HORSEPOOL-STREET,

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 calledHoly 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 charityschool, 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 ofinfraorjuxta 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 donationsto 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 widesouth 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 aGuildor Fraternity, calledTrinity 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 wasapplied 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.

A dozen of Ale

A fat Sheep

Seven Lambs

Thirty Chickens

Two gallons of Cream

½qr. of Malt

Fourteen Geese

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 purchasemay 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 moneywould 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.”

“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 moneywould 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 fourteengeese 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 firstof 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 probablywas 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, willnot 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 ofthe 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 termgavel 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; buton 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 themount, or perhaps the scite of the keep of the castle, which tho’ lately lowered considerably for thepurpose 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 earnestlyrecommended 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 outerditch 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 thegates 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 appearsurprising 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, byhis 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, thehonorof 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 sistersof 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’ severalparliaments 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 withthe 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 andinjure 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 theeast 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 thebuildings 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 theeast 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 uponHull,” 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 historythat 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 ofgood, 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 suchas 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 monasteriesin 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, thenumber 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 monumentalfigures, 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

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 convenienceand 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 theRaw 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 thethe 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 acursusor 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 theCorso dei Barberi, now practiced in the streets of Florence;[125]the Italians having in many instances preserved the original customs of the Romans. But thequestion must still hang in a balance whether the Raw Dykes were the scene of Roman games, or

The massy mound, the rampart onceOf 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 theNew 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 linesand 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 turnaside 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 thescene 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 intoHotel 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 edificesappropriated 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

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 andcommodiously 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

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 churchnot 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 wesurvey 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 ofour LadyandSt George, one at the east, the other at the west endof 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 sensegeneral, is proved from the summons issued in the 17th of Edward the fourth, orderingallthe inhabitants to attend the mayor, toride the George. Mention of the celebration is recorded so late as the 15th of Henry the eighth.

The stranger who is an admirer ofsacred 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, Merchantof 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 calledthe 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 guildsand 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 area 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 ofindividuals. 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 ofcontempt; 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 theglare 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

In this spacious area, which is surrounded by handsome and well-furnished shops, and whose public ornaments are the plain but respectablebuilding called theExchange, built in 1747, where the town magistrates transact their weekly business, and a small octagon edifice enclosing a reservoir of pure water, theConduit, 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 hiswalk through leicester.

April, 1804

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.

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.]

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

The 1802 map of Leicester published by T. Combe

[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 Archæologia.

[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.

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.

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