all years to come,
Boring a little auger-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 misus'd."

It is not my business now to prove that the legend is untrue in fact, or
I should insist, first, that its omission by previous writers, who refer
both to Leofric and Godgifu and their various good deeds, is strong
negative testimony against it; and I should show, from a calculation
made by the late Mr. M. H. Bloxam, and founded on the record of Domesday
Book, that the population of Coventry in Leofric's time could scarcely
have exceeded three hundred and fifty souls, all in a greater or less
degree of servitude, and dwelling probably in wooden hovels each of a
single story, with a door, but no window.[45] There was, therefore, no
market on the scale contemplated by Roger of Wendover,--hardly, indeed,
a town through which Godgifu could have ridden; and a mere toll would
have been a matter of small moment when the people were all serfs. The
tale, in short, in the form given by the chronicler, could not have been
told until after Coventry had risen to wealth and importance by means of
its monastery, whereof Godgifu and her husband were the founders.
Nobody, however, now asserts that Roger of Wendover's narrative is to be
taken seriously. What therefore I want to point out in it is that
Godgifu's bargain was that she should ride naked _before all the
people_. And this is what the historian understands her to have done;
for he states that she rode through the market-place without being
seen, _except her fair legs_, all the rest of her body being covered by
her hair like a veil. He tells us nothing about a proclamation to the
inhabitants to keep within doors; and of course Peeping Tom is an
impossibility in this version of the tale.

Coventry has for generations honoured its benefactress by a periodical
procession, wherein she is represented by a girl dressed as nearly like
the countess on her ride as the manners of the day have permitted. When
this procession was first instituted, is unknown. The earliest mention
of it seems to be in the year 1678. Its object then was to proclaim the
Great Fair, and Lady Godiva was merely an incident in it. The Lansdowne
MSS. in the British Museum contain an account of a visit to Coventry by
the "captain, lieutenant, and ancient" of the