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