t the West bridge, which
crosses the new Soar. From hence the canal, taking the name of Union
Canal, proceeds toward Market Harborough. On the corner of an old house
upon the bridge, is an antient wooden bracket, which formerly supported a
bell, by some supposed to have been used by the mendicant brothers of the
neighbouring monastery of St. Augustine, who here took their station to
beg alms, or, which is more probable, it might have been the bell
belonging to the porter of the gate which stood here.

The street called Apple-gate, that leads us to the church of St.
Nicholas, will not be passed without interest by those who recollect that
on this spot, where the ground rises in a gentle ascent from the river,
the Legions of Rome established their town; and we are now arrived at an
object which brings them more forcibly to remembrance, a massy arched
wall, commonly termed, from its bounding the quarter antiently inhabited
by the Jews, the _Jewry Wall_.

This ruin, so minutely described by many Antiquaries, will afford to
curious and learned observers, a valuable specimen of the mode of
building practised by the Romans, but the uses for which it was designed,
will, most probably, for ever elude their researches. They will not
however, forbear their conjectures concerning it; of these, two have
obtained most credit; one, that it was a temple of the Roman Janus; and
the other, the Janua, or great Gate-way, of the Roman town. The latter
seems chiefly supported by the assertion of the learned Leman, that the
line of the Fosse, having joined the Via Devana, runs thro' this spot.
But whoever minutely examines the arches, will not easily overcome the
objections which the work affords to oppose this opinion; or assign a
reason why a city no larger than our Ratae should have a Gateway with so
many openings; nor does any satisfactory answer occur to the query why a
gate should be placed in what seems to have been the central part of the
antient city. And perhaps all the evidence for the other opinion rests
upon the dark sooty coat that encrusts the interior of the arches; an
appearance which the smoak of the town would easily produce in one
century. Indeed, little, it seems, can be concluded from the present
outside of the work; for as we cannot conceive that the Romans would have
elected so rough an edifice, it must be supposed that the present remains
were originally coated with workmanship more worthy of such polished
buil