Leicestershire

“ Leicestershire (374) , English midland county, bounded by Nottingham, Lincoln, Rutland, Northampton, Warwick, and Derby shires; is an undulating upland watered by the Soar, and mostly under pasture. Leicester cattle and sheep are noted, and its Stilton cheeses. There are coal deposits and granite and slate quarries in the N. The chief towns are Leicester, the county town, Loughborough, and Hinckley. ”

“ The place had a new era of troubles when, in their turn, the Anglo-Saxons decayed and a more virile race invaded the land. Then Leicester fell a prey to the Danes, whose settlements may be traced at this day in the characteristic ending of Leicestershire place-names in the syllable “by,” peculiar to places of Danish origin: Oadby, Rearsby, Dalby, Sileby, and many others. ”

“ Like other counties, Leicestershire has had some hard times, pecuniarily, to pass through, but now that the storm has been safely weathered and a permanent home found, greater prosperity in every sense may be hoped for. ”

“ The grant made to Mrs. Pickerell on February 6th, 1562-3 was very extensive, and comprised property in Derbyshire, Chester, Devon, Norfolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Surrey, etc. The roll is actually some 50 feet in length, consisting of 42 membranes sewn together end to end. There seems to be no Leicestershire property contained in any of the three grants except Leicester Corpus Christi Guild Hall passing under the grant of February 6th, 1562-3, by the same description as that which appears in the Conveyance to Braham. ”

“ Other Industries.—Coal is worked in the districts about Moira, Coleorton and Coalville. Limestone is worked in various parts, freestone is plentiful, gypsum is found, and a kind of granite, extensively used for paving, is obtained in the Charnwood district, as at Bardon and Mount Sorrel, and at Sapcote and Stoney Stanton in the south-west. Apart from the mining industries, the staple manufacture of Leicestershire is hosiery, for which the wool is obtained principally from home-bred sheep. Its principal seats are Leicester, Loughborough, Hinckley and Castle Donington. ”

“ This River and bridge Enter’d me into Leicestershire wch is a very Rich Country—Red land, good Corne of all sorts and grass, both fields and jnclosures. You see a great way upon their hills ye bottoms full of Enclosures, woods and different sort of manureing and Herbage, amongst wch are placed many little towns wch gives great pleasure of ye travellers to view. Ye miles are long but hither its pretty hard good way; to Coppingham 5 mile more wch is a neate market town. Satturday is their market wch is very good affording great quantetyes of Corn, Leather garne and Cattle ”

“ A Catalogue, with Introduction, etc., compiled for the Corporation of Leicester by Cecil Deedes, M.A., Prebendary of Chichester ; J. E. Stocks, D.D., Archdeacon of Leicester ; J. L. Stocks, M.A., Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford. (Oxford, 1919) Town Lib. Cat.
The History of the Parish of Langton, etc., by J. H. Hill. (Leicester, 1867) Hill.
The Visitation of the County of Leicester in 1619. (Harleian Society, 1870) Visit. Leic.
Desiderata Curiosa by Francis Peck, M.A., Rector of Godeby, in Leicestershire. A New Edition. 2 vols. (London, 1779) Peck. ”

“ When Leicester, for instance, passed from the hands of the Conqueror into those of its Earls, its townsmen were bound to reap their lord's corn-crops, to grind at his mill, to redeem their strayed cattle from his pound. The great forest around was the Earl's, and it was only out of his grace that the little borough could drive its swine into the woods or pasture its cattle in the glades. The justice and government of a town lay wholly in its master's hands; he appointed its bailiffs, received the fines and forfeitures of his tenants, and the fees and tolls of their markets and fairs. ”

“ For the relief of the poor and of sick men and women dwelling in Leicester We grant that the Mayor bailiffs and burgesses may have a wool market for the purchase and sale of wool, woollen thread, and yarn, provided such market damage no neighbouring market, and any subject may buy wool, woollen thread, and yarn brought into Leicester on the days appointed, when fairs and markets are held, and may sell the same again or use it in any way, the statute of Edward VI or any other statute notwithstanding. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ On turning towards the West, the lover of contrast may for a moment call to his imagination the dark, heavy, and almost impenetrable forest which covered these lands in the twelfth century, and depicture figures of the inhabitants of Leicester bearing from thence their allowed load p. 77of wood, the supply for their hearths, and for this privilege, paying at the West bridge, their toll of brïgg silver to their feudal Baron. To this picture he will oppose the present scene of pasturage, flocks, and free husbandmen, cultivating the earth under the protection of just and equal laws. ”

“ VERY little is known about the first house occupied by the Guild Merchant of Leicester. It was situated in the Parish of St. Nicholas, and "with the unanimous consent of the community" it was conveyed away to one William Emery by Walter le Bron, who was Mayor of Leicester in 1275-6.
In the year 1257, Isolda the Turner was paid is. 7d. "for arrears of the service of the messuage belonging to the community of the Guild." In 1258, a like sum was paid to Philip the Turner, "for rent of the land of the Guild." In 1260 Philip, son of Philip the Turner, received 1s. ”

“ This, when the other churches of Leicester were given to the abbey by p. 15Robert Bossu, was annexed as a prebend to the cathedral of Lincoln, by the bishops of that diocese to whom it then belonged. The right of presentation is vested in the person holding the prebend, and the parish, with the neighbouring dependent parish of Knighton, is exempted from the jurisdiction of the Arch-deacon of Leicester. The inside of the church is handsome; the nave and side aisles are supported by gothic arches, whose beauty and symmetry are not concealed by aukward galleries. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The unvarying testimony of tradition has clearly proved that the road from the town westward lay, in the reign of Richard the third, over Bow-Bridge. By attending to the Fosse, which runs nearly in the line of the Narborough road by West-cotes, it will seem likewise necessary to conclude that the approach to Leicester, in the time of the Romans, was also over a bridge situate near that spot; for as it is certain that the Fosse did pass thro’ Leicester, and the Romans in forming their roads scrupulously adhered to the strait line, they would cross the old Soar near this place. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Now they are Twentieth Century streets, in all—in the way of gigantic and highly ornate frontages with show-shops—that the expression indicates.
The growth of industrialism has wrought this marvellous change. History—a fine stirring history—the town has, but towns cannot live on the memory of times past. For the first small beginnings of modern Leicester you must trace back to 1680, when one Alsop began—not brewing—but stocking-weaving, in a small way. ”

“ There are two factors which may partly explain the town's rapid recovery. In the first place, it has been observed that the mortality was greatest "among the meaner sort of the people," so that it would not fall as heavily upon a community of well-to-do traders as on agriculturalists. And, in the second place, the fame of Leicester's prosperity was at this period sufficiently wide-spread to attract fresh comers to take the place of those who fell in the course of the epidemic. ”

“ It will be judged from all the foregoing that Leicester is a large and busy place. It now numbers 215,000 inhabitants, engaged chiefly in the making of boots and shoes and hosiery. With a well-deserved Radical reputation—Leicester ever was Radical, even before it made boots—the Corporation now owns the Water, Gas, Electricity,242 and Tramways undertakings and makes them all pay a profit in relief of rates. Indeed, they do things on a business footing. ”