in the 17th century, seems to have been situated at the angle of Friar Lane and Hotel Street.
In an undated Subsidy Roll of the 15th century, "the Lord Mungey" (Mountjoy) was taxed for "The Talbot," among lands which lay in the "South and West quarters of Leicester"; and in 1493 the Chantry of Corpus Christi paid a rent of two shillings to the King for "The Talbot," which they had let for 24 shillings a year, but in that year the name of no tenant was given and it seems to have been unoccupied. According to Miss Bateson, this was the Talbot Inn, which stood from an early date in Talbot Lane. But it was a common fashion to call any small piece of land after some creature whose shape it suggested, and the "Talbot" may perhaps have been such a plot of ground, called after the hound of that name, and both Inn and Lane may have derived their title from the land. Throsby speaks of the Talbot Inn as "the house at the Talbot." It is probable, however, that the Talbot Inn, which was standing in the 16th century in Belgrave Gate, near to the place where the Maypole used to be set up, and which in 1519 belonged to the Corpus Christi Guild, was so designated after the talbot's head that formed the crest of the Belgrave family. The "messuagium vocatum le Pecocke," owned by the same Guild, was probably not an inn, but the piece of land so called which gave its name to Peacock Lane, and to the Peacock Inn, in Southgate Street, that is mentioned in the i8th century. The "Antelope," in Humberstonegate, was also a piece of ground. North concluded from a Tradesman's Token that an Antelope Inn was in existence about 1666, but the sign to which he referred was that of a hart.
More famous than any of these inns is the Blue Boar, situated in the old High Street, at the corner of the lane which led to the Guild Hall. The tragic history of this ancient house is related elsewhere in this volume. It ceased to be used as an inn sometime after the events there mentioned, but remained long in existence, a very beautiful specimen of the domestic architecture of the middle ages, until it was finally destroyed by the hand of man in the year 1836.
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