and coals for use. About twenty-five women are out-door recipients of the same amount of money, and a ton of coals annually. Parties receiving parochial relief are not admitted into this hospital.

BABLAKE HOSPITAL is immediately behind St. John's Church, and, with the school-houses, forms three sides of a square, the church making the fourth. It was founded in 1506 by Thomas Bond, a draper, and Mayor of Coventry. It was originally designed for ten poor men, but subsequent donors having greatly augmented its funds, it now receives upwards of forty, resident and non-resident, each of whom has 6s. a week. This building, which had been allowed to fall into decay, was a number of years ago renovated and enlarged with much taste. The School adjoining was founded in 1560 by Thomas Wheatley, Mayor of Coventry. It is devoted to the education of about fifty boys for a period of two years each. The boys are partially provided for the first year, and wholly the second; and, on leaving, are apprenticed for seven years to such trades as their parents or friends may choose for them. The revenues are upwards of £900 a year.

ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL and FREE SCHOOL. The hospital, founded about 1155 by Lawrence, a prior of Coventry, for the sick and poor, was granted at the dissolution to John Hales, who devoted the lands and possessions of the hospital, along with other estates, to the foundation of a free school. John Hales died in 1573. The chief feature of the architecture of this school is its beautiful east window. The Free School is intended for the sons of freemen of Coventry. revenue amounts to about £1000.

Its yearly

Other buildings deserving of notice are-Drapers' Hall, a neat building, in the Grecian style, on the south side of St. Michael's Church, erected in 1832; the County Hall, built in 1785, a large and commodious building, with Doric columns in front; the Barracks, in Smithford Street, opposite the PostOffice, interesting as occupying the site of the famous "Bull Inn," where Henry VII. was entertained, and where subsequently the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned for some time; the Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital, etc. There are numerous schools, with more or less liberal endowments, which cannot be here noticed.

The Coventry Cemetery is beautifully laid out, after a plan by Sir Joseph Paxton, M.P., and will sufficiently repay

a visit.

The name of Lady Godiva is so intimately associated with Coventry, that it would be unpardonable to omit an account of her story. We cannot do better than give it in the words of Sir William Dugdale, a devout believer of the romantic tale, and an enthusiastic admirer of the noble lady :-"The Countess Godiva, bearing an extraordinary affection to this place, often and earnestly besought her husband that, for the love of God and the Blessed Virgin, he would free it from that grievous servitude whereunto it was subject; but he, rebuking her for importuning him in a manner so inconsistent with his profit, commanded that she should thenceforward forbear to move therein; yet she, out of her womanish pertinacity, continued to solicit him, insomuch that he told her if she would ride on horseback naked from one end of the town to the other, in sight of all the people, he would grant her request. Whereunto she returned, But will you give me leave to do so?' And he, replying 'Yes,' the noble lady, upon an appointed day, got on horseback naked, with her hair loose, so that it covered all her body but the legs; and, thus performing her journey, she returned with joy to her husband, who thereupon granted to the inhabitants a charter of freedom.... In memory whereof, the picture of him and his said lady were set up in a south window of Trinity Church, in this city, about Richard II.'s time, his right hand holding a charter, with these words written thereon :

'I, Luriche, for Love of thee

Boe make Coventre Tol-free.""

Such is the legend in its purity. The fertile imagination of various generations has embellished it with numerous additional details. It is said that the inhabitants all very properly withdrew from the streets and from their windows, to allow the lady to perform her delicate task with as little pain to her modesty as possible. One man, a tailor, could not resist the temptation to look forth, but was struck blind for his presumption; and to this day the effigy of Peeping Tom, to be seen in the upper part of a house at the corner of Hertford Street, stands as a monument of his disgrace.

The procession of Lady Godiva was, it is said, instituted to commemorate the service thus rendered to Coventry; but it has been satisfactorily shown that it originated in the licentious reign of Charles II. Yet, notwithstanding the sufficiently matter-of-fact way in which the show has been accounted for by antiquarians, the legend of Lady Godiva is not likely either to be forgotten or repudiated, for our poet Laureate has

"wedded it to immortal verse." A few of Mr. Tennyson's beautiful lines cannot fail to be acceptable here :—

"She sought her lord, and found him where he strode About the hall, among his dogs, alone;

His beard a foot before him, and his hair

A yard behind. She told him of their tears,
And pray'd him, 'If they pay this tax, they starve.'
Whereat he stared, replying, half amazed,
You would not let your little finger ache

For such as these ? But I would die,' said she.
He laughed, and swore by Peter and by Paul:
Then fillip'd at the diamond in her ear:

O ay, ay, ay, you talk!' 'Alas!' she said,
'But prove me what it is I would not do.'
And, from a heart as rough as Esau's hand,
He answered, Ride you naked thro' the town,
And I repeal it;' and nodding, as in scorn,
He parted, with great strides among his dogs.

"Then she rode forth, clothed on with chastity;
The deep air listened round her as she rode,
And all the low wind hardly breathed for fear.
The little wide-mouthed heads upon the spout
Had cunning eyes to see: the barking cur
Made her cheek flame: her palfrey's footfall shot
Light horrors through her pulses: the blind walls
Were full of chinks and holes; and overhead
Fantastic gables, crowding stared: but she
Not less thro' all bore up, till, last, she saw
The white flower'd elder-thicket from the field
Gleam through the Gothic archways in the wall.

