was suspended were recently to be seen upon one of the beams. No less than 56 different companies of actors are mentioned in the 16th century Records of the Corporation as having visited the town. Among them was one of which William Shakespeare was a member and shareholder, and it is traditionally believed that the poet played with his Company at the Leicester Town Hall. The subject has been fully investigated by Mr. William Kelly, who came to the conclusion, that although there is no actual proof of the historical truth of this tradition, there is still a certain presumption in its favour.
During the years 1632 and 1633 some alterations were made in the rooms which had originally formed the residences of the four Chantry Priests, and to these newly-adapted premises the Town Library was removed from St. Martin's church. The books have remained ever since in the same congenial quarters.
The history of the Town Halls of Leicester has never been written, and requires further investigation. The foregoing sketch must therefore be considered as merely preliminary and tentative, and it is liable to be corrected in some particulars by the evidence of future research.
It remains now only to add that the fifteenth century Hall narrowly escaped the same untimely fate as that which swept away the adjoining Hospital in 1875. As soon as the present fine pile of municipal buildings was finished, in 1877, the ancient mediaeval structure became quite superannuated, and many a voice demanded its demolition. Fortunately, in this instance, good sense and civic piety prevailed, and the old Guild Hall is still in existence. Long may it be preserved for the instruction of future ages, even as the rude straw-thatched hut, known as the "cottage of Romulus," was kept standing among the splendid monuments of imperial Rome, to remind her citizens of their humble origin, and of the simple, primitive virtues which are the only roots of greatness and national strength.
68
