that monarch chose rather to sleep at an inn a few evenings before
his fall, than occupy the royal apartments in the castle. From this time
the castle seems to have made constant progress to decay, so that in the
reign of Charles the first, orders, dated the ninth of his reign, were
issued to the sheriff Wm. Heyrick, Esq. of Beaumanor (as appears from
papers in the possession of that family) "to take down the old pieces of
our castle at Leicester, to repair the castle house, wherein the audit
hath been formerly kept, and is hereafter to be kept, and wherein our
records of the honor of Leicester do now remain; to sell the stones,
timber, &c. but not to interfere with the vault there, nor the stalls
leading therefrom."

From others of the same papers it appears that the timber sold for 3l.
5s. 8d. the freestone, and iron work for 36l. 14s. 4d. and that the
repairs above ordered cost about 50l. Thus was the castle reduced to
nearly its present state, and tho' the Antiquary may in the eagerness of
his curiosity lament that so little of it now remains, yet he must surely
rejoice in his reflecting moments that such structures are not now
necessary for the defence of the kingdom, and that the fortunes of the
noblemen are now spent in a way calculated to encourage the arts and
promote industry, rather than in maintaining in these castles a set of
idle retainers, ever ready to assist them in disturbing the peace of the
realm, and still more ready to insult and injure the humble inhabitants
in then neighbourhood.

Descending from the castle mount, and passing thro' the south gale-way of
the castle yard, the visitor enters a district of the town called the
Newark, (New Work) became the edifices it contained were new when
compared with the buildings of the castle. They owed their foundation to
Henry, the third earl of Lancaster, and his son Henry first duke of that
title. By these two noblemen they were nearly finished, and what was
wanting towards their completion was afterwards added by John of Gaunt.
They must then have formed a magnificent addition to the antient dignity
of the castle. The remains of the walls which enclosed this area enable
us to affirm that its form was a long square, bounded on the north by the
castle, on the east by the streets of the suburbs of the town, on the
south by the fields, and on the west by the river.

Judging from what remains of these walls, we feel inclined to maintain
that they were ra