"Then she rode back, clothed on with chastity:
And one low churl, compact of thankless earth,
The fatal byword of all years to come,
Boring a little augur-hole in fear,

Peep'd-but his eyes, before they had their will,
Were shrivell'd into darkness in his head,

And dropt before him. So the Powers, who wait
On noble deeds, cancell'd a sense misused:

And she, that knew not, passed: and all at once,

With twelve great shocks of sound, the shameless noon,
Was clash'd and hammer'd from a hundred towers,

One after one: but even then she gain'd

Her bower; whence reissuing robed and crown'd,
To meet her lord, she took the tax away,
And built herself an everlasting name."

The Procession of Lady Godiva took place annually till within the last twenty or thirty years, and was graced by the presence of the civic authorities. More recently it has not taken place oftener than once in three or four years; and we believe it is now pretty generally regarded as

"A custom

More honoured in the breach than the observance ;"

and if it is not already numbered among the things of the past, the time is not distant when it will be. The procession in its palmy days was of great length and pomp. At the front of it came the city guards in old armour, followed by St. George on horseback, and in a full suit of armour. Then came a band of music, with two city streamers, followed by the high constable of the city, preceding the principal feature of the show, Lady Godiva. Her ladyship was represented by a handsome female, not nude, in accordance with the tradition, but dressed in linen closely fitted to her limbs, and of a colour emulating their complexion. After Lady Godiva came the mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, preceded and followed by various subordinate officials and attendants. A band of musicians brought up the rear of the civic authorities. Then followed a long array of the ancient companies of the city, with their various streamers, and attended by bands of music. Next in order came the benefit societies, greatly contributing to the gorgeousness of the spectacle with their respective insignia and decorations. These were followed by the woolcombers' company, who, besides their streamer, master, and followers, wool-sorters and combers, introduced a little boy and girl, as shepherd and shepherdess, in a rural car, Jason with a golden fleece and drawn sword, and Bishop Blaize, the great friend of the woolcombers, with combs in one hand and a Bible in the other. Another band of musicians closed the procession.

COMBE ABBEY

Is about five miles from Coventry. The walk or drive by the highway is attractive. It may also be reached by a walk of about two miles from the Brandon Station of the London and North Western Railway. The latter approach is by a long avenue through a thick plantation. The vista afforded by this wild woodland road is magnificent, the abbey being distinguishable in the far distance. After traversing this avenue, for so it may be regarded, the tourist crosses the Coventry road and enters Combe Park. The approach to the house is by a fine drive through the park, which is beautifully wooded, and contains a large sheet of water. Combe, as Dugdale informs us, is derived from the old British word cwwm, signifying a valley or low position, the site of the abbey being, indeed, by no means a prominent one. An abbey of Cistercian

monks was founded here, in the reign of King Stephen, by Richard de Camvill. After the dissolution, the site and estates were conferred on John, Earl of Warwick, after whose execution they passed to Robert Kelway, with whose daughter they passed to Lord Harrington. The daughter and heiress of the latter nobleman sold the estate to Sir William, an ancestor of the Earl of Craven, in whose family it has ever since remained. The first Earl of Craven (created baron 1626, and earl 1664) is noted for his romantic devotion to the cause of Elizabeth, the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia. The early history of this princess, daughter of James I., is connected with Combe Abbey, she having resided here under the care of Lord Harrington while receiving her education. She was married to Frederic, Elector Palatine, who, having accepted the proferred crown of Bohemia from the Protestants, in the Thirty Years' War, was punished for his rashness by the loss of his own dominions.* Lord Craven was one of the most zealous supporters of the Elector, and subsequently, when she returned to England, widowed in love and wrecked in all her hopes, he gave her one of his own mansions for her residence. There is a tradition that she rewarded his attachment by giving him her hand. At all events she bequeathed to him her pictures, which form a large part of the noble collection here.

The mansion was originally built by Lord Harrington on the ruins of the abbey, retaining three sides of the cloisters, which have been of Norman architecture. Lord Harrington followed the Elizabethan style; but the additions made by subsequent owners, while avoiding marked incongruity, are

*The history of Elizabeth of Bohemia is interesting. She was married at the early age of sixteen. The attractions both of her person and mind made her an object of idolatry to the cavaliers, who styled her the "Queen of hearts." Sir Henry Wotton addressed to her the elegant lines, beginning

"You meaner beauties of the night,

That weakly satisfy our eyes,

More by your number than your light,
Like common people of the skies,

What are you when the moon doth rise ?"

"On her," says Mrs. Jamieson, "fell a double portion of the miseries of her fated family. She had the beauty and the wit, the gay spirits, the elegant tastes of her grandmother, Mary of Scotland; her very virtues as a wife and woman, not less than her pride and feminine prejudices, ruined herself, her husband, and her people. When her husband hesitated to accept the crown of Bohemia, this high-hearted wife exclaimed, 'Let me rather eat dry bread at a king's table than feast at the board of an elector:' and it seemed as if some avenging demon hovered in the air to take her literally at her word for she and her family lived to eat dry bread, ay, and to beg it before they ate it; but she would be a queen." She is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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