Chapter 13

FOOTNOTES:[600]Perhaps to Bishop Patteshull, who died 1238. Beresford,Diocesan Hist. Lichfield, 127.[601]In 1391 the prior agreed to pay an annual pension of 100s. for eight years and to provide six trees if the parishioners would rebuild the chancel of Trinity church at their own charge, providing the materials and paying for workmanship (Sharp,Antiq., 71).[602]Besides parochial chaplains there were six chantry priests at S. Michael's in 1522; two at Trinity; a warden and seven secular priests at Bablake; and, at the Reformation, according to one account, fourteen or fifteen chaplains at S. Nicholas' church (ib., 5, 72, 129, 132).[603]Ib., 25.[604]Sharp, 81.[605]Green, i. 154.[606]The scissors of the shearmen may yet be seen in a clear-story window in S. Michael's.[607]Sharp,Antiq., 30. The girdelers paid 3s. for their chapel to the churchwardens (ib., 33). The company of the cappers is still in existence; and one day in every year the members repair to the parvise adjoining the chapel and eat bread and butter and drink wine there.[608]Sharp,Antiq., 92.[609]The drapers, mercers, dyers, cardmakers, and saddlers (later the cappers), smiths, and girdlers had chapels in S. Michael's church; the butchers, dyers, and tanners in Trinity. The fullers held the chapel of S. George on the Gosford Gate. Some of the inferior crafts, viz. the pinners, tilers, and coopers, had their annual mass and drinking at Whitefriars.[610]This matter of the candles seems to have roused dissensions at an early date. In 1282 the corpse of a woman to be buried in the friars' cemetery at Dunstable was first conveyed to the priory church there for the funeral mass. The monks boasted that out of eight candles they only gave two to the Franciscans, keeping all the rest for themselves (Cornh. Mag., vi. 835.)[611]The MS. annals note that in 1438 "Friar Bredon got the old strike again" (Harl. MS. 6388, f. 18).[612]Leet Book, 228.[613]Leland,Collectanea, v. 304; Sharp,Antiq., 207.[614]Leet Book, 338. The old archery ground is commemorated in "the Butts," now a street, but once outside the walls. A "butt" is properly a mound on which the target is set up. In Edward IV's reign butts were ordered to be made in every township, and the inhabitants were to shoot on all feast days under pain of 1/2d. at every omission (Strutt,Sports and Pastimes, 57).[615]Chamberlains to make a ring for the "baiting of bulls as heretofore" (Leet Book, 83).[616]No one to shoot arrows in "le cokfyting place" (ib., 196).[617]Ib., 656.[618]Chamberlains' and Wardens' Accounts(Corp. MS. A. 7b, f. 2). "Paid to Sir ffoulke Grevile Bearewarde iiis.iiiid."[619]Corp. MS. A. 7b, ff. 2, 8.[620]"Paid for 3 sermons of Mr Butler's and ringing to them 35s. 3d." (ib., f. 1).[621]Leet Book, 271.[622]Ib., 629.[623]Ib., 652. "Blind inns" were secret taverns, where, of course, all sorts of irregular proceedings went on.[624]i.e.Draughts.[625]Leet Book, 786.[626]Ib., 690.[627]Leet Book, 28.[628]Ib., 28.[629]See below, the Harcourt and Stafford quarrel.[630]Sharp,Mysteries, 169.[631]Wife of the famous Talbot.[632]i.e.Who.[633]i.e.Edge tool.[634]Paston Letters, i. 73.[635]Sharp,Mysteries, 180.[636]Leet Book, 204.[637]Corp. MS. A. 6.Corpus Christi Guild Accounts, ff. 54, 56, 80.[638]Corp. MS. A. 6.Corpus Christi Guild Accounts, f. 43.[639]The smiths spent money recklessly at this season until 1472, when it was ordained that the master of the craft should be allowed 5s. on Midsummer, and 3s. 6d. on S. Peter's eve, "and not a penny more," wherewith to provide supper (Sharp,Mysteries, 183).[640]Ib., 179.[641]Ib., 176.[642]See quotation from Stowe in Sharp,Mysteries, 175.[643]This was a universal custom, but there were special local feasts. For instance, at Canterbury, on the eve of the Translation of S. Thomas, a watch was kept. At Chester, Shrove Tuesday was a day for general merry-making (Green, i. 149).[644]Among the dyers, the penalty was 13s. 4d.(Sharp,op. cit., 183).[645]Ib., 160.[646]Ib., 184.[647]Ib., 193-4.[648]Ib., 194.[649]Ib., 196.[650]The cappers paid 9d. for canvas to make a new skirt for the giant, and "for mendyng of hys head and arme, xvid." (ib., 201). The dyers also furnished a pageant wherein a hart and a herdsman blowing a horn figured. Perhaps this was a cause why they had been so long allowed to escape from providing a pageant on Corpus Christi day. See above, p. 220.[651]Sharp, 193. Drapers' Accounts, 1555, "payd to xviij gonnarys lxiis. iiijd.; payd for xijliof gonepother, xijs. vjd."[652]Sharp,Mysteries, 184.[653]"To gabriell for beryng the lilly iiijd." (ib., 162).[654]The frequent mistakes in chronology made by all writers who depend on Sharp or the printed versions of the Annals for dates of these visits make it important to insist on them.[655]The Shrewsbury mercers' guild imposed a fine on such of its members who missed the local procession through absence at Coventry fair. Chambers,Mediæval Stage, ii. 110.[656]C. Mery Talys, lvi. (quoted Chambers, ii. 358).[657]Chambers,op. cit., ii. 362. Bateson,Leicester, III. 111, 120, 127, 137.[658]For this and the singing of theQuem quæritis, "whom seek ye?" we have a "stage direction" in theRegularis Concordiaof S. Ethelwold as early as Edgar's reign (959-79). See Chambers, ii. App. O.[659]Ib., ii. 41.[660]Bishop, 1188-1198. See Chambers,op. cit., ii. 36.Cf.the matter of the "castel of Emaus" in the cappers' play at Coventry, Sharp, 48.[661]Furnivall misc., 206-7.[662]See Hardin Craig,Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, Early English Text Society, to which I am much indebted. The older work on this subject is Sharp'sDissertation on the Dramatic Mysteries. Chambers'Mediæval Stageis very rich in Coventry material.[663]SeeLeet Book, 205, for the case of the cardmakers, saddlers, painters and masons.[664]Ib., 94, The case of the weavers' journeymen, who paid 4d. a piece, is the only one on record.[665]Sharp, 8.[666]Ib., 9, 10. There is no record that the dyers ever contributed to the Mystery Plays. In 1539 the Mayor of Coventry told Cromwell that the poor commons were at such expense with their plays and pageants that they fared the worse all the year after. Chambers,op. cit., ii. 358.[667]Mr Chambers' surmise that the common lands were enclosed to build pageant-houses on is untenable. The rents derived from the enclosed lands was devoted to the upkeep of the pageants.[668]Sharp,op. cit., 9.[669]Ib., 20.[670]See illustrations inFurnivall Misc.taken from MS. Bodl. 264 ff. 54b, 76a. These pageants do indeed look like a glorified Punch and Judy show, as Mr Chambers has said.[671]It is difficult to say what they may not have endured. At Skinnerswell in 1411, a play lasted for seven days! There were twelve to sixteen stations at York; but the York plays were far shorter than the Coventry ones.[672]Sharp,op. cit., 73.[673]By the kindness of the editor of theVictoria County History, I am permitted to include this note from an unprinted MS., Inq. p.m. 19 H. 8, 46-45 (P.R.O.) proof of age of Walter Smith of Coventry. It is important as furnishing proof that S. Christian is the right reading instead of S. Catherine, which Dr Craig would substitute. For S. Christianus, bishop of Auxerre in the ninth century, and S. Christiana, virgin, of Jermunde in Flanders, who flourished in the eighth century, see Smith and Wall,Dict. Chr. Biog.Miss Toulmin Smith, thinks that S. Christina and S. Christiana were distinct persons. There was a play in honour of the former at Bethersden in Kent.York Plays, lxv.[674]Craig,op. cit.xxi.-ii.[675]See Chambers, ii., 419-20.[676]Dugdale,op. cit., i. 183.[677]They may have been performed as late as 1591.[678]Cott. Vesp D., viii. ed. by Halliwell Phillips.[679]An error, since Old Testament scenes are also included.[680]"Vulgo dicitur hic liber Ludus Coventriæ, sive ludus Corporis Christi."[681]See Chambers,op. cit., ii. 416-22; Gayley,Plays of Our Forefathers, 135-9, 325-7; Shelling,Eliz. Drama, 20-1; Leach inFurnivall Misc., 232-3.[682]SeeCamb. Lit. Hist.v. 13 for the York friar, who described himself as a "professor of pageantry."[683]Mr Chambers suggests that, as the crafts admittedly altered and revised their plays, theLudus Coventriæmay be a discarded version.[684]Leach inFurnivall Misc., 232.[685]Craig, xviii.[686]On theProphetae, see Chambers, ii. 52, 70; Craig, xviii.[687]Craig, xvi. This certainly was the subject of a play; see payment to S. Thomas of India above, p. 287.[688]Particularly in the fragment of—probably—an earlier version, see Craig,op. cit., 119-122.[689]See Craig,op. cit., xxiv.-v.[690]Yche = I. And I were laid low. Jubbard = jeopard.[691]Craig, 47.[692]Craig, 48.[693]See on this point and on Balaam's ass, Chambers,op. cit., ii. 57.[694]i.e.they.[695]Craig, 18.[696]Sharp, 51.[697]Ib., 31.[698]York Plays, 277.[699]Sharp, 47.[700]Ib., 66-7.[701]Ib., 37.[702]Sharp, 36.[703]Craig, 94, 97.[704]Sharp, 73.[705]Ibid.[706]Ib., 55.[707]Ib., 26.[708]Ib., 33.[709]Craig, 90.[710]Sharp, 70, 71.[711]Leet Book, 589.[712]Sharp, 166. For the riding of the George at Norwich, Leicester, Stratford, and elsewhere,v.Chambers, i. 221-3. Plays in honour of S. George were performed at Lydd, New Romney, Bassingbourne (ib., ii. 132).[713]Harl. MS. 6388, f. 26dorso.[714]Sharp,op. cit., 158.[715]Rous (Hist. Regum Angliæ, 105-6) ascribes it to the rejoicings on the death of Hardicanute. On Hock-tide, see Chambers, i. 154-5.[716]The one.[717]The other.[718]The carpenters in 1464 paid 8d. to the minstrels at the feast (Sharp, 213); the dyers paid 2d. (ib., 214).[719]Ib., 209[720]Ib., 207.[721]Leet Book, 258.[722]Leet Book, 253.[723]Ib., 345.[724]Leet Book, 357.[725]Leet Book, 476-481.[726]6d. a week was collected from all the citizens of the mayor's rank, and 4d. and 2d. from those of the sheriff's and warden's rank respectively to pay for the soldiers' board.[727]Leet Book, 488.[728]Leet Book, 57, 68.[729]Green, i. 90-120.

