century. Indeed little, it seems, can be concluded from the present outside of the work; for as we cannot conceive that the Romans would have erected so rough an edifice, it must be supposed that the present remains were originally coated with workmanship more worthy of such polished builders. If, however, we must indulge a conjecture, we shall be led to imagine, from the slight remain of ornament, which is only the fragment of a niche, that this wall was either part of a Roman temple or bath. Still, however, such an opinion rests, and must rest, on nothing but conjecture, since the remains are too scanty to afford sufficient data for a settled opinion. Thus may we take our leave of this remarkable object, which, though incontrovertibly of Roman origin, and likely to exist when the church built with its stolen spoils shall be no more, must continue for ever, as it is at present, an interesting mystery.

The adjoining church of

ST. NICHOLAS

Is a small edifice of very rude, and consequently very ancient construction. It has evidently been built at different periods. It consists only of two aisles, the north one having long since been taken down; the south side is gothic, and the other, properly the nave, is of that massy unornamented style, in use before and at the Conquest: from the circumstance of its being built with the materials of the neighbouring Roman work, it will perhaps be no anachronism to assign to it a date prior to that period. The tower is also Saxon; and the spire having been damaged by the wind, is now taken down.

The area, eastward of the church-yard, is called Holy Bones; bones of oxen having been there dug up in sufficient numbers to induce the belief that it was once a place of sacrifice. The church of St. Augustine, which stood on this spot, is supposed to have been destroyed before the Conquest. — This piece of ground was granted by the Duchy of Lancaster, for the purpose of erecting a National School, which, by the indefatigable exertions of the Rev. R. Davies, vicar of St. Nicholas, and by the liberal assistance of the county and town, was built in the year 1814: in this school four hundred children are educated.

At the corner of this area is a Charity School, established on the bounty bequeathed by Aid. Gabriel Newton, for the clothing and educating thirty-five boys; and, in the terms of the founder's will, "instructing them in toning and psalmody." This school was rebuilt by the trustees in 1808, and the number of boys increased to eighty.

In a lane not far from St. Nicholas' Church, called Harvey-Lane, is the meeting house of the Calvinistic Baptists, which has been repeatedly enlarged, and is now capable of containing one thousand persons. This chapel possesses the distinguished privilege of the ministry of the celebrated Robert Hall.

From St. Nicholas'-Street, we again arrive at the High Cross, and proceed southward, along

HIGH CROSS-STREET,

In this street, in a house nearly opposite Townhall-Lane, are the remains of a chantry or chapel, established for the purpose of saying masses for the dead, once belonging to St. Martin's church. They consist of a range of windows, exhibiting in curiously painted glass, a regular series of sacred history.

The next object, worthy of attention, at which we arrive, is an elegant gothic building, with an inscription, "Consanguinitarium, 1792." It consists of five neat dwellings, to which is annexed a yearly stipend of upwards of sS60, and was built by John Johnson, Esq. a well-known architect, as a perpetual home for such of his relations as may not be favored by successful fortune.

Turning down a narrow alley, called Castle-Street, we arrive at a spacious area, on the right of which is a Charity School, built in 1785, belonging to the parish of St. Mary, which clothes and educates 45 boys and 35 girls. —The visitor will now have a full view of

ST. MARY'S CHURCH,

(Anciently known by the distinguishing addition of infra orjuxta Castrurn); a building in which he will perceive, huddled together, specimens of various kinds of architecture, from the Norman gothic of the north chancel, to the very modern gothic of the spire; a mixture which evinces the antiquity of the church, marks the disasters of violence, accident, and time, and proves 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 cheveron work round the windows of this chancel proves that the firstNorman 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 Grentemaisnells, 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, of whom the dean was most probably one, and among other donations for their support, he endowed it with the patronage of all the other churches of Leicester, St. Margaret's excepted. These, his son and successor, Robert, surnamed Bossu, converted into regular canons, and removed them, with great additional donations, to the Abbey in the meadows. He seems, however, to have continued an establishment of eight canons in the collegiate church, though with revenues comparatively small, since their income, at the dissolution of the monasteries, was valued only at sS23 12s. lid. That the number of these canons remained unchanged at the time of the dissolution, appears probable, from the circumstance of seven cranes, and a socket for an eighth, being still found in a kind of press, or ark, as it is called, in the vestry, for the purpose of suspending the priests' vestments.

The inside of the church is spacious and commodious, and has lately been rendered more so by converting the gothic arches of the south side of the nave into one bold semi-circular arch, whose span is thirty-nine feet, and erecting a gallery in the wide south aisle, said to have been built by John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster.

In the great choir, or chapel, called Trinity choir, at the east end of the great south aisle, (for the aisles of our churches were formerly often divided into chapels, but of which in this church no traces now remain), was held a Guild, or Fraternity, called Trinity Guild, founded in the reign of Henry the Seventh, by Sir Richard Sacheverel, Knight, and the good Lady Hungerford. Collections were made four times a year, of the brethren and sisters belonging to this society, whatever it might it, for antiquaries have not rendered the point sufficiently clear, but from their meetings being held in churches,