Page:Mediaevalleicest00billrich.djvu/50

 The most important of the other 16th century inns seem to have been the, the , the , the and the.

The most famous of all Leicester hostelries was the, which stood in Cheapside, near the present Victoria Parade, and stretched back to the town wall overlooking Gallowtree Gate. In the year 1534 the Guild of Corpus Christi possessed a "tenement called ye aungell," and it is referred to in the Chamberlains' accounts for 1549. In 1550 "my lord Cromwell and Sir Richard Manners" stayed there, and in the following year the Earl of Shrewsbury; and from that time onward it accommodated a long succession of notable visitors. A curious statement is made by Nichols, that, in the middle of the 16th century, the Horse and Trumpet Inn was known as the Angel, and was sold, about the year 1558, for £26 13s. 4d. by John Cressey, glover, to John Stanford, butcher. Now it is quite certain that the Horse and Trumpet stood near the High Cross, and also that the historic Angel stood near the East Gate. It was described in 1586 as "l'hostellerie des faulxburgh de l'Ange," so that it evidently lay then on the outskirts of the town. Unless Nichols was mistaken, there must have been an old Angel of the High Cross, which took wing some time between 1558 and 1586 from the centre of the town to the East end, whereupon its former habitation degenerated into the Horse and Trumpet.

Among the distinguished guests of the Angel who are mentioned in the annals of the Corporation, chiefly as receiving civic presents of wine and sugar, may be noticed Henry, the third Marquess of Dorset, Lord Derby, Lord Talbot, Lord Morley (1557); Mr. Barker, Chancellor (1560); Mr. Day, the Town Preacher, and "another Preacher" (1564); Mr. Raven (1565); "A Scottysshe beshoppe whiche rode to the Courte in poste" (1568); John Hall, Auditor of the Duchy of Lancaster, (1590); the Earl of Huntingdon, and the Earl of Shrewsbury (1597); Lady Arabella Stuart (1605 and 1608); the Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James I. (1606); John Frederick, Prince of Wirtenberg (1608); Sir Oliver Cromwell, and "my lord Cavendishe and his lady who lay at the Angell 26