FOOTNOTES:

[600]Perhaps to Bishop Patteshull, who died 1238. Beresford,Diocesan Hist. Lichfield, 127.

[601]In 1391 the prior agreed to pay an annual pension of 100s. for eight years and to provide six trees if the parishioners would rebuild the chancel of Trinity church at their own charge, providing the materials and paying for workmanship (Sharp,Antiq., 71).

[602]Besides parochial chaplains there were six chantry priests at S. Michael's in 1522; two at Trinity; a warden and seven secular priests at Bablake; and, at the Reformation, according to one account, fourteen or fifteen chaplains at S. Nicholas' church (ib., 5, 72, 129, 132).

[603]Ib., 25.

[604]Sharp, 81.

[605]Green, i. 154.

[606]The scissors of the shearmen may yet be seen in a clear-story window in S. Michael's.

[607]Sharp,Antiq., 30. The girdelers paid 3s. for their chapel to the churchwardens (ib., 33). The company of the cappers is still in existence; and one day in every year the members repair to the parvise adjoining the chapel and eat bread and butter and drink wine there.

[608]Sharp,Antiq., 92.

[609]The drapers, mercers, dyers, cardmakers, and saddlers (later the cappers), smiths, and girdlers had chapels in S. Michael's church; the butchers, dyers, and tanners in Trinity. The fullers held the chapel of S. George on the Gosford Gate. Some of the inferior crafts, viz. the pinners, tilers, and coopers, had their annual mass and drinking at Whitefriars.

[610]This matter of the candles seems to have roused dissensions at an early date. In 1282 the corpse of a woman to be buried in the friars' cemetery at Dunstable was first conveyed to the priory church there for the funeral mass. The monks boasted that out of eight candles they only gave two to the Franciscans, keeping all the rest for themselves (Cornh. Mag., vi. 835.)

[611]The MS. annals note that in 1438 "Friar Bredon got the old strike again" (Harl. MS. 6388, f. 18).

