contained a dean and twelve prebendaries; +thirteen vicars choral, three clerks, six choristers and one verger, in +all thirty-six persons; and the endowment was adequate to the +establishment, for the revenues at the dissolution amounted to 595l. 12s. +11d. Among the various donations to this college, the following taken +from the Parliamentary rolls of the year 1450, will not be found unworthy +the attention of the curious. The king (Henry the seventh) grants to the +dean and Canons of the church collegiate of our lady at Leicester, "a +tunne of wynne to be taken by the chief botteller of England in our port +of Kingston upon Hull," and it is added "they never had no wynne granted +to them by us nor our progenitors afore this time to sing with, nor +otherwise." + +When it is considered that the castle just surveyed occupies a station +most pleasant as well as commanding; that from the buildings of the +Newark it derived all the splendor which the arts and taste of the times +could bestow, and that its adjoining a large, well fortified, and not ill +built town was calculated to contribute most essentially to the +convenience of its possessors, it will appear to have been one of the +most agreeable residences in the kingdom for such powerful noblemen as +were the dukes of Lancaster; nor will the visitor be surprised to find +that it was occasionally used as a seat by the kings, its owners. + +But of all the periods of its history that will surely appear most +interesting, in which Henry de Gresmond, first earl of Derby, and on the +death of his father, earl and then duke of Lancaster, already renowned +thro' Europe for his atchievements in arms, aud crowned with laurels from +the fields of Guienne, where he taught the English how to conquer at +Crecy and Agincourt, returned to reside at Leicester, and to add to the +distinction of wise and brave the still more valuable title of _good_, +which he was about to earn by the practice of almost every virtue at this +place. Then indeed was Leicester castle the scene of true splendor and +magnificence, for it was the scene of bounty influenced by benevolence +and guided by religion, of taste supported by expense yet directed by +judgment and regulated by prudence, and of elegance such as the most +accomplished knight of that most perfect age of chivalry might be +expected to display. This nobleman died of a pestilential disorder at +the castle, in the year 1361, greatly lamented by the inhabitants of +Leicester. The order of his funeral appointed by himself, and curiously +recorded by our local historians, is a pleasing proof of his good sense +and piety; the body being taken in a hearse from St. Mary's near the +castle, to his collegiate church as he directed, "without the pomp of +armed men, horses covered, or other vanities"--and the rank of the +deceased alone denoted by the magnitude of five tapers, each weighing one +hundred pounds, and fifty torches. + +The buildings of the Newark continued nearly in the state already +described till the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538, when Robert +Boone the last dean, terrified by the power of the tyrant Henry, and +alarmed by the unjustifiable rigours of the king's commissioners, +surrendered his house and received with the rest of his brethren, +trifling pensions for life, from this period the buildings of the college +being unsupported by any fund sunk into decay, or were applied to +purposes widely different from the intention of the founders. The +church, cloysters, and gate-way are entirely removed, with the exception +of two arches of the vault under the former, which are still to be seen +firm and strong in a cellar of the house, now a boarding school. + +The old hospital itself seems also to have been infected with the +contagion of ruin, for tho' spared by the rapacious hand of Henry, the +number of poor in the house 64 men and 36 women, are reduced from their +original allowance of seven pence weekly, to the now scanty stipend of +two shillings, which arises from the rents of lands and tenements in +Leicester, and its vicinity. The house has been reduced to its present +form by contracting the dimensions of the old one; for that standing in +need of considerable repairs, his present Majesty, to whom, as heir to +the dutchy of Lancaster, the expensive privilege of repairing it belongs, +gave the produce of the sale of an estate at Thurnby in this +neighbourhood, which had escheated to the crown, for that purpose. + +At the east end is a small chapel in which prayers are read twice a day, +and where some mutilated monumental figures, probably of the Huntingdon +family, are still to be seen. + +Nothing farther remains to be noticed concerning this interesting part of +the town, except that the south gateway was beaten down by the king's +forces at the storming of the place in the spring of the year 1645, when +they left only a part of the jamb on the eastern side standing. One of +the prebendal houses on the west side of the antient quadrangle of the +college has, within these few years, been purchased for the vicarage +house of St. Mary's parish. Opposite the old hospital a house has been +lately erected as an Asylum for the reception and education of poor +female children. + +From the Newark, in a lane opposite to which called Mill-Stone lane, is a +Meeting-House of the Methodists, we proceed along South gate or + + + +HORSEPOOL-STREET, + + +At the end of this street, situated on a gentle eminence affording the +desirable advantages of a dry soil and open air, we perceive one of those +edifices which a country more than nominally christian must ever be +careful to erect, a house of refuge for sick poverty. The Infirmary, +which owes the origin of its institution to W. Watts, M. D. was built in +1771, nearly on the scite of the antient chapel of St. Sepulchre, and is +a plain neat building with two wings, fronted by a garden, the entrance +to which is ornamented with a very handsome iron gate the gift of the +late truly benevolent Shuckbrugh Ashby, Esq. of Quenby. The house is +built upon a plan which for its convenience and utility received the +approbation of the great Howard, whose experience and observation +qualified him for a competent judge. It is calculated to admit, +exclusive of the fever ward, 54 patients, without restriction to county +or nation. Its funds, notwithstanding the exemplary liberality it has +excited, are, owing to the pressure of the times, scarcely adequate to +its support. Adjoining the Infirmary is an Asylum for the reception of +indigent Lunatics. + +At the distance of a quarter of a mile from the Infirmary, are some +remains of a Roman labour, called the _Raw Dikes_, these banks of earth +four yards in height, running parralel to each other in nearly a right +line to the extent of 639 yards, the space between them 13 yards, were +some years ago levelled to the ground except the the length of about 150 +yards at the end farthest from the town. It was a generally received +opinion that they were the fortifications of a Roman camp, till the +supposition of their having been a _cursus_ or race course, was started +by Dr. Stukely. If it is to be admitted that they formed an area for +horse races, of which the Romans are known to have been extravagantly +fond, we may imagine that the sport here practiced consisted in horses +running at liberty without riders between the banks; traces of such a +race run in an enclosed space may be found in the _Corso dei Barberi_, +now practiced in the streets of Florence; {125} the Italians having in +many instances preserved the original customs of the Romans. But the +question must still hang in a balance whether the Raw Dykes were the +scene of Roman games, or + + _The massy mound, the rampart once_ + _Of iron war in antient barbarous times_. + +From the Infirmary, if the visitor wishes to close his walk, he may enter +the town by the Hotel; if he feel inclined to extend it, he will find +himself recompensed by the pleasure his eye may receive from a lengthened +stroll up the public promenade, called the _New Walk_. This walk three +quarters of a mile long, and twenty feet wide, was made by public +subscription in 1785; the ground the gift of the corporation. + +Following the ascent of the walk, we gain on the left a pleasing peep up +a vale watered by the Soar, where the smooth green of the meadows is +contrasted and broken by woody lines and formed into a picture by the +church and village of Aylestone, and the distant tufted eminances +decorated by the tower of Narborough. A little imagination might give +the scene a trait of the picturesque, by placing among the meadows near +Aylestone, the white tents and streaming banners of king Charles' camp, +there pitched a few days before his attack on the garrison of Leicester; +or it might advance the royal army a little nearer to its station in St. +Mary's field, from whence the batteries against the town were first +opened. Still continuing to ascend, the walk affords along its curving +line many stations from which the town with its churches appears in +several pleasing points of view. + +Returning by the London toll-gate if the traveller wishes to obtain a +full view of a fine prospect, he will turn aside from the road, and mount +the steps of one of the neighbouring mills. From such a station the +clustered buildings of the town extend before the eye in full unbroken +sweep; beyond it the grounds near Beaumont Leys varied in their