military company of
Norwich, who travelled in the Midland Counties in August 1634. These
tourists describe St. Mary's Hall as adorned at the upper end "with rich
hangings, and all about with fayre pictures, one more especially of a
noble lady (the Lady Godiva) whose memory they have cause not to forget,
for that shee purchas'd and redeem'd their lost infringed liberties and
ffreedomes, and obtained remission of heavy tributes impos'd upon them,
by undertaking a hard and unseemly task, w'ch was to ride naked openly
at high noone day through the city on a milk-white steed, w'ch she
willingly performed, according to her lord's strict injunction. It may
be very well discussed heere whether his hatred or her love exceeded.
Her fayre long hayre did much offend the wanton's glancing eye." In this
record we have no additional fact except the mention of "high noone day"
as the time of the journey; for the allusion to "the wanton's glancing
eye" is too vague to be interpreted of Peeping Tom, and the writer does
not refer to any commemorative procession. It has been supposed,
therefore, that the carnival times of Charles the Second both begot the
procession and tacked Peeping Tom to the legend. But it is more likely
that the procession is as old as the fair, which was held under a
charter of Henry the Third, granted in 1217. Such pageants were not
uncommon in municipal life, and were everywhere to the taste of the
people. Whether Lady Godiva was a primitive part of it is another
question. The mention of the procession in 1678 occurs in a manuscript
volume of annals of the city, in a handwriting of the period. The entry
in question is as follows: "31 May 1678 being the great Fair at Coventry
there was an extraordinary" [Here the bottom of the page is reached; and
in turning over the chronicler has omitted a word, for on the top of the
next page we read:] "Divers of the Companies" [_i.e._, the City Guilds]
"set out each a follower, The Mayor Two, and the Sheriffs each one and 2
at the publick charge, there were divers Streamers with the Companies
arms and Ja. Swinnertons Son represented Lady Godiva."[46]

This brief entry is by no means free from ambiguity. Perhaps all that we
are warranted in inferring from it is that the annual procession was,
that year, of unusual splendour. Whether, as has been conjectured, it
was the first time Lady Godiva had ever made her appearance, there
seems more doubt. Apart from any evidence, there is n