[612]Leet Book, 228.

[613]Leland,Collectanea, v. 304; Sharp,Antiq., 207.

[614]Leet Book, 338. The old archery ground is commemorated in "the Butts," now a street, but once outside the walls. A "butt" is properly a mound on which the target is set up. In Edward IV's reign butts were ordered to be made in every township, and the inhabitants were to shoot on all feast days under pain of 1/2d. at every omission (Strutt,Sports and Pastimes, 57).

[615]Chamberlains to make a ring for the "baiting of bulls as heretofore" (Leet Book, 83).

[616]No one to shoot arrows in "le cokfyting place" (ib., 196).

[617]Ib., 656.

[618]Chamberlains' and Wardens' Accounts(Corp. MS. A. 7b, f. 2). "Paid to Sir ffoulke Grevile Bearewarde iiis.iiiid."

[619]Corp. MS. A. 7b, ff. 2, 8.

[620]"Paid for 3 sermons of Mr Butler's and ringing to them 35s. 3d." (ib., f. 1).

[621]Leet Book, 271.

[622]Ib., 629.

[623]Ib., 652. "Blind inns" were secret taverns, where, of course, all sorts of irregular proceedings went on.

[624]i.e.Draughts.

[625]Leet Book, 786.

[626]Ib., 690.

[627]Leet Book, 28.

[628]Ib., 28.

[629]See below, the Harcourt and Stafford quarrel.

[630]Sharp,Mysteries, 169.

[631]Wife of the famous Talbot.

[632]i.e.Who.

[633]i.e.Edge tool.

[634]Paston Letters, i. 73.

[635]Sharp,Mysteries, 180.

[636]Leet Book, 204.

[637]Corp. MS. A. 6.Corpus Christi Guild Accounts, ff. 54, 56, 80.

[638]Corp. MS. A. 6.Corpus Christi Guild Accounts, f. 43.

[639]The smiths spent money recklessly at this season until 1472, when it was ordained that the master of the craft should be allowed 5s. on Midsummer, and 3s. 6d. on S. Peter's eve, "and not a penny more," wherewith to provide supper (Sharp,Mysteries, 183).

[640]Ib., 179.

[641]Ib., 176.

[642]See quotation from Stowe in Sharp,Mysteries, 175.

[643]This was a universal custom, but there were special local feasts. For instance, at Canterbury, on the eve of the Translation of S. Thomas, a watch was kept. At Chester, Shrove Tuesday was a day for general merry-making (Green, i. 149).

[644]Among the dyers, the penalty was 13s. 4d.(Sharp,op. cit., 183).

[645]Ib., 160.

[646]Ib., 184.

[647]Ib., 193-4.

[648]Ib., 194.

[649]Ib., 196.

[650]The cappers paid 9d. for canvas to make a new skirt for the giant, and "for mendyng of hys head and arme, xvid." (ib., 201). The dyers also furnished a pageant wherein a hart and a herdsman blowing a horn figured. Perhaps this was a cause why they had been so long allowed to escape from providing a pageant on Corpus Christi day. See above, p. 220.

[651]Sharp, 193. Drapers' Accounts, 1555, "payd to xviij gonnarys lxiis. iiijd.; payd for xijliof gonepother, xijs. vjd."

[652]Sharp,Mysteries, 184.

[653]"To gabriell for beryng the lilly iiijd." (ib., 162).

[654]The frequent mistakes in chronology made by all writers who depend on Sharp or the printed versions of the Annals for dates of these visits make it important to insist on them.

[655]The Shrewsbury mercers' guild imposed a fine on such of its members who missed the local procession through absence at Coventry fair. Chambers,Mediæval Stage, ii. 110.

[656]C. Mery Talys, lvi. (quoted Chambers, ii. 358).

[657]Chambers,op. cit., ii. 362. Bateson,Leicester, III. 111, 120, 127, 137.

[658]For this and the singing of theQuem quæritis, "whom seek ye?" we have a "stage direction" in theRegularis Concordiaof S. Ethelwold as early as Edgar's reign (959-79). See Chambers, ii. App. O.

[659]Ib., ii. 41.

[660]Bishop, 1188-1198. See Chambers,op. cit., ii. 36.Cf.the matter of the "castel of Emaus" in the cappers' play at Coventry, Sharp, 48.

[661]Furnivall misc., 206-7.

[662]See Hardin Craig,Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, Early English Text Society, to which I am much indebted. The older work on this subject is Sharp'sDissertation on the Dramatic Mysteries. Chambers'Mediæval Stageis very rich in Coventry material.

[663]SeeLeet Book, 205, for the case of the cardmakers, saddlers, painters and masons.

[664]Ib., 94, The case of the weavers' journeymen, who paid 4d. a piece, is the only one on record.

[665]Sharp, 8.

[666]Ib., 9, 10. There is no record that the dyers ever contributed to the Mystery Plays. In 1539 the Mayor of Coventry told Cromwell that the poor commons were at such expense with their plays and pageants that they fared the worse all the year after. Chambers,op. cit., ii. 358.

[667]Mr Chambers' surmise that the common lands were enclosed to build pageant-houses on is untenable. The rents derived from the enclosed lands was devoted to the upkeep of the pageants.

[668]Sharp,op. cit., 9.

[669]Ib., 20.

[670]See illustrations inFurnivall Misc.taken from MS. Bodl. 264 ff. 54b, 76a. These pageants do indeed look like a glorified Punch and Judy show, as Mr Chambers has said.

[671]It is difficult to say what they may not have endured. At Skinnerswell in 1411, a play lasted for seven days! There were twelve to sixteen stations at York; but the York plays were far shorter than the Coventry ones.

[672]Sharp,op. cit., 73.

[673]By the kindness of the editor of theVictoria County History, I am permitted to include this note from an unprinted MS., Inq. p.m. 19 H. 8, 46-45 (P.R.O.) proof of age of Walter Smith of Coventry. It is important as furnishing proof that S. Christian is the right reading instead of S. Catherine, which Dr Craig would substitute. For S. Christianus, bishop of Auxerre in the ninth century, and S. Christiana, virgin, of Jermunde in Flanders, who flourished in the eighth century, see Smith and Wall,Dict. Chr. Biog.Miss Toulmin Smith, thinks that S. Christina and S. Christiana were distinct persons. There was a play in honour of the former at Bethersden in Kent.York Plays, lxv.

[674]Craig,op. cit.xxi.-ii.

[675]See Chambers, ii., 419-20.

[676]Dugdale,op. cit., i. 183.

[677]They may have been performed as late as 1591.

