Leicester

“ Such are the main facts of Leicester’s life. Of his character it is more difficult to speak with confidence, but some features of it are indisputable. Being in person tall and remarkably handsome, he improved these advantages by a very ingratiating manner. A man of no small ability and still more ambition, he was nevertheless vain, and presumed at times upon his influence with the queen to a degree that brought upon him a sharp rebuff. Yet Elizabeth stood by him. ”

“ Leicester could not live if England’s honour should be toppled down like our dear Chris Hatton and his gallants yonder.”
The Duke’s Daughter curtsied. “Methinks England’s honour is in little peril—your Majesty knows well how to ‘fend it. No subject keeps it.”
“If I must ‘fend it, dove, then Leicester there must not fight to-day. It shall surely be Sir Harry Lee. My Lord Leicester must have the place of honour at the last,” she called aloud. Leicester swung his horse round and galloped to the Queen. ”

“ Thus, after remaining through many centuries a little community of from two to four thousand souls, the city of Leicester began to develop from a small country town into a densely-populated centre of modern commerce. ”

“ Leicester, with all his wealth, was the poorest man in all the country-side. The few hands he engaged hated him, and, when they could, neglected his interests. Neighbours' dogs were ever scattering his sheep, selectors persisted in travelling over his huge paddocks, though he had fenced the road across with six-rail wall of wood. Bulls would break his fences, his paddocks be burnt oftener than any one's else, and none have the grace to come to his assistance. ”

“ Leicester would say that something else is wanting before we invite strangers to eat Thanksgiving dinners with us. He would say that all this is imprudent."
"Mr. Leicester is very wise, I dare say, and I am but a simple old woman, Robert; but somehow that which seems right for me to do always turns out for the best."
"Because what seems right to the good always is best, my darling old aunt. I only wanted to prove how prudent and wise a city life has made me." ”

“ Leicester's hunting suit of Lincoln green, richly embroidered with gold, and crossed by the gay baldric which sustained a bugle-horn, and a wood-knife instead of a sword, became its master, as did his other vestments of court or of war. For such were the perfections of his form and mien, that Leicester was always supposed to be seen to the greatest advantage in the character and dress which for the time he represented or wore. ”

“ There is no possibility of misconstruing Sir Leicester’s burning wish to see him or the desire he signifies to have the room cleared of every one but the housekeeper. It is speedily done, and Mr. Bucket appears. Of all men upon earth, Sir Leicester seems fallen from his high estate to place his sole trust and reliance upon this man. ”

“ His visit to Leicester must have taken place some time before 1638, for it was in that year that his Journal first appeared, and the Swinesmarket Bell was certainly existing, as we have seen, as late as 1605.
The history of the old inns of Leicester can be sketched only in the barest outline. Wider research might, no doubt, discover many more interesting allusions to their ancient life, but their doings must remain for the most part closed in darkness, and the cheerful clatter of their busy days is now silent for ever. ”

“ A pause ensued, which was terminated by Laura’s asking abruptly, “Do gentlemen like Mr. Leicester?”
“Really I have not sufficient knowledge of facts to inform you, but I should say he is a very popular man.”
“Popular man! I hate that phrase,” returned his companion pettishly. “It is almost as bad as describing any one as a man about town, which always gives me the idea of a creature that wears a pea-jacket, lives at a club, boards on cigars, talks slang, carries a betting-book, and never has its hair cut. Can’t you tell me what you think of Mr. Leicester yourself?” ”

“ The city of Leicester, which is now chiefly noted for the manufacture of hosiery, was founded by the Britons, and was subsequently the Roman city of Ratæ. Many Roman remains still exist here, notably the ancient Jewry wall, which is seventy-five feet long and five feet high, and which formed part of the town-wall. Many old houses are found in Leicester, and just north of the city are the ruins of Leicester Abbey, This noted religious house was founded in the [Pg 112] twelfth century, and stood on a meadow watered by the river Soar. ”

“ In the course of the next half century, Leicester, like the other trading towns of England, increased in wealth and population. The tallage rolls show an average of more than 450 taxpayers, and that for the year 1342 contains as many as 550 names. Before the visitation of the Black Death in 1348 — 1349, there must have been more than 3000 persons within the town. The community had become so numerous, and the civic life of Leicester had been so firmly established, when that calamity fell, that its effects were not so disastrous as they were in poorer and less advanced towns. ”

“ On Leicester’s death it was found that he had bequeathed the castle for life to his brother Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, and after him to his son by Lady Douglas Sheffield, whom he termed Sir Robert Dudley.
The only portion now habitable of what was anciently one of the finest baronial fortress homes in the kingdom is Leicester’s magnificent gate–house, which many authorities are agreed equals in its size and beauty of architecture many a manor–house itself. ”

“ Even men of quality staying in Leicester for the races were entertained at the expense of the town. Thus, in 1603, a gallon of sack and 2 gallons of claret were given to "Sir Thomas Griffyn, Sir William Faunt, and other gentlemen at the Angel at the horse running." During the civil wars the Angel was the scene of great activity. It was probably occupied by Prince Rupert, when, after extracting £500 from the Corporation, he established his headquarters at Leicester in 1642. ”

“ The White Lion, still standing, is also an old inn, and so is the Bee-hive near the West Bridge.
The Eastward drift of civic life in Leicester, which has been noticed before, and which was caused not only by the increase of trade in the markets, but by other factors, such as the decline of the Castle, and the dissolution of the great Abbey and of the religious houses that lay within the town west of the old High Street or in its immediate neighbourhood, received further impetus in the 17th century from a very different cause. ”

“ I thank you for your services as butler this day, Monsieur of Rozel. You do your office rarely."
As the Seigneur left Elizabeth's apartments, he met the Earl of Leicester hurrying thither, preceded by the Queen's messenger. Leicester stopped and said, with a slow malicious smile: "Farming is good, then—you have fine crops this year on your holding?" ”

