The Poems of Richard Corbet, late bishop of Oxford and of Norwich: 4th editionCorbet, Richard
General
The Poems of Richard Corbet, late bishop of Oxford and of Norwich: 4th edition
Corbet, Richard
English poetry
The fourth morning they rode to Lutterworth in Leicestershire, about
sixteen miles. This was once the benefice of Wickliffe, the father of
English reformers; and here the tourist very properly remarks on the
double injustice done to that venerable character, first by the Papists
in burning his body, and afterwards by the Puritans in destroying the
sacred memorial of the interment of his ashes. At Lutterworth they were
met by a parson, who though well-beneficed was better-mannered, and was
their guide to his dwelling within a mile of Leicester. A note on the
older editions of Corbet calls this gentleman the Parson of Heathcot:
but there is no place of the name of Heathcot in that neighbourhood;
and as, by comparison with other parts of the tour in which miles are
mentioned, one mile will be invariably found to signify one and a half at
the least; and as less than two reputed miles is accounted only one mile
in the distance of places, I presume it was Ayleston, and not Heathcot,
where the party rested, and were regaled with stale beer. At length they
arrived at Leicester, thirteen miles north of Lutterworth, where, passing
over six steeples and two hospitals, (“one hospital twice told,”)
which he refers to the eye of Camden, he censures the ignorance of the
alms-man, who, notwithstanding it was written on the walls that Henry
of Grisemont laid the foundation, told them it was John of Gaunt. Henry
Plantagenet, earl of Lancaster, was the first founder of the hospital
in the Newark at Leicester in the year 1330, which was considerably
enlarged and improved, and converted into a college by his son Henry, the
good duke of Lancaster, in 1355; but there is a more general sense in
which the word Founder is used, namely, that in which it is extended to
all those who inherit, either by descent or by purchase, the patronage
under the original founder. And in this sense it may be applied to John
of Gaunt, the second duke of Lancaster, who married his near kinswoman
the heiress of the former duke, and perfected both in buildings and
endowments what the others had commenced. The other hospital alluded to,
is that founded by William Wigston, merchant of the Staple, about 1520.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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