[678]Cott. Vesp D., viii. ed. by Halliwell Phillips.

[679]An error, since Old Testament scenes are also included.

[680]"Vulgo dicitur hic liber Ludus Coventriæ, sive ludus Corporis Christi."

[681]See Chambers,op. cit., ii. 416-22; Gayley,Plays of Our Forefathers, 135-9, 325-7; Shelling,Eliz. Drama, 20-1; Leach inFurnivall Misc., 232-3.

[682]SeeCamb. Lit. Hist.v. 13 for the York friar, who described himself as a "professor of pageantry."

[683]Mr Chambers suggests that, as the crafts admittedly altered and revised their plays, theLudus Coventriæmay be a discarded version.

[684]Leach inFurnivall Misc., 232.

[685]Craig, xviii.

[686]On theProphetae, see Chambers, ii. 52, 70; Craig, xviii.

[687]Craig, xvi. This certainly was the subject of a play; see payment to S. Thomas of India above, p. 287.

[688]Particularly in the fragment of—probably—an earlier version, see Craig,op. cit., 119-122.

[689]See Craig,op. cit., xxiv.-v.

[690]Yche = I. And I were laid low. Jubbard = jeopard.

[691]Craig, 47.

[692]Craig, 48.

[693]See on this point and on Balaam's ass, Chambers,op. cit., ii. 57.

[694]i.e.they.

[695]Craig, 18.

[696]Sharp, 51.

[697]Ib., 31.

[698]York Plays, 277.

[699]Sharp, 47.

[700]Ib., 66-7.

[701]Ib., 37.

[702]Sharp, 36.

[703]Craig, 94, 97.

[704]Sharp, 73.

[705]Ibid.

[706]Ib., 55.

[707]Ib., 26.

[708]Ib., 33.

[709]Craig, 90.

[710]Sharp, 70, 71.

[711]Leet Book, 589.

[712]Sharp, 166. For the riding of the George at Norwich, Leicester, Stratford, and elsewhere,v.Chambers, i. 221-3. Plays in honour of S. George were performed at Lydd, New Romney, Bassingbourne (ib., ii. 132).

[713]Harl. MS. 6388, f. 26dorso.

[714]Sharp,op. cit., 158.

[715]Rous (Hist. Regum Angliæ, 105-6) ascribes it to the rejoicings on the death of Hardicanute. On Hock-tide, see Chambers, i. 154-5.

[716]The one.

[717]The other.

[718]The carpenters in 1464 paid 8d. to the minstrels at the feast (Sharp, 213); the dyers paid 2d. (ib., 214).

[719]Ib., 209

[720]Ib., 207.

[721]Leet Book, 258.

[722]Leet Book, 253.

[723]Ib., 345.

[724]Leet Book, 357.

[725]Leet Book, 476-481.

[726]6d. a week was collected from all the citizens of the mayor's rank, and 4d. and 2d. from those of the sheriff's and warden's rank respectively to pay for the soldiers' board.

[727]Leet Book, 488.

[728]Leet Book, 57, 68.

[729]Green, i. 90-120.

CHAPTER XVI

Old Coventry at the Present Day

Coventryis well worth a whole day's visit, though the day may be an easy one, as the principal buildings lie very near together, andare practically always open, so that no time need be wasted ringing up this or that caretaker or running after the sacristan. Either the powers that be have little leisure to think of tourists, or they must be men of singular enlightenment, for I know of no place which can be seen so freely and cheaply, where lingering over a charming effect, a boss, inscription or painted window may be done with such pleasure because interruption is so rare.[730]The tourist will show his wisdom by not going too far afield in his sight-seeing; the three churches and S. Mary's Hall will, with a passing look at many a picturesque narrow street, carved gable, or interesting relic of old Coventry, furnish him with some hours' occupation. Those, of course, who possess indomitable physical and mental energy may ascend S. Michael's spire for the view's sake, or brave a walk through the somewhat dreary environs of Coventry to the historic but commonplace-looking strip of land known as Gosford Green.[731]Or, if they are proof against the depressing influence of the workhouse—for into this building the remains of theCarmelite monastery have been incorporated—may follow the line of Much Park Street to Whitefriars, and there see the fine monastic cloister, with its fifteenth-century groining, which now serves as the paupers' dining-room.[732]

Castle and monastery have been destroyed in Coventry, and, after all, nobles and monks had very little to do with the making of the city, which, in 1381, was the fifth, and about seventy years later the fourth, among the cities of the kingdom. A fortunate junction of high roads, and the enterprise of the inhabitants, accounts for the great riches and large population during those seventy years.And mark that the most noteworthy buildings were raised within this period: the churches of S. Michael, and the Holy Trinity, and S. Mary's Hall. S. John's church is a little earlier in date. During this period the people of Coventry were possessed with a magnificent frenzy, such as shames our modern efforts, for building and making their city beautiful. That is to say, within a little over two generations the inhabitants of a town of what we should call nowadays contemptible smallness, for it contained at first a population of only about 7000, and later certainly no more than 10,000 souls, raised two parish churches of unusual size, and a fine town hall. One of these churches is indeed the largest in the kingdom, and possesses a spire almost unrivalled in height and beauty. They also kept their fortifications in good repair during this period, and raised—to speak of inconsiderable trifles—a market cross, which has unfortunately perished, besides lending to all the buildings their bounty was making or had made, all the riches of suitable adornment that the carpenter's, carver's, painter's, glazier's, weaver's and goldsmith's art could devise. Much has perished in the destruction of the cathedral, the friars' and other chapels, the cross, a parish church, a guild-hall, and many unremembered buildings; but enough remains to show that we owe a great debt tothose dear, dead folk who knew so many things we have forgotten and loved so many things we have ceased to care for, and above all, knew what to do with stone and glass and metal, and loved their handiwork, for it was good.

Women have always been to the fore in Coventry; the names rise of S. Osburg, Godiva, Isabella, Margaret of Anjou, of the virgin sisters Botoner, who built the spire, and of Joan Ward, the first Coventry Lollard martyr. Women of the city, too, helped to keep out Charles I. Here Sarah Kemble (Mrs Siddons) was married and Miss Ellen Terry born. It is fitting that the chief literary interest of Coventry should centre in a woman's name. George Eliot went to school at a house in the south-west end of Warwick Row, 1832-5. Coventry is said to be the original of Middlemarch, and S. Mary's Hall is described in the trial scene inAdam Bede.

