LEICESTER, England, county town of Leicestershire, on the river Soar, a southern tributary of the Trent, 99 miles north west of London, on the Midland Railway and on branches of the Great Northern and London and Northwestern railways and on the Leices ter Canal. It was the Roman Rat* and the ancient British and Roman Rate Coritanorum and has interesting Roman remains, including the Jewry wall and several pavements, while the bricks in the early Norman church of Saint Nicholas are of Roman origin. There are several fine churches with Norman and early English remains and the ruins of an ab bey of the Black Canons, founded in 1143. The castle has parts of the original Norman hall, two gateways and an artificial mount upon which the donjon or keep stood. It was one of the "Five Boroughs* of the Danes in the 9th century. It was a municipality in 120-121 A.D., was the seat of a bishopric in 680-874 and in the 13th century it instituted a government by a mayor and 24 jurats. It was taken by storm by Charles I in May 1645 and retaken by Fairfax in the following month. It was granted its first charter by Robert of Meulan in 1103 or 1118 and later received charters by Henry VII in 1505, by Elizabeth in 1599, by James I in 1605 and 1610, by Charles I in 1630 and by James II in 1684. It has been repre
sented by two members in Parliament since 1295. It has a prescriptive market dating from the 13th century, held on Wednesdays and Saturdays; a fair dating from 1228, and an other dating from 1473. There are several other fairs of more recent origin. There are excellent modern libraries, schools, hospitals, benevolent institutions, art museum, gymna siums, churches and parks. It became a county borough in 1892 and was extended to consti tute a civil parish in 1892. The manufacture of hosiery on knitting frames was established about 1680 and still constitutes an important industry. The manufacture of boots was in troduced in the 19th century and the brewing and woolen industries were established in the 13th century. Other industries include the manufacture of cotton lace elastic webbing, iron-works and bricfc-works. Pop. about 227,242. Consult Bateson, 'Records of the Borough of Leicester' (1899); Johnston; `History of Leicester' (1892).