Leicester's Millennium
A.L. Rowse looks at the growth of the East Midlands city from ancient times.
Leicester hardly presents itself to the mind, at first thought, as an historic city. It has no pre-eminent site like its neighbours - Lincoln, with its majestic cathedral, the English Chartres, on the brow of its hill; or Nottingham, with the Castle overlooking the course of the Trent to which the town owed its fortune.
And yet, Leicester is the oldest of the industrial Midland cities with unique Roman remains at the heart of it: there, just below the railway station, one descends into what looks like an exposed forum, with the high walls of a series of baths, backed by an ancient Saxon and Norman church - the whole rejoicing in the name of Holy Bones.
Though there has been a fearful amount of progressive destruction, from the Reformation up to today (particularly today), there still remain monuments that characterize its past to the instructed eye.
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