The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1883-09-14
LADY GODIyA.

Va
Chat With the Heroine-A Ride
Through the Town,
N. Y. Herald.
COVENTRY, Sun. Aug. 6.-The city OF
the "Three Tall Spires" as Tennyson
calls it. has rather a bad reputation
among sociable people. To be "sent to
Coventry" is supposed by many to be
tantamount to being cut off from inter
course with ones fellows; to be, in fact,
as a Land Lacquer would put it mildly,
"boycotted." The origin of the express
sion is as obscure as most such express
sions, and none Of the explanations
hazarded by the Warwickshire antigua
rians are quite satisfactory. Fol- q good
many centuries past Coventry has been
celebrated far and wide for its pageants.
The most remarkable of them, and the
only one with which we have to do just
now, was of course, the Lady Godi-
va procession. To relieve the people of
taxation by her cruel lord, Lazy Godiva
rode naked through the town. Such
was the condition he had imposed
for, the remission of their taxes. and
such the origin of the custom that was
to-day revived.
This morning, however, a pestilent in
dividual, signing himself a "Lineal De.
scendant of Leolric and Godiva," writes
a wretched, q%uerulous,. unsettling, irrel-
alive letter to the London Times, main
tanning that the famous ride-the ride
upon which Tennyson has written such
dainty v~erses-never took place at all
could never have taken place-because
{IN,o,{r. bod - nv,ctn,,.. A of thu r,nrsol
in which the Lady" is said to have rid
den through it.
The first pageant in which we can be
tolerably sure an im%personator of the
gentle countess figured took place in the
year of grace 1878 at Coventry fair. The
Lady Godiva on that occasion was per-
fectlv nude. For those were the times
of the MERRY Monarch" and his exam
pie had been initiated in a good many
matters of morality-ahd immortality,
The exact details of the show have been
handed dowa to US in a handful of the
period. The various companies of Gov
entry II the corporation were repre-
sented by boys OF followers" "each
company having new streamers," Lady
Godiva rode before the mayor to "pro-
1878 the pageant was repeated annually
"ibH ti 4 iO-o WV WI
poration and the masters Of the civic
%conlpnnies' took part in the fair for the
last time, and soon after he glory of the
procession began to fade. and from being
an annual event became an occasional
one.
Long before this, l need hardly say
the practice of exhibiting a nude Godiva
to the crowd which thronged TO the fes-
tival had been discarded as contrary to
decency anlthe law. 1nlS77 after a lapse
of several years, the show was again re-
Vivei, despite much virtuous opposition;
but from that time till this morning the
Lady" as they ~alfectionately call her
down here, was seen no more in the
streets of Coventry. Public opinion
seemed dead against it and preferred the
salvation army professions to the old
pageant. A %puritanical section of the
authorities had pronounced it immoral,
and even the garrison (not generally a
stiokler for morality had refused to
c~ountenance or take part in the process
sion. A spirited committee took the
matter in hand privately some weeks
ago. Subscriptions were invited, money
flowed in and the benevolent neutrality
of the mayor having been secured, the
Lady Godiva show was to-day revived.
The all-importnnt question, "Who
shall be Lady Godiva?" had been happi-
ls answered by the engagement of an
equestrian star" from the Theatre Roy.
I'll, Astley's-Miss Maud Forester. I
left her down stairs an hour ago, enjoy
ing q ~well-entered chop and some bran
dy and soda. The fete was ushered in
auspiciously by a satiric ''leader" in this
mornings Times and clashing peals from
the beautiful steep.e of st. Michaels.
This steeple, by she bye-the highest OF
the ''three tai spires'-would alone
more than repaya visit to Coventry.
The ancient city had been gaily decora-
ted over night with huttering p%ennons,
evergreens and devices more or less APP
propriate. From many a gable dating
back as far as the time of Queen Bess
hung waving pictures of the sweet LADY
and her spouse, varied here and there
by design showing Us the wicked tailor
and by the city arms-an elephant and
castle-the castle atop of the elephant.
The inns were crowded by the influx
of &C, 1000 visitors (among them a large
party of Am%ericans), and it was no easy
matter, l found, to get bed when ]
came down in the dead OF night from
London. The procession was to start
agreeably to immemorirl custom, from
the courtyard OF st. Mary's hall, q build
ing which does duty as a kind Of marie.
Thither l repaired, and having shown
my credentials to the helmeted police
man at the door, was ushered into the
historic room, where l found the custo-
mer and a motley through Of knights
and gentlemen busily engaged in fitting
on breastplates, that wouldn't be fitted
and swearing at slashed velvet hose
which were somehow always a little bit
too large or small for the wearers. In
another room hard by were the Ladies'
chosen to take part in the procession.
Queen Elizabeth, represented by q rath-
er pretty girl in mulberry and green
velvet, was chatting in broad Warwick
shire to Mary, queen of Scots, and to
Margaret of ANTON, in blue and Magenta
satin.
Lady Godiva herself was dressing in a
third room, to which after some coy bnt
excusable resistance, | was admitted.
81 hope I don'tiutrude?" l inquired tim
idly, with a vague souvenir of Paul Pry
in my mind, no doubt, as l crossed the
sacred threshold and found myself face
to face with a very plump and portly
'.lady."
mot at ALL" came the gracious reply
from the lips Of her lightly clad but
shapely ladyship. "Im not quite ready
vet, as you see, but you must excuse
that"
I excused her willingly, for nothing
wal lost by her unreadiness. Tout au
contraire, Godiva was then standing
In front of her glass, adding a gauze to
the somewhat too scanty upper part OF
her flesh colored satin corsage. But for
this garment which fitted like a glove, 6
pretense of satin drapery about tbs
waist, and the very transparent flights
which encased her symmetrical, if per
haps exuberant legs, clothing she had
no more than the original Godiva. In
q trice, however, Miss Maud had wounc
some muslin about her, and letting heI
long golden tressesdown over her shout
ders, had fully prepared herself for the
approaching spectacle.
"Don't you feel %neryoug2" said I, no