COVENTRYt
THIS is one of the "Medieval Towns" Series. So far England has been represented by London and the two University towns. Coventry is in another category : it stands for the municipal element in old English life, and makes a highly interesting and characteristic study. "For many people," writes our author, "Coventry suggests Godiva." The legend, as we know it, appears for the first time in Roger de Wend- over, whose jloruit may he put in the early years of the thirteenth century. As for the procession at Coventry fair, it is quite late, dating from Chalks IL's time, As regards the freedom which is said to have been won for the townsfolk no trace of it remains: Coventry town may be said to have its beginning in the charter granted by Ranulf, Earl of Chester, about the year 1181. Godiva, was, indeed, a real person who did the best for Coventry up to her lights, for she joined with her husband in a munificent endowment of the Benedictine monastery. Whether this was for the townsmen's good may be doubted. They certainly did not think Ito; in the days when the over-lordship was divided between the Prior and the Earl they were always complaining of the spiritual power, and when this bought out the temporal their anger rose high. The tale of the struggle is not an edifying one ; and it is a real misfortune that it looms so large * Enot!uttee Industrial Development. By Arthur D. lime,. Rivingtone. pie. net. j t The S ton) of Coventry. By Mary Dormer Harris. London; 3. M. Dent aud Sons. [4e. lid. nct.1 in the history of this great religious foundation. We must not suppose that the monks, here or elsewhere, spent their time in defying the bishop or oppressing the townsfolk. But these are the things which were recorded; lives devoted to spiritual interests, or to charity, or to learning passed without notice. Coventry in the end, thanks to the intervention of Queen Isabella, Queen of Edward II. (a lady who ought to be held in better repute here than elsewhere), fared better than St. Albans or Bury St. Edmund's. The story of the struggle and of the later developments of the town, its trade, gilds, and other institutions, is particularly worth reading. Scarcely less in- teresting is the story of the "Lammas Lands," where we see the townsmen fighting, not with lords spiritual or temporal, but among themselves. Later on we get two excellent chapters on "Daily Life in the Town," dealing with details, into which we would gladly follow the author's guidance did not consi- derations of space forbid. Still we feel bound to mention the name of an admirable citizen—one Wheatley—who, buying a chest of steel gads at a Spanish fair, found it full of ingots of silver, and devoted the treasure trove to endowing a school in his native town.
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