“ FOR many years after the Conquest the leading people of the town of Leicester were of Norman blood. This was owing, of course, to the power of the Norman Earls of Leicester, without whose appointment and approval no man could prosper, or obtain any high office, for the Earls naturally preferred men who were of their own race and who spoke their own language. The first Englishman who held the title of Mayor seems to have been William le Engleys, who was appointed in 1278, and in three subsequent years. ”

“ THE annals of Leicester do not contain any story more curious and interesting than that of the fateful visit paid to the Blue Boar Inn by King Richard the Third, two days before his death, and the legacy of woe which that disastrous event is said to have bequeathed to a future generation. ”

“ At the same time he also gave them another fair at Leicester and its suburb every year to last five days, two days before the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 8th) , on the day of the feast, and two days next following the said feast. Every native and foreigner coming to Leicester for the fair was to be quit of toll, stallage, pickage, &c., and the government of the fairs was confirmed to the Mayor and burgesses, and to be arranged by the Mayor and two or three of the best men of the town ("probioribus et melioribus hominibus") , elected and sworn. ”

“ The Handbook of Leicester, by James Thompson, 12mo. pp. 96. Leicester, 1844. We are glad to see local guide-books compiled with some degree of taste and accuracy; they are humble works of utility, which may in general be made attractive and interesting, but which have too often been 'got up' in the most contemptible manner. The little volume before us is an honourable exception, and as such the more gratifying as it relates to so interesting a town as Leicester. ”

“ On Leicester's return Elizabeth had an interview with him and reproached him with staying too long abroad. Rumours were spread that Leicester aimed at becoming prinee of the protestant provinces of Holland, and the queen openly charged him with conspiring with the Prince of Orange against her. Leicester did not deny that his ambition lay in the direction indicated, but warned the queen that if she, as in her irritation she hinted, intended to ally herself with Spain against the Low Countries, she would have to prepare for war with France as well as with the Netherlands. ”

“ Leicester (209) , county town of Leicestershire, on the Soar, 40 m. E. of Birmingham; is an ancient town, with several historic buildings; has grown rapidly of late owing to its hosiery, boot and shoe, and iron-founding industries; it sends two members to Parliament.
Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of, Queen Elizabeth's favourite, fifth son of the Duke of Northumberland; won the queen's favour by his handsome appearance and courtly address ”

“ Leicester found himself better able to resist the spiritual thunders which were levelled against him. The pope, still adhering to the king’s cause against the barons, despatched Cardinal Guido as his legate into England, with orders to excommunicate by name the three earls, Leicester, Glocester, and Norfolk, and all others in general, who concurred in the oppression and captivity of their sovereign. [*] Leicester menaced the legate with death if he set foot within the kingdom ”

“ If, in the midst of the most serene day of summer, when all is light and laughing around, a thunderbolt were to fall from the clear blue vault of heaven, and rend the earth at the very feet of some careless traveller, he could not gaze upon the smouldering chasm, which so unexpectedly yawned before him, with half the astonishment and fear which Leicester felt at the sight that so suddenly presented itself. ”

“ The largest landowner in this division of the county, next to my brother Leicester, was Lord Hastings—great-grandfather of the present lord. On the occasion I am referring to, he was a guest at Holkham, where a large party was then assembled. Leicester was particularly anxious to be civil to his powerful neighbour; and desired the members of his family to show him every attention. The little lord was an exceedingly punctilious man: as scrupulously dapper in manner as he was in dress. Nothing could be more courteous, more smiling, than his habitual demeanour ”

“ If we relied solely upon the Records of the Borough we should hardly be aware that any such catastrophe had occurred, still less that it had been as serious and far-reaching as the canon of Leicester Abbey asserts. On turning to a tallage roll of the year 1336, one finds there the names of some 460 taxpayers of Leicester, and a tallage roll made eighteen years later in 1354, six years after the first and most severe visitation of the plague, contains very nearly the same number. ”

“ Leicester was a man of taste and a patron of literature, whose cultured mode of life at his country seat, Penshurst, was celebrated in verse by Ben Jonson. The earl died at Penshurst on the 13th of July 1626. He was twice married; first to Barbara, daughter of John Gamage, a Glamorganshire gentleman; and secondly to Sarah, daughter of William Blount, and widow of Sir Thomas Smythe. By his first wife he had a large family. ”

“ Leicester Square will ever be connected with Hogarth at the Golden Head. It was not, at his going there, in a flourishing condition, but it improved. In the year 1735, in Seymour’s ‘Survey,’ Leicester Fields are described as ‘a very handsome open square, railed about and gravelled within. The buildings are very good and well inhabited, and frequented by the gentry. The north and west rows of buildings, which are in St. Anne’s parish, are the best (and may be said to be so still) , especially the north, where is Leicester House, the seat of the Earl of Leicester ”

“ Leicester filled her ears with poison every day, mixed up your business and great affairs with France, sought to convey that you both were not what you are; until at last I countermarched him." She laughed merrily. "Ay, I can laugh now, but it was all hanging by a thread, when my leech sent his letter that brought you to the palace. It had grieved me that I might not seek you, or write to you in all those sad days; but the only way to save you was by keeping the Queen's command ”

“ Some time after, there was a certain clerk in this town of Leicester, by name Simon Maudit, who, for some time after the death of the aforesaid Robert, Earl of Leicester, who made the charter of quitclaim, had the reeveship of Leicester in farm, and collected and exacted the said pence called gavelpence by force and at his own will, distraining all who refused to pay, bidding them show him a warranty of quitclaim, for he knew very well that the quitclaim was burnt, so they are paid to this very day. ”