tints by +tufted hedge-rows, and streaky cultivated fields, blend into the grey +softness overspreading those beautiful slopes of hill into which the +eminences of Charnwood forest, Brown-rig, Hunter's hill, Bradgate park, +Bardon and Markfield knoll, rise and fall. These hills, running from +hence, in a northern direction compose the first part of the chain or +ridge, that, from the easy irregularity and elegant line it here displays +rises at length into the more grand and picturesque hills that form the +peak of Derbyshire. The abbey and the adjacent villages pleasingly vary +the scene on the right, from whence it melts away into the blue distance +of the neighbourhood of Melton, the north-east part of the county. + +As we descend along the London road, watching the hills more and more hid +by the town, the road bends into a curve, and here takes the name of +Granby Street; many ranges of buildings having been here erected within +the last fifteen years. Turning to the left, we again arrive at the town +by the entrance into _Hotel Street_. + +That ingenuity of improvement not only in the conveniences, but the +recreations of life, which has lately advanced so rapidly as well in the +provincial towns as in the capital, led the inhabitants of Leicester into +a plan for the erection of new edifices appropriated to the purposes of +public amusement. The considerable buildings, which in this place arrest +the stranger's eye were accordingly erected by J. Johnson, Esq. +architect, on subscription shares. + +The front of the + + + +HOTEL, + + +which name it bears, having been originally designed for that purpose, +may from the grandeur of its windows, its statues, bassi relievi, and +other decorations, be justly considered as the first modern architectural +ornament of the town. Here a room, whose spacious dimensions, (being +seventy-five feet by thirty-three,) and elegant decorations, adapt it in +a distinguished manner for scenes of numerous and polished society, is +appropriated to the use of the public balls. Its coved ceiling is +enriched with three circular paintings of Aurora, Urania, and Night, from +the pencil of Reinagle, who has also graced the walls with paintings of +dancing nymphs. Beside the eight beautiful lustres, branches of lights +are held by four statues from the designs of Bacon. + +Uniting under the same roof, every convenience for the gratification of +taste, and the amusement of the mind, a coffee room handsomely furnished +and supplied with all the London papers, affords the gentlemen of the +town and country as well as the stranger, to whom its door is open, an +agreeable and commodious resort, while on the opposite side a spacious +bookseller's shop furnishes the literary enquirer with a series of all +the new publications. + +Adjoining the hotel, a small theatre built also by Mr. Johnson, neatly +and commodiously fitted up, nearly on the plan of the London houses, +furnishes the inhabitants of Leicester with a more complete display of +the dramatic art than they had before enjoyed, and has been the means of +gratifying them by the talents of several performers of the first rate +excellence. The popular pieces of the London stage, are here every +season represented in a manner pleasing to the town and honorable to the +manager. + +Proceeding thro' a street which now only nominally retains a trace of the +monkish establishments that formerly occupied its ground, being called +Friar Lane, we observe a charity school, for 35 boys and 30 girls, +erected 1791, belonging to the parish of St. Martin. At the farther and +less handsome end of this street is the Meeting House of the General +Baptists. Passing down the New Street, part of the scite of the +monastery of the Grey Friars, we arrive at + + + +ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, + + +At what period after the demolition of Leicester in the reign of Henry +the second, the church of St. Martin, antiently St. Crosse, was rebuilt, +cannot be accurately stated. The chancel, which is the property of the +king, rented by the vicar, and was erected after the main fabrick, is +ascertained to been have built in the reign of Henry the fifth, at the +expense of 34l. And as the addition of spires to sacred edifices was not +introduced into England from the east till the beginning of the reign of +Henry the third, the date must be fixed between the two intervening +centuries, and if the spire was built with the church not very early +after the introduction of that ornament of our churches, as the handsome, +solid form of St. Martin's bespeaks considerable practice and expertness +in the art. + +The church originally consisted only of a nave and two aisles; the south +aisle, where the consistory court is