458 L E I C 
179a. The other public buildings are a free grammar- 
fcliool of great antiquity ; feveral charity-fchools ; various 
hofpitals; an alyl 11m for indigent lunatics ; an exchange 
for public bulinefs; the hotel, now ufed as affembly 
rooms ; and a commodious theatre. Among the curiofi- 
ties of the town, is the old wooden bedhead laid to have 
belonged to king Richard, and on which he flept, or ra¬ 
ther reclined, the night preceding the battle of Bofworth. 
The old town-library mult not be forgotten, as thereby 
hangs a tale, which tale is told by M. Nemnich, a Ger¬ 
man traveller, (1800,) in the following terms: “In 
Throlby’s Hiftory of Leicefter, the town-library is highly 
praifed, and is faid to contain a thoufand volumes. It 
was eredled in 1633. Concerning one manufcript, which 
Throlby erroneoully pronounces to be Syriac, he informs 
us that it is vulgarly believed to be the hand-writing of 
our Saviour, or of one of his apoftles. I therefore ran 
■with great eagernefs to fee this library. A mean dirty- 
looking woman, who ails as librarian, conducted me to 
au old dark room, w here there might be about a thoufand 
books, but which nobody ever reads. I aiked the wo¬ 
man to (how me the hand-writing of our Saviour ; and 
file fetched out of her clofet an old quarto volume, to 
which was fixed a thick ciumfy chain. The leaves were 
almoft: all torn out : and, on my inquiring how this had 
happened, (he told me that it was done by people who 
wilhed to poffefs apiece of this facred relic ; but that now 
(he took care that none (hould appropriate to themfelves 
any morfel of it. However, this female Argus was not 
lb quick-fighted but that I contrived to carry off a fmall 
fragment; which, on my return to Hamburgh, I fent to 
the celebrated Hofrath Tychfen at Roftock, and received 
from him the following an Twer: ‘ The fcrap which you 
fent to me, of a poem neatly written in the Perfian cha¬ 
racter called tealik [the leaning], with a Turkifh tranfla- 
tion annexed on the oppofite page, may probably have 
been written about the beginning of the 18th century. 
From the few lines comprifed in this piece, it appears to 
be part of a love-fong; in which the lover, tormented 
with jealoufy, bitterly complains of a rival, and withes to 
find Come balfam for his lacerated foul, forne relief from 
his intolerable anguifh, if he may not be allowed accefs 
to the garden of rofes.’ Such, then, being the (late of 
the cafe with the pretended hand-writing of our Saviour, 
my fcrap will no longer be preferved as a facred relic, but 
merely as an inftance of the fuperftitious turn which pre¬ 
vails at Leicefter.” 
Here is alfo a county-library of modern inftitution, 
kept up by fubfeription. Likewife an agriculture-fociety, 
fupported by almoft all the gentlemen of landed property 
in the county, intended to promote ufeful difeoveries and 
inventions relative to agriculture; and to reward deferv- 
ing hulbandmen of certain deferiptions. A valuable mi¬ 
neral fpring was difeovered in 1787, fimilar to the waters of 
Harrowgate and Keddleftone ; its beneficial effedfs have 
been repeatedly proved in dileafes of the (kin ; in ob- 
ftrudled glands ; in habitual coftivenefs, and the piles ; 
and in lome particular complaints of the ftomach and 
bowels, which are cleanfed by its operation. Poor per- 
fons, recommended by any of the faculty, may drink the 
water gratis. Subfcriptions for a family one guinea, and 
for a fingle perfon half-a-guinea, for the feafon. 
In this town was formerly a vantage-, and the feries of 
coins that have been colledled, prove that at the Leicefter 
mint, a regular fucceflion of coinage has been produced 
from the reign of the Saxon king Athelftan down to 
Henry II. This feries has been engraved in Mr. Nichols’s 
valuable Hiftory of this town. 
