In examining the specimens of the mosaic art, we are tempted to draw a far different conclusion from that adopted by the truly learned author of the _Munimenta Antiqua_, who strongly adduces the number of _fragile_ (as he terms them) tesselated floors found in Britain, as a proof of the slightness of the superstructures erected by the Romans. Now, surely it is not to be expected that a people whose architecture in their own country was so strikingly characterized by massiveness & splendor, should, in this island, which though a distant was a durable conquest, and improved by all their arts and industry, have departed from their usual principles. And farther, the taste and costly magnificence discoverable in these curious remains must lead to the conclusion that they could not have committed them to slight or ordinary buildings, for they were decorations which the experience of more than fourteen hundred years has scarcely surpassed. Even the looms of modern Brussels, in elegance and beauty of pattern, cannot fairly outvie the Mosaic Carpets of the antient Romans. The next object that engages the eye is the church of _All Saints_, projecting on the west end into the street, exhibiting in its clock an humble copy of the machinery of St Dunstan's, in London. It is a small neat church with three aisles and a low tower, and nothing in its architecture attracts regard. This vicarage with that of _St Peter's_, which was annexed to it in the reign of Elizabeth, includes the antient parish of _St Michael_, and part if not the whole, of that of _St. Clement_. A monument in this church-yard commemorates a character greatly distinguished by his large donations to the poor--_Ald. Gabriel Newton_. Of the prevalence of alms-giving in Leicester, this parish, together with the rest, bears full testimony, in a long list of benefactors, from the Royal Grant of Charles the first of forty acres of land in Leicester forest, to poor housekeepers, (which now produces annually 33l. 11s. 4d {42}) to the donor of the penny wheaten Loaf. From the returns to Parliament in the present reign, when accounts were made of all the charitable donations in the kingdom, it appears that there are donations in the parishes of Leicester, in land and money (including the endowments of the lesser Hospitals) mostly vested in the trust of the Corporation and by them distributed, to the annual amount of upwards of 800l.--see Nichols.-- A short space below the church is the spot where formerly stood the North Gates; here a narrow lane, which once obtained the name of St. Clements, from its leading to that church, but which is now degraded into _Dead-mans Lane_, is the passage to a Meeting House, belonging to the Society of Quakers. The street continuing in a right line, now takes the name of NORTH-GATE STREET.