davieG Posted 21 March 2015 Posted 21 March 2015 'Leicester people are very pleasant and rather simple': A Graphic description of Victorian Leicester By Leicester Mercury | Posted: March 21, 2015 A view of St Mary de Castro, Leicester Leicester market on a Saturday Leicester Town Hall The Guildhall Rupert's Gateway and the Castle Inn, Leicester A view of St Mary de Castro, Leicester Leicester market on a Saturday Previous Next Comments (0)A gaggle of red top and broadsheet journalists will soon be travelling 100 miles north from London to write about the interment of Richard III, writes Cat Turnell. While in Leicester, these well-heeled emissaries of the fourth estate will have, as they invariably do, a disparaging pop at a city they know next to nothing about. This, as you're probably aware, is something of a predictable ritual. They will cite, with depressing frequency, the lazy, lukewarm touchstones of Gary Lineker and Daniel Lambert, and they will then smugly sit back and laugh to themselves at how clever and funny they are. The fact they ignore Leicester's 2,000 years of history, and its lasting effects on politics, religion, monarchy, society, education and language, is, of course, neither here nor there. RELATED CONTENT Richard III: An alternative guide to the procession route Gallery: The lost landmarks of Leicester One swing of the wrecking ball. One Leicester building. Which would YOU choose to smash to smithereens? Leicester's citizens, alive or dead, will traditionally be reduced to a football pundit and a fat man. Some writers, however, take the challenge seriously. Perhaps none more so than Harry V Barnett, who, after being dispatched by The Graphic, a weekly illustrated newspaper, explored town and county like a Victorian David Attenborough. Harry's discoveries, gathered during late-May 1882 in honour of another royal do, the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales, were duly reported back to the readership. "In spite of recent very rapid growth and increased vivacity," he begins, "Leicester has not in these days received the attention in which, historically considered at least, it undoubtedly deserves. It is one of the most ancient places in the kingdom. "Its Market Place has been a market place for 2,000 years and there is even a tradition that the original town was founded by King Lear. "Kings have visited it and the body of a King, bruised and shattered in battle, was buried in its precincts. "Parliament has met there many times; an Archbishop of Canterbury has thundered excommunication and anathema from the high alter of its abbey; and within sound of its busy murmur the soul of a great cardinal was passed to its rest. "It has borne the brunt of battle, of storm and siege, of fire, and all the devastation of war; and its castle was the home and fortress of two grand heroes in the nation's history – John of Gaunt and Simon de Montfort. "The strife between the houses of York and Lancaster originated in the action of a Parliament that met within its walls, and was for ever terminated near by on Bosworth Field." And this, take a deep breath, was just Harry's opening gambit. Over five bed-sized sheets of crumbling paper, filled with 12 images and a dissertation-worthy amount of text, he painted the town with words. Words that despite being 133 years old are as vivid and as visceral today. And yet, when all was said and done, and he typed his final sentence, the great Harry V Barnett admitted defeat. "In conclusion," he writes, "it remains to add that this brief survey is necessarily imperfect and inexhaustive. "In Leicester and its suburbs there are many other objects beside those I have treated, which, if space permitted, might be profitably dwelt upon." Here are some of Harry's (abridged) observations... Modern Leicester "Modern Leicester may not inaptly be described as a town that is red in the face. It is built almost entirely of red brick, and on all sides blushes a rubicund welcome. "It lies some 96 miles from London, in the valley of the River Soar, in the midst of what is called a pastoral country renowned for its hunting. "To the south is a wide plain of fertile undulations; to the north the land is hilly, often rugged, always picturesque. "Its surroundings are well-wooded, for it lies in Charnwood Forest, which once so famous, even now, with its scattered remnants, gives the landscape a charm, a variety, a richness entirely distinct and individual. "Leicester, indeed, is in a very flourishing condition to all appearances. Its population had increased from 17,005 in 1801 to 68,052 in 1861, since which time it has doubled its total. "Not content with its theatre, and its music hall, its museum and its assembly rooms, and its Temperance and Freemasons' Hall, its art school, its skating rink, its floral hall, its infirmary and its hospitals. It has erected a pavilion on its race course and a new town hall which is a distinguishing feature. "It has laid out a cemetery, and so pretty and pleasant is it, and so strange the vagaries of human nature, that people stroll, children play, and I have known lovers whisper there on summer evenings." The People "The people," mused Harry, "suggest some consideration. Aristocracy," he says, "there is none... nor are there any gentry in the strict sense of the word. Indeed, an old lady, who recently died, used to say she was "the last lady in the place" ... "But there are plenty of well-to-do people, and one or two who are very rich indeed – folks whose fortunes have been won in trade and commerce. "They are all more or less sedulously devoted to the making of money – a reputation which has belonged to Leicester people for centuries. "The lower orders, and particularly the shoe rivetters, can show some fine specimens of the blackguard pure and simple, who afford interesting studies on Sunday mornings, when they may be seen idling on the country roads, the coat pockets of each bulging with one or more bull terriers which they send into the fields for rabbits. "But it is doubtful they sink to the level of the Nottingham 'lamb' or Whitechapel rough. "Regarded as a whole, however, Leicester people are very pleasant, very hospitable, and," he added, "rather simple. "The factory girls struck me as contrasting favourably with their London