In coming from the station down Warwick Row, as you pass the angle of Greyfriars' Green, look at the modern statue of Sir Thomas White, merchant, Lord Mayor of London in 1555, founder of S. John's College, Oxford, and benefactor of the city of Coventry. Other famous folk connected with the city were Laurence Saunders, the Marian martyr, who was led out to die in the park to the right of Christ church, the spire of which is close before you, while John Marston, satirist, writer of plays, friend and foe of Ben Jonson, was born here. Perhaps some day our cousins from over the Atlantic may raise a tribute to the memory of John Davenport, Puritan, of this city, who, after a troubled career as pastor in the city of London, fled to Amsterdam; and finally, in 1637, at the invitation of John Cotton, departed for New England, where he lived as pastor of Newhaven for very many years; and, after much controversy concerning baptism, and writing of books, departed this life at Boston on March 13, 1670. Othersmay feel more interest in his brother or kinsman, Christopher, a convert to Romanism, and hence the religious antipodes of the aforesaid John. After a sojourn at Douay, this Franciscan friar became chaplain to Queen Henrietta Maria, and subsequently to her daughter-in-law, Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. He died in 1680, and was buried at the Savoy Chapel, London. Being suspected of designs for promoting the union of the English and Roman Churches, it was one of the indictments against Archbishop Laud that he held frequent converse with Christopher Davenport. Other notable folk have at one time or another lived within the city. Sir William Dugdale, Garter King-at-Arms under Charles II., author of theMonasticonand theAntiquities of Warwickshire, "maestro" and "autore" of all such as love the lore of the famous shire of Warwick, received his education at the Free Grammar School. While Humphrey Wanley, to whose skill and knowledge the British Museum owes—not the gift—but the collection and arrangement of the Harleian manuscripts, while he held the post of librarian under Harley, Earl of Oxford, in Queen Anne's time, was son of a vicar of Trinity church, one Nathaniel Wanley, whose bookWonders of the Little World, was greatly loved by Browning.

Full in front is the view of the "three tall spires." The nearest, that of Christ church,[733]is all that remains of the far-famed chapel of the Greyfriars, wherein so many local notables and members of noble families lay buried. The church having been demolished at the suppression of the monasteries under Henry VIII., the steeple remained a solitary landmark until 1830, when the body of a new church was added. This is an uninteresting structure, and not worth a visit.

We are now inside the compass of the ancient wall, and those who wish to keep up old illusions, and enter thecity by the ancient road, should turn up Warwick Lane, alongside of the Grapes' Inn, avoiding modern Hertford Street, and so along Grey Friars' Lane to High Street and the main thoroughfare of the city. A little below the junction of the Warwick and Grey Friars' Lanes stands Ford's Hospital, a beautiful black and white timbered house with carved gables such as artists love. The windows are of nine lights, divided into threes, with window-headings of fine tracery. In a room over the porch called the chapel are oddments of stained glass. Some of the seventeen old women who are housed there, and daily bless, or should bless, the memory of Master Ford and Master Pisford, merchants, may often be seen sitting in the little inner quadrangular court. Worthy Master Pisford, by his will, dated 1517, made provision for six old men and their wives, "being nigh unto the age of threescore years and above, and such as were of good name and fame, and had been of good honesty and kept household within the said city, and were decayed and come to poverty and great need." Nowadays, however, it is only old women who profit by their benevolence.

On reaching High Street, which is part of the great north-west road, and the old coaching way between London and Holyhead, it is best to go right on down Pepper Lane, which immediately faces you, until you come to S. Michael's churchyard. This broad open space was, and is still, the centre of the life of the town. Here stood the cathedral and the two great parish churches, the house containing the cloth market, and the guild-hall, where the rulers of the city assembled to take council together. Possibly while the churches, as we know them now, and S. Mary's Hall were yet unbuilt, the common assembly of city folk met together here to hold courts, and decide on questions touching the common weal. Now the cathedral and drapery are gone, but the church spire still stands fronting thespectator, and a few paces will bring him where, behind the projection of a small black and white cottage, stands the red and crumbling entrance porch of S. Mary's Hall.

Tradition, which we can never afford to disregard, says that S. Michael's Church—spire, tower, chancel, and nave—was built by the Botoners, a great merchant family, further affirming that a brass plate was found in the church, with the following lines engraved upon it:—

"William and Adam built the tower,Ann and Mary built the spire,William and Adam built the church,Ann and Mary built the quire."

Undoubtedly the Botoners were wealthy and generous folk, but whether this little quatrain is founded on fact or no, we have no means of proving.

The famous nine-storied steeple, consisting of tower, octagon and spire, whereof the tower, begun in 1371, occupied twenty-one years in building, is 300 feet high or thereabouts, but gains a fictitious appearance of greater height in that it springs immediately from the ground. The architect had a marvellously happy thought when he added the flying buttresses, which connect the pinnacles of the main tower with the octagon above it, converting a mere tall spire into a "star-ypointing" thing of lightness and beauty.[734]The stone figures in the niches are modern; the ancient ones, worth inspection though worn past identification, have been placed in the crypt, to which entrance is gained on the north side of the church. It is perhaps the finest specimen of the florid Perpendicular spire in England. The decoration is concentrated in the storeys easily seen,i.e.the upper ones of the tower, gradually dying away as the eye travels upwards. The steeple recently underwent restoration under Mr Oldrid Scott, and whatever wasgained in stability by the process, much was lost with the look of old age which vanished with the crumbling surface of the ancient stone.

Before entering the church by the south door notice the rare round trefoil-headed arch of the south porch, earliest portion of the church, a few steps beyond, opposite the door of S. Mary's Hall. What first strikes the spectator on entering is the great size of the building, a fact mainly owing to the simplicity of the ground plan, no space being lost in transepts, and to the absence of any partition or arch between nave and chancel, so that from the west end there is an uninterrupted view of the entire church. From this spaciousness and simplicity comes a grandeur which mere size could never wholly give. The style of architecture—of the kind called "Perpendicular"—shows that the fabric belongs to the end of the fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth century, the choir being older than the nave, which dates from 1434 to 1450. It has been suggested that the building was just complete when Henry VI. paid his visit to the church in 1451.

The width of the arches and slightness of the pillars display the technical skill of the architects of this period, who, by a just distribution of weight, etc., contrived to raise churches of maximum size at a minimum expense of material and labour. It is a church where a large congregation may be comfortably housed, but it has the great defect of the later style of Gothic building,—all sense of mystery and aspiration, with which the lofty roof and high-pointed arch of the earlier periods impress the beholder, are wholly absent.

