im. So the Powers who wait
On noble deeds cancelled a sense misused;
And she, that knew not, passed."

Thus has "Peeping Tom of Coventry" passed into a byword, and his statue
stands in a niche on the front of a house on the High Street, as if
leaning out of a window--an ancient and battered effigy for all the
world to see. Like all other things that come down to us by tradition,
this legend is doubted, but in Coventry there are sincere believers, and
"Lady Godiva's Procession" used to be an annual display, closing with a
fair: this ceremony was opened by religious services, after which the
procession started, the troops and city authorities, with music and
banners, escorting Lady Godiva, a woman made up for the occasion in
gauzy tights and riding a cream-colored horse; representatives of the
trades and civic societies followed her. This pageant has fallen into
disuse.

[Illustration: COVENTRY GATEWAY.]

In this ancient city of Coventry there are some interesting memorials of
the past--the venerable gateway, the old St. Mary's Hall, with its
protruding gable fronting on the street, coming down to us from the
fourteenth century, and many other quaint brick and half-timbered and
strongly-constructed houses that link the dim past with the active
present. Its three spires surmount St. Michael's, Trinity, and Christ
churches, and while all are fine, the first is the best, being regarded
as one of the most beautiful spires in England. The ancient stone pulpit
of Trinity Church, constructed in the form of a balcony of open
stone-work, is also much admired. St. Michael's Church, which dates from
the fourteenth century, is large enough to be a cathedral, and its
steeple is said to have been the first constructed. This beautiful and
remarkably slender spire rises three hundred and three feet, its lowest
stage being an octagonal lantern supported by flying buttresses. The
supporting tower has been elaborately decorated, but much of the
sculpture has fallen into decay, being made of the rich but friable red
sandstone of this part of the country; the interior of the church has
recently been restored. The Coventry workhouse is located in an old
monastery, where a part of the cloisters remain, with the dormitory
above; in it is an oriel window where Queen Elizabeth on visiting the
town is reputed to have stood and answered a reception address in rhyme
from the "Men of Coventrie" with some doggerel of equal merit, and
concluding