A Walk through Leicester / being a Guide to Strangers

Transcribed from the 1804 T. Combe edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
“Within this hour it will be dinner-time, Till that I’ll view the manners of the town, Peruse its traders, gaze upon its buildings, And then return and sleep within mine inn.” Shakespeare.
LEICESTER, PRINTED BY T. COMBE, and sold by T. HURST, PATER-NOSTER-ROW, LONDON, 1804.
The Editor of the following pages, while he has been solicitous to furnish those who travel with a POCKET CICERONE, feels at the same time a wish that it may not be unacceptable to those who are at home . The latter, though, in the subject of this survey, they trace an old, a familiar scene, will still feel that it possesses that interest which the native spot binds around the mind, and when they point out to their intelligent visitors and curious friends the most memorable objects of their antient and honourable Town, it is his wish that this little companion may be found useful; he, therefore, while he rejoices in their support and feels their liberality, inscribes it with respect and gratitude, to the
INHABITANTS of LEICESTER.
To the traveller who may wish to visit whatever is deemed most worthy of notice in the town of Leicester, the following sketch is devoted. And as the highly cultivated state of topographical knowledge renders superficial remark unpardonable in local description, we shall endeavor to produce, at the various objects of our visit, such information and reflections as a conductor, not wholly uninformed, may be expected to offer to the curious and intelligent, while he guides him through
a large, commercial, and, we trust, a respectable town; the capital of a province which can honestly boast, that by its rich pasturage, its flocks and herds, it supplies England with the blessings of agricultural fertility; and by the industry of its frame-work-knitters, affords an article that quickens and extends the operations of commerce.
We now request our good-humoured stranger to accept of such our guidance; whether he be the tourist, whose object of inquiry is general information—or the man of reflection, who, wherever he goes, whether in crouded towns or solitary fields, finds something to engage his meditation—or the mercantile rider, who, when the business of his commissions is transacted, quits his lonely parlour for a stroll through the streets—we shall endeavor to bring before his eye as much of interest as our scenes