The firft charter granted to Leicefter was by king John 
in the firft year of his reign ; and at the fame time Robert 
Fitz-Parnel, earl of Leicefter, invefted the burgeffes with 
the power of buying and felling lands, &c. A charter, 
granted in the following reign by earl Simon de Montfort, 
(hows the peculiar intolerance of the times; it lpecifies, 
ESTER. 
that “ no Jew or Jewefs, in my time, or in the time of 
any of my heirs, to the end of the world, (ball inhabit, 
or remain in” the town of Leicefter. Henry VII. by 
charter dated 1504., confirmed all the previous privileges, 
and empowered the jultices to take cognizance of treafons, 
murders, felonies, See. A charter by queen Elizabeth 
fpecifies, that the borough of Leicefter is very ancient and 
populous, and from remote times has been a borough in¬ 
corporate ; and the former liberties and immunities are 
fpecified and extended. The corporation are thereby em¬ 
powered, among other privileges, to refufe the building 
of malt-kilns within the diftance of thirty yards from any 
other building. This charter alfo grants a market for 
wool-yarn and worfted, and for other commodities. All 
fines and amercements were ordered to be applied to the 
ufe of the poor. The corporation confiftsofa mayor, re¬ 
corder, fteward, bailiffs, twenty-four aldermen, forty- 
eight common-councilmen, and a town-clerk; the free¬ 
men are toll-free of all the markets and fairs in England. 
As a parliamentary borough, Leicefter has returned two 
members to the national councils from the time of Ed¬ 
ward I. One of the reprefentatives was formerly eledted 
by the “ mayor and his brethren,” and the other by the 
commonalty. This inode having excited much popular 
dilturbance, Henry VII. ordained that “the mayor and 
his brethren (hould choofe forty-eight of the moft difereet 
inhabitants of the town,” who (liould eledt all officers for 
the borough, and members of parliament. Thus it con¬ 
tinued till the reign of Charles II. from which time the 
right of eledtionhas been vefted in “the freemen not 
receiving alms, and in the inhabitants paying fcot and 
lot;” but perfons living in the borough of Leicefter by 
certificate, not having gained a fettlement by renting ten 
pounds per annum, or ierving in an annual office, are not 
entitled, by paying fcot and lot, to vote. The mayor 
and bailiff are the returning-officers ; number of voters, 
about 2000. 
The principal and almoft only article of manufachire 
in Leicefter, is that of ftockings, which has been an efta- 
blifhed and ftaple commodity here for above two cen¬ 
turies. It finds employment for a great number of per¬ 
fons, as hofiers, Itocking-makers, wool-combers, dyers, 
frame-fmiths, comb-makers, winders, fizers, feamers, (pin¬ 
ners, hobbiners, linker-makers, ftocking-needle-makers, 
&c. See. Mr. Throlby dates that in Leicefter there were 
“ upwards of feventy manufadtures called hofiers, who, it 
is computed, employ 3000 frames ; including the wrought 
goods they individually purchafe; about 6000 perfons 
being diredtly or indirectly employed in this great bufi- 
nefs.” This town and its vicinity, with Nottingham and 
its neighbourhood, are the principal places in England 
for the manufadture of ftockings; the latter is the mod 
noted for filk, and the finer fort of goods, while the 
former is chiefly devoted to the coarfer articles, of which 
a very large quantity is annually made. The trade at 
prefent is very flourifhing; and in the Walk through 
Leicefter it is Hated, “that 15,000 dozen per week” of 
ftockings are made on an average. Leicefter is ninety-fe- 
ven miles diftant from London : the market is held on Sa¬ 
turdays ; and eight fairs annually, all on a very large 
feale. This town was returned to parliament in the year 
1811 as containing 23,146 inhabitants. Lat. 52. 39. N. 
Ion. 1. 8. W. 
At Hulband’s Bofworth, near Leicefter, nine witches 
were executed together on the 18th of July, 1616. 
At Ratby, three miles from Leicefter, a Roman camp 
has been difeovered, and, by the affinity of its name, fup- 
pofed to have been the Rata of Antoninus. It is very 
perfedf, as well as the vallum or rampart, and forms a 
parallelogram of about 280 yards long by 155 broad : it 
was difeovered in 1773. Near it is a place called Ratby-- 
fprings, about half a mile from the village. Britijh Direc¬ 
tory. Nemnich's Travels in England, Nichols's Hifi. of Leicejler* 
/hire. 
a 
LEICESTER* 