On looking up from the west end, a curious break in the line of the roof at the junction of nave and chancel is very apparent. The choir inclines to the north, and in so doing furnishes an architectural problem difficult of solution.[735]It is curious that the tower,which is not central with the nave, is in line with the choir.

The lantern at the west end has been opened out since the recent restoration, and the sight of the beautiful groining of the roof is not one that should be missed. The nave has six bays; and in the clear-story windows of both nave and chancel the mullions are carried down until they meet the line of the arch; in the chancel the scheme is more decorative, and over the central arch of the three bays the window is a four-light one.

The step between nave and chancel is of oak and may have been the ancient sill of the rood-screen.[736]

The church is somewhat poor in detail, having suffered from the zeal of reformers, and from the ignorance and carelessness of "Bumbledom" in the succeeding centuries. At the Reformation there came down a fellow with a "counterfeit commission," and for "avoiding of superstition" tore up all the memorial brasses on the tombs, so that those that are left date from Elizabethan times—or later—and are of small interest. In a "restoration" of 1851 there was a regular "double twilight" among the tombs, which were taken up from their original resting-places, and deposited wherever the restorer thought fit. Amongst those thus displaced, and now standing at the west end of the north aisle, was the alabaster tomb of Julines Nethermyl, a worthy draper of the city, whose family entered the ranks of the squirearchy of Warwickshire, and bore arms like gentlefolk. In the front of the tomb is a bas-relief of Julines and his wife, with their five sons and five daughters, and the following inscription:—

"Hic jacit Julianus Nethermyl, pannarius, quondam Maior hujus civitatis, qui obiit xi die mensis Aprilis anno domini MDXXXIX., et Johanna, uxor ejus, quorum animabus propitietur Deus. Amen."[737]

The various crafts or trading companies had special chapels allotted to their use before the Reformation; the dyers, the present baptistery; the cappers, one adjoining the south aisle, while in a little parvise over the south porch, they still meet once a year, transact the company's business, eat, drink, and spread upon the table the venerable velvet cloth, once a pall, an interesting relic, albeit torn and faded, of the days when the making of cloth caps was one of the main industries of the city. The smiths and girdlers had chapels off the north aisle; and the drapers and mercers the space at the east end of the north and south aisles respectively. It was from its place among its fellows in the drapers' chapel that Nethermyl's tomb was brought, and many others stand behind a railing in the Mercers' Chapel in the south aisle. Here is a much defaced early Renaissance erection, traditionally known as "Wayd's tomb," and a most interesting relic of a city officer in the memorial to Dame Elizabeth Swillington and her two husbands, one of whom, Ralph Swillington, was sometime recorder of the city. Round the tomb is the legend: "Orate pro anima Elizabethe Swyllington, vidue, nuper uxoris Radulphi Swillyngton, Attornati Generalis Domini Regis Henrici octavi, Recordatoris Civitatis Coventrensis; quondam uxoris Thome Essex, armigeri; que quidem Elizabeth obiit anno domini millessimo CCCCC—."[738]The worthy attorney-general and recorder lies on the side nearest the spectator; the squire, Master Thomas Essex, in armour, on the side farthest off; Dame Elizabeth, wearing a pedimental head-dress, her hands raised in supplication, in the middle. The dame, the date of whose death is unknown, as the tomb was erected in her lifetime, lived at Stivichall, near Coventry, and gave £140 for the support of the poor and repair of roads in the neighbourhood of the city. Master Swyllington, who was made recorder in 1515, doubtless discharged his duties with all faithfulness, but I know of no memorable event in which he figures during his tenure of office.

All the pre-Reformation brasses save the one commemorating Thomas Bond are gone. One in the west end on the north aisle shows Maria Hinton (1594) and four swaddled babes. She was the wife of that Archdeacon of Coventry and Vicar of S. Michael's who had such a troublesome correspondence with James I. about non-kneeling communicants. Another in the south aisle shows the figure of Ann Sewell (1609) kneeling in prayer. The inscription runs:—

"Her zealous care to serve her GodHer constant love to husband deare,Her harmless harte to everie one,Doth live, although her corps lie here.God graunte us all, while glass doth runTo live in Christ as she has done."

"Ann Sewell, ye wife of William Sewell, of this cytty, vintner, departed this life ye 20th of December, 1609, of the age of 46 yeares. An humble follower of her Saviour Christ, and a worthy stirrer up of others to all holy virtues."

The Sewell family, which gave two mayors to Coventry, have a great many American descendants.

On the wall near the south porch is a brass to Gervase Scrope (1705), who describes himself "as an old toss'd Tennis Ball."

In the Cappers' Chapel by the south porch are the Hopkins' tombs; and in the Dyers' Chapel is a monument to female friendship commemorating Dame Bridgman and Mrs Eliza Samwell. Above "Wayd's" tomb in the Mercers' Chapel is a monument to Lady Sheffington (1637), whose husband is described as a "true moaneing turtle."

In the Drapers' or Lady Chapel, which is divided from the north aisle by an oak screen, we are continually reminded of the powerful Trinity guild, as well as thedrapers' company, whose priests said daily service here. This part of the church was chosen as a burial place for the chief members of the latter society. In a brass plate let into the north wall of the chapel you may see the memorial inscription to the most notable of these:—"Here lyeth Mr Thomas Bond, draper, sometime mayor of this cittie, and founder of the Hospitall of Bablake, who gave divers lands and tenements for the maintenance of ten poore men so long as the world shall endure, and a woman look to them, with many other good guifts; and died the xviii day of March, in the yeare of our Lord God MDVI."

Bond's Hospital still stands by S. John the Baptist's church. May it endure—as the epitaph has it—as long as the world itself.

The dark oak roof of the chapel is ancient, and in some cases angels carrying shields are figured on the corbels. The first of these, at the east end of the north wall, bears, however, the Agnus Dei, a reference to S. John the Baptist, one of the patrons of the guild; the next a pelican "in her piety,"i.e.feeding her young from her own breast, a symbol of Christ.

The Communion-table is of seventeenth-century work; there are curious poppy-heads in this chapel; and on the other side of the screen, which is made up of ancient fragments, is an old oak chest showing that favourite Coventry subject, the Coronation of the Virgin, with swans, Tudor roses and grotesques.

The miserere seats are worth inspection, though the carving is somewhat rough. They seem to fall into three classes, illustrating:—

1.The labours of life.

2.The saints of the guild.

3.The certainty of death, and judgment to come, illustrated by the favourite mediæval series, theDance of Death.

They may be taken in the following order, beginning with the north wall:—

First series.—Labours of life.

1. A man thrashing; a man bat-fowling (agriculture and hunting).

2. Shepherd piping (pastoral life).

Second series.—Saints of the guild.

