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.