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Peck's caption for this engraving,
which is
titled `A View of Leicester' reads as follows:
| 1 |
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The Rialto Bridge of one Arch
over which K[ing] Richard 3d was carried into the Grey Friers to
be buried, which Bridge is now walled up and disused |
| 2 |
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The Place where the Grey
Friers stood (right foreground of
engraving) |
| 3 |
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St. Nicholas Church |
| 4 |
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The Bridge leading from
Leicester to Dane bills |
The spelling `bills' for `hills' is
obviously a printing error. However, I can find no other
reference to the bridge over the river as being known as the Rialto
Bridge, standing, according to the engraving, immediately to the north
of the well-known Bow Bridge. Mrs S.H.Skillington, for example,
in A history of Leicester (1923) refers only to the Bow Bridge,
and also quotes Holinshed describing the later exhumation of Richard
III's body "dug up by a sacrilegious mob, dragged through the
streets and pitched over the Bow Bridge into the Soar."
More significant is Celia Fiennes'
account of her visit to Leicester which took place probably shortly
before 1700 (and therefore very shortly after Peck's engraving was
completed), in which she writes:
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" .... the
Bow Bridge which is one arch over into the Priory, where King
Richard the third pass'd over
into the Priory when he went to fight in Bosworth field with
King Henry the seventh .... there I saw
a piece of the jury wall as its Called being in arches and was a
place where the Jews burnt their sacrifices."
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In this engraving, St Nicholas Church
is adorned with a spire, the dimensions of which seem closer to those
of St Mary de Castro, and there is no apparent indication of the
adjacent Jewry Wall. However, the upper structure of the tower, and the
west
end of the church do appear to be similar to the
structure of the present day.
Possibly, Peck's description may not
refer to the name of the bridge but simply its style, a reference to
the design of the original bridge as being of a single steep arch, as
in the Rialto Bridge in Venice. This latter bridge was constructed in
1551, so Peck would certainly have been familiar with its style.
However, I would be very interested to hear of any further historical
references to a Rialto bridge in Leicester.
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