to the memory of Bow-Bridge. That single arch of stone, richly shadowed with ivy, spanned, at the corner of this island, the arm of the Soar. Its beautiful curve, unbroken either by parapet or hand-rail, well merited the name with which some Antiquaries have graced it, the Rialto Bridge. On the top of the bow, feeding on the mould which time had accumulated upon the stony ridge, flourished a spreading hawthorn; this with the stream below, when sparkling under the reflection of the western sun, the broken shrubby banks, and the distant swell of Brad-gate Park hill, formed a picture which has often allured the eye; a picture, that, as it repeatedly arrested the painter’s hand, we can hardly say is now no more.
Of this Bridge, the learned author of the Desiderata Curiosa, who has
mistaken it for the adjoining one of four arches, has given a plate in which is represented a troop of horsemen with banners, carrying the dead body of Richard the third, thrown upon a horse, over a bridge which never exceeded three feet; a width fully sufficient for the purpose for which it seems to have been constructed, that of affording a foot passage from the monastery of the Augustines to a spring of pure water some yards distant. This spring till within a few years, was covered with a large circular stone, having an aperture in the centre, thro’ which the monks let down their pitchers into the water, and retained the name of St. Austin’s Well.
But tho’ not over this bridge, yet over the adjoining one, known also, probably from its vicinity to the other, by
the name of Bow-Bridge, the monster Richard really passed, proud, angry, and threatening, mounted on his charger to meet Richmond; and over it, the day after the battle, his body was brought behind a pursuivant at arms, naked and disgraced, and after being exhibited in the Town-Hall, then situated at the bottom of Blue-Boar Lane, was interred in the church of the Grey-Friars near St. Martins.
The name of this king excites in the mind a sensation of horror;—and tho’ it required the overwhelming evidence of human depravity furnished by the French revolution, to make the author of the “Historic Doubts,” believe his crimes possible, the concurrent testimonies both of Lancastrian and Yorkist Chroniclers, too well demonstrate them. Tho’ the latter may have endeavoured to soften the picture, and Shakespear
may have thrown upon it the darkest shades by working up his deformity of body and mind into a picture of diabolical horror, the original, the undoubted traits are preserved by both parties; traits, which so far from being peculiar to Richard, marked likewise the other characters of the contending houses. Nor did he deviate widely from the manners of the times when he “waded thro’ slaughter to a throne.”
A pleasing woody road leads from Bow-Bridge to Danett’s Hall, the seat of Edward Alexander, M.D. The ground here rising in a gentle slope obtains a command of the town, and that the dryness of the soil and agreeableness of the situation, mark it as a desirable spot for residence, even the taste of the antient Romans may prove; for in the plot of ground known by the name of the “great
cherry orchard,” remains a relic of one of their houses. This is a fragment of a tesselated floor, discovered a few years ago, but covered over by a former possessor of the estate. It is composed of tesserœ of various sizes, forming an elegant geometrical pattern, but how far it extends, has not yet been ascertained.
Among the great number of these pavements found at Leicester, are three very perfect ones discovered in the ground belonging to Walter Ruding Esq. adjoining the old Vauxhall, near the west bridge—they also are composed in curious and exact patterns, and form entire squares; but are now filled up. Of these, together with that in the great cherry orchard, very accurate plates are given in Nichols.