Was too well known, but did no good;
With long Campaigns and paines oth' gout
He cou'd no longer hold it out.
Always a restless life he led,
Never at quiet till quite dead.
He marry'd in his later days,
One who exceeds the common praise
But wanting breath still to make known
Her true affection and his own,
Death kindly came, all wants supplied
By giving rest--which life deny'd.

The other brass, of 1609, has a portrait of Ann Sewell in Jacobean
costume, kneeling, with an epitaph in which she is described as "a
worthy stirrer up of others to all holy virtues."

A doorway leads to a priest's chamber over the porch, sometimes
incorrectly spoken of as the Cappers' Chapel. It is still used for the
annual meeting of the Company, but is inaccessible to the public.

The next chapel eastwards is St. Thomas', belonging until 1629 to the
Cappers' and Feltmakers' Company. In 1531 they were associated in its
maintenance with the Woollen Cardmakers who had founded it in 1467 and
had after declined in importance. Leland, as we have seen records
also the decay of the Cappers' industry. A large eighteenth-century
monument conceals the original doorway from the porch. The eastern
part of the south aisle as far as the screen formed another chapel as
the dilapidated piscina in the south wall shows. The organ is now
placed in the first bay of the chancel aisle, the whole aisle having
once formed the Mercers' Chapel.

[Illustration: THE SWILLINGTON TOMB.]

Where the altar once stood are now steps descending to the sacristies.
On the right of the window is the statue of St. Michael brought hither
from the tower (p. 32). The finely carved corbel on which it stands
was discovered among rubbish in the recess below. Three altar tombs
now stand against the south wall. The eastern has the recumbent
effigies of Elizabeth Swillington and her two husbands. The
inscription (translated) runs: "Pray for the soul of Elizabeth
Swillington, widow, late the wife of Ralph Swillington, Attorney
General of our Lord King Henry VIII, Recorder of the city of Coventry,
formerly the wife of Thomas Essex Esq: which said Elizabeth died A.D.
15..." She died after 1543. The side and ends have arcaded panelling
containing shields of arms. At the west end is a realistic
representation of the Five Wounds. The effigy of Thomas Essex is in
armour, that of the Recorder in official robe and chain. The head of
each rests on a