held, which is formed by a range of +gothic arches whose clustered columns unite strength with lightness, was +added after the erection of the others. In contemplating the inside of +this church, it is curious to draw a brief parallel between its present +plain yet handsome appearance, and its catholic magnificence before the +zeal of the reformation, justly excited, but intemperate in its +direction, had, during its career against Romish absurdities destroyed +almost every trace of ornament in our churches. And whilst we survey its +present few decorations, its brass chandeliers depending from the elegant +cieling of the nave, the beautiful oak corinthian pillars of its altar +piece, which is ornamented with a picture of the ascension by Francesco +Vanni, (the gift of Sir W. Skeffington Bart.) and its excellent organ, we +can scarcely forbear lamenting the violence with which the magnificent +range of steps was torn from its high altar, then hung with draperies of +white damask and purple velvet. + +Its two other altars, {135} its chapels of _our Lady_ and _St George_, +one at the east, the other at the west end of the south broad aisle, were +also destroyed; the sculptured figures that adorned the pulpit, the +tabernacles, and brazen eagles demolished, and, as the parochial records +testify, 20d. was paid for "cutting the images heads, and taking down the +angels wings." In the succeeding century after this sacred structure had +exhibited this scene of demolition, it became a theatre of war. Hither +fled part of the Parliamentary garrison, after being driven by the +royalists from their fortress in the Newark; making a citadel of a +church, which, on the arrival of the enemy to storm the hold was polluted +with the bleeding bodies of Englishmen slain by Englishmen, who pursued +their victory by chacing the defeated into the Market-Place, where the +stragglers were slaughtered. + +From this anecdote of civil discord we are led to contemplate the more +rationally excited bravery of the present times, by the sight of the old +colours of the 17th or Leicestershire regiment of foot, which are +suspended over the royal arms at the east end of nave. They were +presented to the corporation by Lieut. Col. Stovin, of that regiment, and +how much their intrepid defenders suffered in guarding them, may be known +from their worn and tattered appearance. + +As it is the most curious and useful branch of antiquarian research to +read the manners and sentiments of an age in its public solemnities and +pastimes, we will not leave the church without a wish for a better +investigation of an obscure and singular custom, that antient carnival of +Leicester, "_the riding the George_." The horse of this chivalrous +saint, which, when the reformation had overthrown the monkish mummeries +that so inconsistently blended religion with pastime, was sold for twelve +pence, stood at the west end of the south aisle, harnessed in all the +trappings of Romish splendor. Notice of the day appointed for this +festivity was annually given by the master of St. George's Guild; sports +of every variety animated the town, and that the jubilee, was, in the +strictest sense _general_, is proved from the summons issued in the 17th +of Edward the fourth, ordering _all_ the inhabitants to attend the mayor, +to _ride the George_. Mention of the celebration is recorded so late as +the 15th of Henry the eighth. + +The stranger who is an admirer of sacred harmony will not pass without +particular notice, the Organ of St. Martin's. A spirited subscription in +1774, furnished the church with this noble ornament. It was built by the +celebrated Snetzler, and esteemed one of the best specimens of his art. +It has three sets of keys, from F in alt, to GG. The stops in the great +organ are, the stopped diapason, two open diapasons, flute, and +principal, trumpet and baffoon, all entire, the 12th, 15th, +sesqui-altera, cornet and clarion. In the ch. organ, are two diapasons +and principal. In the swell two diapasons, principal, hautboy and +trumpet. + +A range of antient stone building bounding the west side of the church +yard is an hospital founded about the year 1516, by W. Wigston, Merchant +of the staple at Calais, and mayor of Leicester, for 12 men and 12 women, +their pay about 3s. weekly. It has a master and confrater. The Chapel +has a large gothic window of painted glass. + +On the north side of the hospital is a building called _the Town +Library_, established 1632 by the corporation, at the motion of the then +bishop of Lincoln. It consists of about 948 vols. chiefly the Latin +classics and historians, to which no modern additions whatever have been +made. + +The building adjoining the Library which is the hall formerly