Castle, which had been his residence for more than two months; and, having ridden all day in the midst of his Army, with only one considerable interval of rest, he entered the North Gate of Leicester just before the setting of the sun. Passing down the ancient High Street on his tall white charger, he is said to have drawn rein, before reaching the High Cross, at the Blue Boar Inn, a beautiful building, with a tall gable front and a projecting balcony of carved oak, which stood on the western side of the street, at the corner of the lane leading to the Hall of the Guild Merchant, and which was demolished about eighty-four years ago.[1] Here, in the large front chamber, according to tradition, Richard spent that night; and a bedstead, on which he is supposed to have slept, became famous at the beginning of the 17th century as one of the curiosities of Leicester. The local tradition is unsupported by any authority, but it is not contrary to known facts. It has been asked why the King did not sleep at Leicester Castle, where he had stayed just two years before; but a campaigner, on the eve of a decisive battle, may have had several reasons for preferring to pass the one night in a less ostentatious place of sojourn. At any rate, there is no evidence of his having slept elsewhere. On this point Kelly made some very just remarks. "Whatever may have been the reason," he wrote, "for the King's sleeping at an Inn, as there is nothing beyond mere supposition to invalidate its truth, we confess that we believe in this, as we would in all local historical traditions not contradicted by positive evidence, from a conviction that no such tradition, although it may in process of time become exaggerated by oral transmission, is without some foundation of truth; and more especially one connected with so tragic an event as the last visit of Richard III, all the particulars connected with which must have made a deep and lasting impression on
- ↑ A very good idea of the appearance presented by this Inn in King Richard's time may be obtained from a restored view, published in the Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological Society, which was sketched by Mr. Joseph Goddard, and founded upon an architectural examination and measurement of the building made just before its destruction. A detailed account of its architectural features will be found in a paper contributed by James Thompson to the Journal of the British Archaeological Association for the year 1863.
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