prototypes. "There are some 'bad lots' of course, but, speaking generally, they seem as a class superior to those of the metropolis; they are cleaner, neater, healthier, and most of them better dressed. "I saw several early the other morning walking in from one of the outlying villages – walking with springy, vigorous step, in the bright sunshine, and to the songs of the birds in the hedgerows; each carrying her bag or basket of food, each bright-eyes, and merry, and – fancy this – each with well-polished boots! "What contrasts these, to the hurrying slatterns one meets in London streets." The Market Place "Is fittingly a central part of Leicester. It is large, though not as large as that of Nottingham. Like the rest of Leicester, it has under recent years undergone considerable changes. Some of the new shops and houses are handsome. "The Market Place is the assembly ground of the local volunteers, a smart and soldierly corps in gorgeous scarlet; and also of the Salvation Army which, with band and banners, parades in or about the centre on Sunday afternoons, creating a perfervid and rather resonant excitement. "The market is held on Saturdays, and, as Friday afternoon closes in, a staff of more or less dressed persons of rough aspect commence to arrange the stalls for the morrow... "They make a terrible clatter, which, however, is a mild infliction compared with the vociferous roar of the market the next day. "As Saturday night draws on the din increases, the crowd of purchasers swells and the voices grow more hoarse, as, by the flaming glare of gas and petroleum lamps, the great business of Sunday's dinner is arranged and bargained. "One goes to bed, say at 12, and still the shrieks and shouts, the clattering roar, and dull undertone of what The Times parliamentary man calls "murmurs" are at their height. "Come Sunday morning and all is peace. Not a vestige, not a cabbage leaf, nor a potato, nor a shred of meat, nor a scrap of any kind remains to tell the tale." Trades and Manufactures "Are numerous and active. Foremost of them is hosiery. The district was always adapted to the feeding of sheep and cattle; and Leicester has been a wool-growing county ever since a civilised population settled in it. "The wholesale grocery and provision trades also find a home in Leicester, and are sometimes combined oddly enough with cigars. "Cheese, and farm and dairy produce, too, are largely dealt in, but though the country is famous for stilton, I have never in Leicester tasted any cheese of that name as good as that I have occasionally met with elsewhere. The complaint of the natives is, perhaps, too true. "All the best things go to London!" The Jewry Wall "It is altogether singular, and probably the most striking memorial in Britain of the massive and dignified architecture of the Romans. "The district is rich in Roman remains, and close by the wall the foundations of two ancient chapels have been discovered, together with large quantities of the bones of oxen, apparently indicating pagan sacrifices." Benefactors and Celebrities "Simon de Montfort, William of Wigston, Sir Thomas White, Alderman Gabriel Newton, John of Gaunt, Sir William Hastings, Wycliffe, Lady Jane Grey, Buckingham, Robert Hall, the excellent and eloquent the Rev Mr Mursell and many other celebrated people are all more or less connected with Leicester; nor we must omit to mention the celebrated Daniel Lambert "the largest man on record," who is said to have weighed nearly 7 cwt, and measured 3 feet 1 inch round the leg, and 9 feet 4 inches round the body." Nobody, not even Harry V Barnett, it seems can resist mention of Lambo. As any good writer, Harry reveals something you didn't know. Such as an eyebrow-raising tale of Alderman Gabriel Newton – a former mayor, woolcomber and landlord. Old Gabriel is immortalised on the Clock Tower. Consider the following paragraph next time you pass beneath... "Alderman Gabriel Newton was an eccentric individual who caned anybody whom he found doing what he ought not to do. "He was 'down' upon clergymen in the vestry when they made mistakes in the service; and he once fought with a parish clerk in the belfry about the clerk's boy ringing the bell irregularly. "Throsby says he broke his cane over the clerk's head, for which the clerk kicked him downstairs." Politics and Religion "Leicester is distinctly a radical and dissenting borough. Its citizens have had a revolutionary habit of standing out for their rights – and sometimes more than their rights – since time immemorial. "They quarreled with their Earls in the old feudal days; and they were foremost in badgering King John, and of late years they, or at least the majority of them, have been remarkable for their contempt for ancient institutions, their antagonism against the Established Church, and their scorn of the Conservative Party. "In fact they seem troubled with a chronic dissent from things constitutional and ecclesiastical; though oddly enough, they can be wonderfully loyal and munificent when royalty visits the town. "The Royal College of Music meets with but scant support; but a royal visit opens the purses of the burgesses and citizens very wide indeed." Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Graphic/story-26205911-detail/story.html#ixzz3V0g4QF7b Follow us: @Leicester_Merc on Twitter | leicestermercury on Facebook
Bellend Sebastian Posted 21 March 2015 Posted 21 March 2015 I thought you were asking us our opinions on 19th Century Leicester, and was worried as I don't think I'm well placed to offer them
davieG Posted 21 March 2015 Author Posted 21 March 2015 I thought you were asking us our opinions on 19th Century Leicester, and was worried as I don't think I'm well placed to offer them Even I'm not that old.
Trav Le Bleu Posted 21 March 2015 Posted 21 March 2015 I thought you were asking us our opinions on 19th Century Leicester, and was worried as I don't think I'm well placed to offer them Since when has that stopped people offering their opinions on here? Just think though - Leicester 1882... those people don't know it yet, but they've so much great football to look forward to!
Parafox Posted 23 March 2015 Posted 23 March 2015 I think I prefer Leicester now we've got it in colour.
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