3. (Defaced.) Decapitation of a martyr, perhaps S. John the Baptist.

4. (Defaced.) The Assumption of the Virgin.

Third series.—Dance of Death.

5. A burial scene. Two men are laying the body, wrapped in a winding sheet, in an open grave; a priest, holding a torch in his hand, and two attendants stand near; mattock and spade are beside the grave.[739]On either side of the central carving Death is represented leading a mortal—in this case the pope—by the hand.

6. A man is being stripped of his shirt, symbolical perhaps of the fact that in dying we must relinquish all worldly possessions. A cripple, whom by the irony of fate Death has spared, watches the process of unclothing. The side subject has been cut off, but Death's companion is a bishop; see the outline of his mitre.

7. A death-bed scene; the sick person is in bed, his friends surround him.

8. The tree of Jesse. "The Word was made flesh."

9. The Last Judgment.

10. Grotesque.

11. The chaining of Satan.

12.

13. Grotesque.

14.

The church terminates in a five-sided apse, with five large, slightly pointed windows. The modern coloured glass of the three central ones is a miracle of ugliness, but the two outer ones are composed of fragments of ancient stained glass, out of which it is impossible, however, to distinguish any connected group. Figures ofthe cherubim standing on wheels are scattered about the various lights, still in fair preservation. Other fragments show the Apocalyptic Lamb, the kiss of Judas, and the description of the Trinity beginning, "Pater est Deus," etc.[740] In the clear-story windows may also be seen more of these beautiful, but sadly fragmentary remnants of ancient glass. In one of these on the south side, the scissors, which were the mark of the tailors' and sheremen's company, are conspicuous.

The chancel roof is lower than the nave, and the two levels are connected by a cove on which was once a fresco of the Archangel overcoming Satan,[740]fragments of which are preserved though notin situ.

Painted on the beam above the cove which spans the nave between the rood piers are traces of an old Latin hymn on the nine orders of angels (a facsimile will be found in the vestry):

"Archangeli presunt ciuitatibus.Potestates presunt demonibus.Dominaciones presunt spiritibus angelicis.Cherubyn habent omnem scienciam.Principalitates presunt bonis hominibus.Virtutes faciunt mirabilia.Seraphyn ardent in armore dei.Troni eorum est judicare.Angeli sunt nuncii domini."

Opposite the south porch of S. Michael's is the entrance to S. Mary's hall, the banqueting room and meeting-place of the guild of the Holy Trinity, S. Mary, S. John Baptist and S. Catherine, and the centre for the transaction of all municipal business. The great north window, of which the mullions bear trace of a recent restoration, is visible from the street, and from an opening in the front to the hall, long since blocked up, it was customary to proclaim the acts of leet passed by the fathers of the city to the crowd below. Built as it was for the honour and glory of this guild, whose memberswere the chief folk of the city, the building is full of detail reminding us of the patron saints of this fraternity. We shall see this more clearly later, when we come to examine the tapestry which hangs in the Hall itself. In the meantime note that the porch, which gives entrance to the court-yard, bears on its keystone a carving, representing the Coronation of the Virgin, and from one of the stones, whence the inward arch springs, is a sculpture of the Annunciation, now almost unrecognisable, save that on the inner side the feathers of S. Gabriel's wings are to be clearly made out. To the right of the court-yard, underneath the great Hall, is the entrance to the crypt, two beautifully proportioned chambers with plain groined roof, probably once a storehouse, now a receptacle for lumber. In the end chamber or "tavern" is a fine carving of a lion. On the western side are the cupboard-like openings in the wall, intended, Sharp thinks, to receive the deeds and valuable property belonging to members of the guild.

On the south side of the court-yard is the fourteenth-century kitchen, full of memories of the great feasts which were once cooked there, and whence dishes were borne smoking hot up the stairs to the Hall above. Now the modern cooking appliances stand out in all their incongruity. Here is the old whipping-post, and in the roof is an ancient louvre or smoke-vent. In the window stands a statue which came from the now demolished cross. It probably represents Henry VI. The arches on the north side bear rudely sculptured figures of angels, each holding a shield on which is a merchant's mark, bearing the initials J.P.,i.e.John Percy (living 1392), a benefactor of the guild.[741]On the ground floor is the new muniment room. (For admission apply to the hall-keeper.) When inside the pretty little modern Gothicchamber, ask the hall-keeper to point out Ranulf's charter, and notice the beautiful twelfth-century writing, which you can contrast with the more fanciful hand of the great charter of Edward III. TheLeet Book, from which so much contained in this history has been obtained, stands on one of the bookshelves which line part of the room. TheLetter-Bookis usually open at Elizabeth's letter, 1569, referring to the safe-keeping of Mary, Queen of Scots. The municipal scales, engraved with the "Elephant," the city arms, are also visible in an inner compartment of this chamber.

ENTRANCE TO KITCHEN. ST MARY'S HALL

If the council is not sitting, the hall-keeper will also show the much restored Mayoress's Parlour, on the upper floor. Here stands the mediæval chair of state, used on great occasions, probably by the mayor and the master of the guild. Only half remains of this magnificent relic. No doubt the side where the guild-master took his seat was sawn off, cast aside as useless on the suppression of this "superstitious" society at the Reformation. The chair bears on one side a figure of the Madonna, "the arms of Coventry surmount the back on the one side, and on the other (which was the centre in its complete state) are two lions rampant supporting a crown."[742]Several portraits line the room, those of John Hales, founder of the Free Grammar School, of Christopher Davenport, mayor of the city, and Sir Thomas White, are of great local interest; others are of Elizabeth, Charles I., and James I., but undoubtedly the most artistic is a curious portrait of Queen Mary, said to be by Zucchero or Antonio More.

As the Great Hall[743]served as a banqueting-hall for the Trinity guild, a flight of steps at the south end communicates directly with the kitchen. At the north end was a daïs, where the principal guests took their seats.

The room was also used for municipal purposes, particularly when the town rulers found it necessary to convoke a large assembly of their fellow-citizens. Many a stormy scene has this beautiful room witnessed. Here it was—or in an earlier hall—that the common folk, enraged at the bad quality of bread, threw loaves at the mayor's head when he neglected to punish the frauds of the victuallers. Here Laurence Saunders defied or submitted to the dictates of the corporation, and the citizens met together promising to uphold the mayor and council in their attack on William Bristowe, who had encroached upon the Lammas lands. Here the mayor was elected and courts held. But when the council met, they chose a smaller room communicating with the Great Hall, for privacy's sake.

