d and half-timbered houses, but the relics of the past are still
striking: witness the ancient porch of the good old "Malt-Shovel," with
its bow-window, in which the Dudley retainers often caroused, and the
oblique gables in one of the side streets, which Rimmer, a minute observer
of English domestic architecture, thus describes: "An acute-angled street
may be made to contain rectangular rooms on an upper story.... Draw an
acute angle--say something a little less than a right angle--and cut it
into compartments; or, if preferred, an obtuse angle, and cut this into
compartments also. Now, the roadway may be so prescribed as to prevent
right angles from being made on the basement, but the complementary angles
are ingeniously made out by allowing the joists to be of extra length, and
cutting the ends off when they come to the square. The effect is extremely
picturesque, and I cannot remember seeing this peculiar piece of
construction elsewhere."

At the western end of High street stands Leicester's Hospital, which was
originally a hall belonging to two guilds, but, coming into possession of
the Dudleys, was converted into a hospital by Elizabeth's favorite in
1571. The "master" was to belong to the Established Church, and the
"brethren" were to be retainers of the earl of Leicester and his heirs,
preference being given to those who had served and been disabled in the
wars. The act of incorporation gives a list of neighboring towns and
villages, and specifies that queen's soldiers from these, in rotation, are
to have the next presentations. There is a common kitchen, with a cook and
porter, and each brother receives some eighty pounds per annum, besides
the privileges of the house. Early in this century the number of inmates
was increased to twenty-two, unlike many such institutions, whose funded
property accumulated without the original number of patients or the amount
of their pensions being correspondingly increased. The hospital-men still
wear the old uniform--a gown of blue cloth, with the silver badge of the
Dudleys, the bear and ragged staff. The chapel has been restored in nearly
the old form, and stretches over the pathway, with a promenade at the top
of the flight of steps round it, and the black-and-white (or
half-timbered) building that forms the hospital encloses a spacious open
quadrangle in the style common to hostelries. The carvings are very fine
and varied, and add greatly to the beauty of the galleries and