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