The armour is a most interesting collection. A great many pieces are Elizabethan, but the "Black Prince's helmet" is a unique sallet of the period of the Wars of the Roses. The right way to study the Hall is to mount the little flight of steps at the southern end, and, sitting in the Minstrel Gallery, behind the array of civic armour, examine the glorious fifteenth-century window at your leisure. A few years back the glass was in utter confusion, having been carelessly replaced after re-leading, and the respective heads, bodies and legs of the magnanimous conquerors and kings therein commemorated were sadly astray, their anatomy being rendered thereby most perplexing. This has, however, been judiciously remedied, and we can now clearly see in the nine compartments—as the artist, possibly William Thornton, or a pupil of his, designed—the figures of the Emperor Constantine, King Arthur, William I., Richard I., Henry III., Edward III., Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., the last occupying the place of honour in the central light. Above are the arms of various nobles and cities, among others the "elephant and castle" of this city, the three "garbs," wheat-sheaves of Chester,and the sable eagle of Earl Leofric, the city's earliest benefactor.

The dark oak roof belongs also to the fifteenth century, and is worth, even at the cost of some strain to the muscles of the neck, a careful study. At the centre of each beam are whole-length figures of angels, ten in number, of whom eight are playing on various instruments. The first, close to the great north window, has a violin-like instrument, the second a harp, the third a flute, the fourth a flute, but of a peculiarly flat shape, the fifth a violin, the sixth a curved tube, the seventh a tabor, the eighth a curved tube, while the ninth and tenth have no wings or instruments at all; possibly they represent the "morning stars singing for joy."

Under the great north window hangs a piece of tapestry, dating, so say experts, from the beginning of the sixteenth century. It is of Flemish design, and was woven, possibly in England, with the intention of filling the place it now occupies. Faded in colour, often blurred in outline, the tapestry still remains a glorious memorial to the love of beauty and artistic workmanship and corporate pride of the great guild. It is divided into six compartments, and represents a king, queen, and their Court adoring the Virgin, the Trinity, and divers saints in glory; being undoubtedly designed to commemorate the admission of a king and queen into the ranks of the Trinity guild—an event which did actually occur in 1500 in the case of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York. Among the company of saints the place of honour is given to those who were the chosen patrons of the guild. Unfortunately the tapestry has not come down to us in the condition in which it left the makers' hands. The figure of Justice holding the scales is obviously out of harmony with the whole design. There is no doubt that the personification of the Trinity, God the Father on the throne holding Christ extended upon the Cross, with the Dove, once occupied this space.The Hebrew letters of the word Jehovah found above the cross still remain, but the reformers, who could not endure the representation of this mystery, cut out the rest.[744]Round the present incongruous figure of Justice kneel angels bearing the instruments of the Passion, the nails, the sponge of hyssop, the crown of thorns, the scourge, pillar and spear. The Assumption of the Virgin in the lower central compartment reminded the guildsmen of their earliest patroness, whose festival was one of their chief days of assembly. The Virgin's feet rest on the crescent moon, which is supported by an angel. The apostles kneel round in attitudes of adoration. On either side of the lower tier a king kneels in prayer, on the right a queen, traditionally identified with Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou; this attribution has not gone unchallenged; and it is at least possible that the contemporary king and queen, Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, may be intended; the heraldic roses in the border are, however, Lancastrian and not Tudor. The King kneels at a table whereon lie a crown and missal; he wears a jewelled cap. None of his followers can be identified save the kneeling cardinal, who probably is intended for Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (or Cardinal Morton), and the standing figure behind the King, who may be the "good Duke Humphrey" (or Henry, Prince of Wales). The Queen kneels opposite. None of her ladies can be identified. The Queen has a head-dress embroidered with pear-pearls, upon which is a crown of fleur-de-lys, her dress is yellow, and the sleeves lined with ermine. Of the three ladies who kneel behind her the third is obviously a child.[745]

In the upper left-hand division is a group of male, on the right-hand a group of female, saints respectively ledby the patrons of the guild, S. John the Baptist and S. Catherine. The former are the less interesting company; they consist of S. John the Baptist bearing the book andAgnus Dei; the next is probably S. Thomas, holding a lance. There follow S. Paul with a sword; S. Adrian, patron of brewers, standing on a lion, and holding a sword and an anvil, instrument of his martyrdom; S. Peter with the key; S. George holding a banner, but, oddly enough, with no dragon at his feet; S. Andrew with a transverse cross; S. Bartholomew with a knife; S. Simon with a saw; and S. Thaddeus with a halberd. In the opposite division stands an array of saints in charming Tudor dress; S. Catherine with her wheel; S. Barbara with the tower; S. Dorothea with the basket of roses; S. Mary Magdalene with the vase of ointment; S. Margaret, name-saint of the queen who kneels in the compartment beneath, with a queer, flabby, spotted demon curling round her body; S. Agnes with a delightful little lamb, which she holds by a string. Then follows an abbess, concerning whose identity there has been much discussion. She is arrayed in a monastic habit, bears a crozier, and has three white mice about her person, one on either shoulder, and another springing in the air above. This is S. Gertrude of Nivelles in Flanders,[746]patroness of travellers, and maybe also of the locality where the tapestry was designed. Noted far and wide for hospitality in her lifetime, the saint did not cease her ministrations to wayfarers after death. The journey to Paradise is a long one, occupying three days, so that the popular fancy said that the souls slept with S. Gertrude on the first night, with S. Gabriel on the second, and the third they rested in Paradise. "The saint therefore became," says Mr Baring Gould, "the patroness and protector of departed souls. Next because popular Teutonic superstition regarded rats and mice as symbols of souls, S. Gertrude is represented in art asattended by one of these animals. Then, by a strange transition when the significance of the symbol was lost, she was supposed to be a protectress against rats and mice, and water from the crypt at Nivelles was distributed for the purpose of driving away these vermin." It may be noted that the two nuns in the compartment of ladies attending upon the queen, wear the same habit as S. Gertrude. The next saint of the company is usually identified with S. Anne, but on what grounds I am unable to discover. She bears a long staff (or taper) in her hand. Now the saint likely to be associated with S. Gertrude would be her godchild, S. Gudule, patroness of the cathedral of Brussels. Her appropriate symbol is, however, a lantern. But the artist is not very careful about these, and possibly may have substituted the taper. In this case the demon hovering over S. Apollonia, who follows next, bearing her pincers, really belongs to S. Gudule, and is a reminiscence of the saint's nocturnal difficulties in keeping her lantern alight, so persistently did the evil spirit blow it out.

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