HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 103 



The Wyrley and Essiugton Canal passes near the city, affording 

 a ready medium for the conveyance of coal, lime, and other heavy 

 articles, and opening an extensive communication by the Grand 

 Trunk, with distant inland towns and sea-ports. 



A short tour through the principal streets, for the purpose of 

 noticing remarkable objects, shall terminate this description of 

 modern Lichfield. 



The market-place is in the centre of the city. Opposite the 

 market>house, at the corner of Market-street, stands a stuccoed 

 house, supported in the front by pillars, and memorable for being 

 the birth-place of Dr. Johnson. 



The markets-house is a light and convenient building of brick, 

 erected on the spot formerly occupied by the market-cross. In 

 Boar-street stands the Guildhall. It is a neat edifice of stone, with 

 a pediment adorned with the city arms, an escutcheon representing 

 a landscape with three Kings, and many other martyrs slain, and a 

 view in bass-relief of the Cathedral. The hall in front is spacious, 

 and in the rear are apartments in which the members of the Corpo- 

 ration transact public business. Underneath is a gaol, in which 

 debtors and felons apprehended within the limits of the county of 

 Lichfield are confined. 



The play-house was erected in Boar-street in 1790. It is a small 

 structure, with some ornamental stucco-work in front, and is now 

 the property of a society of gentlemen. At the south-west corner 

 of this street is a free-school, founded and endowed by Thomas 

 Minors, Esq. in 1670, " to teach thirty-four boys of this city to read 

 the psalter and bible in English." 



Westward of this school are the gates leading to the Friary, which 

 was formerly a monastery belonging to the Franciscan Friars. It 

 was founded in the year 1229, by Alexander Stavenley, Bishop of 

 Lichfield and Coventry. This monastery was destroyed by a fire, 

 which consumed the greater part of the city, in 1291, but the 

 church belonging to the institution was preserved. In 1545, the 

 monastery and church were totally demolished, and the present 

 mansion erected. It has since been the residence of several of the 

 most respectable gentlemen in this part of the county. In the reign 

 of George II. this mansion was the seat of Michael Rawlins, Esq. 

 and the Duke of Cumberland had his head-quarters here, during 

 the time the army was stationed at Lichfield, in the Rebellion, 

 1745. On the east side of this mansion a curious monument was 

 discovered, in 1746, of which Dr. Wilkes gives the following ao 



