A statue of John Henry Manners, the Fifth Duke of Rutland, by Edward Davis, stands on a tall plinth in the Market Place outside the Corn Exchange. The statue was the first public statue to be erected in Leicester, and was unveiled by Sir Frederick Gustavus Fowke, Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons for the Province of Leicestershire, on 28 April 1852.
The statue had previously been exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the Duke's lord-lieutenancy of Leicestershire.
The plaque reads:
JOHN HENRY
DUKE OF RUTLAND KG
LORD LIEUTENANT OF LEICESTERSHIRE
THE INHABITANTS OF THE COUNTY & TOWN OF LEICESTER
DURING THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS HIGH OFFICE
WITH UNIVERSAL CONSENT
CAUSED THIS STATUE TO BE ERECTED
MDCCCLI