belonging +to the guild or fraternity of St. George, which, together with the Corpus +Chrisri guild, the principal establishment of that kind in the town, was +founded in St. Martin's church, was purchased, on the dissolution of +guilds and chantries by the corporation, and is the guild-hall of the +borough. It is adorned with several portraits among which is that of Sir +Thomas White, Kt. citizen and merchant Taylor of London, who among many +magnificent charities, bequeathed 10,000l. in the trust of the +corporation to be lent without interest in sums of 50l. and 40l. to every +freeman of Leicester for the term of nine years; a charity of peculiar +value as it affords a perpetual incitement to the exertions of rising +industry. + +The magistracy of Leicester is an institution of great antiquity and +respectability, being a corporation by prescription, dating its +establishment from immemorial usage before its first charter in the reign +of king John. It consists of 72 members; 24 aldermen, 48 common council +men; the officers are a recorder, town-clerk, bailiff, and steward. + +By forming cities and towns into corporations, and conferring on them the +privileges of municipal jurisdiction, the first check was given to the +overwhelming evils of the feudal system; and under their influence +freedom and independence began to peep forth from amid the rigours of +slavery and the miseries of oppression. + +To be free of any corporation was not then, as at present merely to enjoy +some privileges in trade, or to exercise the right of voting on +particular occasions, but it was to be exempt from the hardships of +feudal service; to have the right of disposing both of person and +property, and to be governed by laws intended to promote the general +good, and not to gratify the ambition and avarice of individuals. These +laws, however rude and imperfect, tended to afford security to property +and, encourage men to habits of industry. Thus commerce, with every +ornamental and useful art, began first in corporate bodies, to animate +society. But in those dark ages, force was necessary to defend the +claims of industry; and such a force these municipal societies possessed; +for their towns were not only defended by walls and gates vigilantly +guarded by the citizens, but oft-times at the head of their fellow +freemen in arms, the mayor, aldermen, or other officers marched forth in +firm array to assert their rights, defend their property and teach the +proudest and most powerful baron that the humblest freeman was not to be +injured with impunity. It was thus the commons learned and proved they +were not objects of contempt; nay that they were beings of the same +species as the greatest lords. + +It is pleasingly curious to observe in these times the shadow of the +semblance of this most useful military power preserved as at Leicester, +in the array of a few of the poor men of Trinity hospital, clad in pieces +of iron armour, attending the beadle while he proclaims a fair; nor is it +less so to recollect that the feasts annually given by the mayor were +once held in imitation of the rude hospitality of the Barons whose feasts +not a little contributed to give a consequence to the commons of England, +and to humanize the haughty chief by shewing him that respectability +might belong to those who did not wield the sword, and that men might +have dignity even tho' they had no pretensions to the glare of titles and +the illusions of birth. Thus will the intelligent observer find, that +corporate bodies were the true sources of law, liberty and civilization, +and by rendering the occupation of trade respectable they may be deemed +the first origin of that commerce which has rendered Great Britain the +most powerful and most happy nation of the earth. + +These few reflections we will suppose to have occupied the time during +the short walk from St. Martin's church to the + + + +MARKET-PLACE. + + +In this spacious area, which is surrounded by handsome and well-furnished +shops, and whose public ornaments are the plain but respectable building +called the _Exchange_, built in 1747, where the town magistrates transact +their weekly business, and a small octagon edifice enclosing a reservoir +of pure water, the _Conduit_, erected in 1709, we must, having completed +the circuit of the town, offer our farewell to our visitor. + +Here closing our little tour, which has engaged us in an imaginary +acquaintance with the intelligent stranger, we beg he will accept a +friendly adieu: and a wish, that as he quits the town thro' which we have +conducted him, and which we have endeavoured to represent in a view not +unworthy the attention of a mind that seeks for more than mere passing +ideas of amusement, he may not