This ancient pile of building is of considerable size, and in it the native children of the parish, who think proper to take advantage of the institution, are educated free of expense; but as the course of instruction is prescribed to the learned languages only, its utility as a free school for general education is very contracted.  The salary of the master, who must be a clergyman of the established religion, is seventy-five pounds, and he having but little employment, has an assistant, who receives annually thirty pounds, exclusive of other emoluments.  To this school two estates were left in trust, to provide two exhibitions of seventy pounds each, for two young men, natives of the town, towards defraying the expense of their education, at Oxford, for the space of seven years.

There is also a public library, wherein is a considerable collection of well-chosen books, chiefly of modern literature; but the building that contains it is not deserving of notice.

The charitable donations and benefactions that have been left to this town are very numerous, and amount to a large sum of money.

Here are six different alms-houses, one school wherein thirty-nine boys are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and thirty-six girls are instructed in reading, writing, sewing, and knitting.  There is also a school of industry, and four sunday schools.  A lying-in charity is also established here, for the relief of poor married women, residing within the borough, who each of them are accommodated with a set of child-bed linen for one month, one pound of candles, one pound of soap, and during the winter months, with two hundred weight of coals.  They are also provided with a sufficient quantity of caudle, together with proper attendants, and all necessary medical advice.  In addition to the before-mentioned there are two poor-houses.

There is also a very ancient building, denominated Leicester’s hospital, for the reception of twelve indigent men, who are termed brethren, together with a master, who must be a clergyman of the established church, and in preference to all others, if he offers himself, the vicar of St. Mary’s.  It is endowed with land, which at the time was valued at L200 per annum, but now amounts to near L2000, exclusive of the vicarage of Hampton-in-Arden, which is in the gift of the brethren, who usually bestow it upon the master.  It had long been ascertained that the clear annual rental of the estate far exceeded all that could be required for the support of the number of brethren in the hospital, and that the salary of the master was fixed at fifty pounds per annum.