*LEICESTER, (Leicestershire) 78 cm. 98 mm. from London, is washed on the W. and N. sides by the r. Soar, and stands on the
Roman military-way, called the Fosse, where Roman coins, medals, and other antiquities, have often been discovered. In the
Saxon heptarchy, when it was the chief city of the Mercian Km. it was the See of a Bp. which being removed after a
succession of eight prelates, it fell to decay; but, anno 914, it was repaired, and fortified with new walls, by the Lady
Ethelfleda, when, Matthew Paris says, it became a most wealthy T. and had 32 p. Chs. but, for rebellion against Hen. II.
it was besieged and taken, the castle dismantled, and the walls thrown down. Here was a collegiate Ch. &c. in the times of
popery, which, at the Ref. was demolished. A Pt. was held here in the R. of Hen. V. wherein the first law was made for
burning hereticks. In the civil wars the army of K. Charles I. took this T. by storm, and Sir Tho. Fairfax soon retook it.
It is the largest, best built, and most populous T. in the shire. Its Corp. consists of a mayor, recorder, steward,
bailiff, 24 ald. 48 C. C. a town-clerk, &c. and it had its first charter from K. John, and its freemen are toll-free at
all the Mts. and Fairs in England. 'Its Mt. on S. is one of the greatest in England for provisions, especially corn and
cattle. Its Fairs are Palm-Sunday-eve, May 1, June 24, September 29, and Dec. 8. In the high street there is an exquisite
piece of workmanship, in form of our Saviour's cross. Here are 6 ps. though but 5 Chs. An hos. that was built here for 100
poor sick men and women by Henry the first Duke of Lancaster, who was interred in it, continues in a tolerable state,
being supported by some revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster, and it is capable of maintaining 100 patients; but the most
stately edifice here of this kind now, is the hos. built in the R. of Hen. VIII. and endowed by Sir Will. Wigiston, a
merchant of the staple in this T. for 12 men and as many women, which has a chapel and a library, for the use of the
ministers and scholars of the T. and there is another near the abbey for 6 widows. Here is a ch. sc. The inh. have greatly
improved the mf. of stockings, of which vast quantities are wove by frames, in this and many other neighbouring places; so
that in some years it has returned 60, 000 l. in that article. Before the castle was dismantled, it was a prodigious
building, it being the court of the great Duke of Lancaster, who added 26 acres to it, which he inclosed with a high wall,
and called it his Novum Opus, now the Newark, where are the best houses in or near Leicester; and they still continue
extra-parochial, as being under castle guard, by an old grant from the crown. Its hall and kitchen are still entire, the
former of which is so lofty and spacious, that the courts of justice, which are held here at the assizes, are at such a
distance as not to disturb each other. One of the gateways of this palace has a very curious arch, and in the tower over
it is kept the magazine for the Co, militia. In the neighbouring meadows was that famous mon. called, from its situation,
St. Mary de Pratis, or Prez, since turned into a dwelling-house and garden, where is a pleasant terrace, supported by an
embattled wall, with lunetts hanging over the r. and shaded with trees. The adjacent meadow is the place for the annual
horse-races. St. Margaret's Ch. is a noble structure, which has a ring of 6 of the most tuneable bells in the Km. It is
said that K. Rich. III. who was killed in the battle of Bosworth, was interred in it; and his coffin has been converted
into a trough for horses to drink, at the White-Horse inn here. Near this Ch. is a piece of ground still called the Bp's.
Barn-Close, and a royalty called to this day the Bp's.-Fee. There is a remarkable epitaph in St. Martin's Ch. shewing,
that Mr. Heyric, who died in 1589, aetat. 76, lived in one house with his wife 52 years, and in all that time buried
neither man, woman, nor child, though they were sometimes 20 in family. And the widow, who died in 1611, aetat. 97, saw
before her death 143 children, grand-children and great grand-children. This place has had the honour of being an earldom,
as long almost as any in England, and now gives that title to Tho. Coke, Ld. Lovel and postmaster-general. Most travellers
stop at Mr. Bracebridge's by All-Saints Ch. to see a curious piece of Roman antiquity, that was formerly dug out of a
cellar there, supposed by some to be the table of Diana and Acteon (as related by Ovid) wrought in a pile of little
stones, some white, others of a chesnut colour. There is an old wall here, called the Jewry-wall, where the inh. say the
Pagans used to offer up their children to Moloch. It is composed of rag-stone and Roman brick; and not far off is a place,
called Holy-Bones, where have been dug up the bones of many oxen, supposed to have been sacrificed there.