consider that time as prodigally spent +which he has passed in his WALK THROUGH LEICESTER. + +APRIL, 1804 + + + + +MANUFACTORY +OF +THE TOWN. + + +The Manufactory of Stockings in this town and county, is the largest in +the world; besides wove worsted hose, which are the staple article of the +place, a great variety of cotton hose are now made, which from their +cheapness, obtain a sale in this, and most other countries. + +The machine by which these hose are made, was first invented in the year +1590, by the Rev. W. Lee, of Calverton, in Nottinghamshire, who exhibited +it before Queen Elizabeth, but not meeting with that encouragement he so +justly deserved, immediately left the country, and carried it to France, +where he would have established it at Rouen, had it not been for the +murder of the French king which prevented the execution of a grant of +privilege and reward in favor of Mr. Lee and his art. + +Soon after Mr. Lee died under great disappointment at Paris, and several +of his workmen returning to London, laid the foundation of Stocking +Weaving in this county. The manufactory has been gradually increasing, +but within these last ten years has rapidly advanced to its present +flourishing state. The number of workmen employed in this branch is not +less than 20,000 who produce from the raw material about 15,000 dozen per +week. + +* A full account of this manufactory, in all its branches, is preparing +for the press, and will be published in the course of the summer. + + + + +ERRATUM. + + +The reader is requested to correct the account of St. Martin's organ, as +follows. + +Great organ, two open and a stop diapason, principal, 12th, 15th, +ses-quialtia, cornet, clarion, trumpet. Choir organ, two diapasons, +principal, 15th, flute, bassoon. Swell, two diapasons, principal, +cornet, hautboy, trumpet. + + [Combe, Printer, Leicester.] + + + + +HOTEL LIBRARY. + + + T. COMBE, + BOOKSELLER, + +Has on Sale the best Literary Productions, in elegant and other Bindings, +and every new Work of Merit may be seen at the Library + + AS SOON AS PUBLISHED. + + Any quantity of Books purchased, or taken in exchange. + + _Printing_, _Binding & all sorts of Stationary_. + +Gold Paper, Ornaments and Borders--Coloured Papers and +Pasteboards--Bristol and Ivory Boards--Whatman's Drawing Papers--Newman's +Colours--Middletons Pencils--Varnish, Perfumery, Patent Medicines, and +other Articles. + + A CIRCULATING LIBRARY, + +_which collects all the varieties of the Day_. + +Map of Leicester + + [Picture: The 1802 map of Leicester published by T. Combe] + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{23} "He had a bow bent in his hand, + Made of a trusty tree; +An arrow of a cloth-yard long, + Up to the head drew he." + + CHEVY CHACE. + +{24} See an Essay on this subject by the Hon. Daines Barrington in the +Archaeologia. + +{42} This sum is now distributed under the title of wood and coal money. + +{125} See Starke's Travels. + +{135} These altars, dedicated to St. Dunstan and St. Catherine stood, +one where the present vestry is, the other in Heyrick's Chancel, so +called from its containing the monuments of that antient family. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + + +Original spelling, punctuation and grammar have been retained in this +transcription. The following, however, have been corrected: + +page 35: "to to which this chapel" has been corrected to "to which this +chapel" + +page 35: "joins the the prison" has been corrected to "joins the prison" + +page 43: "bridge over the the Canal" has been corrected to "bridge over +the Canal" + +page 74: "a good and firm rood" has been corrected to "a good and firm +road" + +page 75: "usefulness of urn-pike tolls" has been corrected to "usefulness +of turn-pike tolls" + +page 90: "comparative prises of similar articles" has been corrected to +"comparative prices of similar articles" + +page 93: "the prssent age" has been corrected to "the present age" + +page 97: "whieh meets the eye" has been corrected to "which meets the +eye" + +page 107: "death of he Conqueror" has been corrected to "death of the +Conqueror" + +page 109: "Henry the the third" has been corrected to "Henry the third" + +page 118: "supported by expesne" has been corrected to "supported by +expense" + +Also note that "have paffed into various hands" (page 47) and "trumpet +and baffoon" (page 139) are both as in the book, with the old printer's +ff for ss usage. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WALK THROUGH LEICESTER*** + + +******* This file should be named 25895.txt or 25895.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/8/9/25895 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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