by.

The small Hospital of St. John, to which this chapel belonged, joins the
prison; it supports six Widows who subsist on a very scanty stipend
arising from various annual donations. Bent's Hospital, being the ground
floor of the same building, supports four Widows on an endowment equally
small.

We are now approaching one of the most valuable traces which Leicester
affords of our Roman Conquerors, a relick of their tesselated floors;
preserved with great attention, in the cellar of Mr. Worthington,
opposite the town prison. It was discovered in the year 1675, about four
feet and a half under the surface of the earth, which beneath was found
to consist of oyster shells to a considerable depth; it was sunk from its
original portion on one side being considerably inclined from the
level.--This pavement, which is an octagon three feet diameter,
represents a Stag looking intently upon the modestly-inclined countenance
of a figure seemingly female, with her arm resting affectionately against
his neck; in front stands a boy, whose wings and bow plainly indicate him
to be a Cupid; he appears about to discharge an arrow at the breast of
the female; a circumstance which renders it very certain that the subject
must be the amours of some fabulous personages, but assuredly not _Diana
and Actaeon_; nor yet as some Antiquaries have hastily supposed,
_Cypressus_ lamenting the death of his favourite stag. Indeed in the
whole of the _Metamorphoses_, no story cm be found bearing the slightest
resemblance to the subject before us.

The elegant and picturesque Gilpin has chosen to denominate this pavement
"a piece of miserable workmanship," which can only be owing to the manner
in which he injudiciously viewed it. By placing the light in a proper
position, the spectator will observe that the effect of the whole piece
gives the idea of good design, shade, and relief; and will be clearly
convinced that it could not have been wrought by a hand which had not
made considerable progress in the art of painting, as is evident from the
rounding of the arm of the female, the foreshortening of the stag's horn,
and the animated expression of each countenance. The tesserae are of
various sizes, mostly square, but where a narrow line of light was
required, as in the strait Grecian nose of the female, they are small and
long. They appear to be a composition, and are of three or four distinct
shades, the darkest a brown approaching to black, th