tecture called Saxon. Between the nave and aile is a series of low semicircular arches, springing from massy columns.

The Church of St. Mary, distinguished by the addition of infra or juxta castrum, is a large pile of irregular building, composed of various specimens, or styles of architecture, from a very early period, to a late one, when all styles were disregarded. These varieties tend to mark" the disasters of violence, accident, and time," and prove that the neighbourhood of the castle, within whose outer ballium, or precincts, it stood, was often most dangerous. That there was a church on this spot in "the Saxon times seems almost certain, from some bricks, apparently the workmanship of that people, found in the chancel; and the chevron work round the windows of this chancel proves that the first Norman Earl of Leicester, Robert de Bellomont, when he repaired the mischiefs of the Norman conquest, or rather of the attack made by William Rufus, upon the property of the Grentemaisnels, constructed a church on a plan nearly like the present, and adorned it with all the ornaments of the architecture of his times. This Earl founded in it a college of twelve canons, and among other donations for their support, he endowed it with the patronage of all the other churches of Leicester, St. Margaret's excepted "."

The interior of this church is spacious, and on the south side of the nave is a singularly large semicircular arch, having a span of thirty-nine feet. The south aile is said by Mr. Carte to have been built by John of Gaunt, At the east end of this aile was a chapel, or choir, held by a guild, or fraternity, called the Trinity Guild. This was founded in the time of Henry the Seventh, by Sir Richard Sacheverele, knt. and the good Lady Hungerford, Respecting this guild, the following list of articles, bought in for the year 1508, will serve to shew the value of money, and prices of provisions at that period. "A dozen of ale, 20d.; a fat wether, 2s. 4d.; seven lambs, 7s.; fourteen goslings, 4s. 8d.; fifteen Z 3

* Walk through Leicester, p. 87,

capons,

capons, 5s.; half a quarter of malt, 2s.; four gallons of milk, 4d.; a pig, 5d."

At the west end of the church is a handsome tower, surmounted by a lofty and elegant spire. The latter has suffered two accidents from storms. On that memorable day, March 14th, 1757, when Admiral Byng was cruelly shot, a tempestuous wind blew out one of the windows of the spire, and did so much other damage that it was obliged to be new lined with brick, and bound round in many places with iron bands. In the year 1763 it again sustained much injury by means of lightning; and in 1783, another flash of the electric fire struck the upper part of the steeple, and nearly split it from top to the bottom. The whole was obliged to be taken down, and a new one was erected at an expence of 2451. 10s. besides the value of the old materials. The eastern end, or chancel, of this church, is a curious specimen of ancient architecture, having three stone stalls, or seats, in its southern wall, and the old windows have semicircular arches, ornamented with bold zigzag mouldings. The buttresses are flat, with the same sort of mouldings running up their extreme angles*. Near the north door is a passage leading under an old building, which forms a gateway to an area called the castle yard. At this gateway was practised, till within a few years past, an ancient ceremony, expressive of the homage formerly paid by the magistrates of Leicester to the feudal lords of the castle. The mayor, knocking for admittance, was received by the constable, or porter of the castle, and then took an oath of allegiance to the king, as heir to the Lancastrian property. The office of constable of the castle is still nominally held. Opposite this gateway is a building, partly old and partly modern, within which is a large hall, “exceedingly curious." Its dimensions are seventy-eight feet long, fifty-one feet wide, and twenty-four feet high. This space is divided by two

* Since I saw this church, October 1806, I learn that part of the chancel has been taken down, and rebuilt with much skill by Mr. Firmadge, an ingenious architect of Leicester.

two rows of tall and massy oaken pillars into three divisions, like the nave and side ailes of a church. "This vast room was the ancient hall of the castle, in which the Earls of Leicester, and afterwards the Dukes of Lancaster, alternately held their courts, and consumed in rude but plenteous hospitality, at the head of their visitors, or their vassals, the rent of their estates, then usually paid in kind. On the south end appear the traces of a door-way, which probably was the entrance into a gallery that has often, among other purposes, served as an orchestra for the minstrels and musicians of former days. This hall, during the reign of several of the Lancastrian princes, was the scene of frequent parliaments. At present it is used only for the holding of the assizes, and other county meetings, to which purpose it is, from its length, so well adapted, that though the business of the civil and crown bars is carried on at the same time at the opposite ends of the room, the pleadings of the one do not in the least interrupt the pleadings of the other."

The fine Collegiate Church of St, Mary, in the Newarkt, was wholly demolished in the year 1690.

Near the north gate of the town was formerly another church, called St. Clement's, but this has been destroyed, as has one dedicated to St. Leonard, which stood near the north bridge. The church-yard of the latter is still preserved as a burial ground to the parish.

The church of All Saints is a smail modern structure, consisting of a nave and two ailes, all nearly of the same length. This vicarage, with that of St. Peter, which was annexed to it in the reign of Elizabeth, include the ancient parish of St. Michael, and part, if not the whole, of that of St. Clement. On a wooden tablet, an inscription to William Norice states that he is

i

"Dead and gone,

Whose grave from all the rest is knowne

By finding out the greatest stone."

Z.4

* Walk through Leicester.

+ Of which an ample history is given by Mr. Nichols.

This