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 for carrying on the town's business which was then so badly required. If that was the case, the Mayor and his Brethren probably made use of the new buildings as soon as they were completed, although the earliest date on which a common hall is actually recorded to have been held there was January 8th, 1494-5, (10 Henry VII.) There is no record of any rent being paid by the town, but the Town Chamberlains took credit for payments, "for charcoal for Mr. Mayor and his brethren at Corpus Christi Hall divers times." The relations between Town and Guild were doubtless on an easy footing, and not defined by strict contract. Possibly the Mayor and his Brethren themselves subscribed towards the building; at all events they seem to have felt themselves entitled to some beneficial interest, occupying the Hall rent-free, although the freehold was vested in the Guild.

The crash came at Easter, 1548, when the chantry foundations ceased to exist, and the legal estate in their property passed to the Crown. Leicester had taken no open steps to resist the Chantry Bill of the first year of Edward VI. as Coventry did. The burgesses of Coventry, it will be remembered, were only induced to withdraw their opposition to it by a promise, which was duly performed, that, if they did so, the more important guilds in their constituency should recover their lands. Indeed, in this case, "the confiscation of the guild lands of Corpus Christi would simply have been the ruin of an already decaying city." Leicester was not so dependent on its chief guild as Coventry was, but what happened at the former town in 1548 is not very clear. It may be gathered from the Borough Records and from the Conveyance hereinafter quoted, that the Mayor and his Brethren managed in some way to retain the use of the Guild Hall apparently on the same terms as before. In the Chamberlains' accounts for this period, the two Town Halls are distinguished as "The Old Mayor's Hall," or the "Old Hall," or "the Mayor's Hall," on the one hand, and "the Hall," or "the new Hall," "Corpus Christi Hall," or the "Town Hall" on the other. Both were kept in repair at the cost of the town, or by voluntary contributions. Thus, in 1556-7, a study was provided for the Mayor, at "the 58