Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-17

veals the revelries of Elizabeth. Rugby
suggests everything wholesome and good il
schoolboy lite. One sees in the mere wordi
of Dumfries or Aver the radiant face O
''Bobby" Burns
WHAT COVENTRY RECALLS.
And Coventry has for 800 years meant
and will forever solely suggest-Lady Godi
va and peeping Tom. Nor does it matter
whether these personages and the curious
drama in which they are placed by popular
and historic belief as actors were fact OF
fiction. The warp and woof of it are set Sc
firmly in the texture of romance, ballad ant
song, that even Cromwell of literature
would meet but ignomIny and defeat in at
tempts to raze these splendid clusters o.
tradition and drive from them their loveC
recluses Of tender conceit.
Everyone has fingered with infinite charm
upon the continued tale of how
Then she rode forth, clothed on with
chastity;
And one low churl, compact Of thankless
earth,
The fatal byword of all years to come,
Boring a little auger-hole in fear,
Peeped-but his eyes before they had theil
Will,
Were shrivelrd into darkness in his head,
And dropt before him. So the Powers, who
wait
On noble deeds, cancel sense misused.
How or when this zone low churl, com.
pact of thankless earth" was first made the
horrid antithesis of Lady Godiva's noble
sacrifice, or why the honest vocation of g
tailor was called upon to supply culprit,
no man can tell. But sure it is that
''Peeping Tom," whose pseudonym will
continue for all time as type of execrable
and insufferable inquisitiveness, was none
other than tailor and that all these ter
rible things happened to him in ancient
Coventry.
EFFIGIES OF PEEPING TOM.
Worse shame than all other to Peepine
Tom are his appalling remaining effigies.
They are countless here in Coventry-in
stone, in wood, in delft, in porcelain, in
wax; while the very school boys are eter-
nally testing new iackknives upon grotesque
limitations of the repulsive object The
thing leers at you from inches above ancient
buildings; seems to crane its head from the
cornices of new and old hotels; shows its
horse-like teeth from among shop window
trifes and haunts and pursues you until
you are startled to see its lineament repro
duced in the faces of tramps and beldames
in shadowy quarters of the musty old town.
Truly the Peeping Tom you will find
everywhere in Coventry is dreadful ira
vesty upon the human form and face They
have put his trunk and chest in armor He
is made man of arms as we'll as shears,
with military cooked hat decked with a
huge rosette. His face is wide, square and
white. The eyes are Brobdignagian in size
md hot III
repulsively suggestive. His bearded chin
looks like the mirage of savage flame.
And the mouth, as wide as cows, discloses
CHASTITY row of gravestone teeth.
If this luckless wight has been merely a
popular embodiment of evil as opposed to
good, Lady Godiva certainly existed in the
flesh
LADY GODIVA IN LIFE.
She is historic character of authentic
certifcation. She was sister to Thorald,
Sheriff of Line olnshire, and wife of Leofric,
Earl of Mercia, prime favorite of Edward
the Confessor, and in his time at the head
of various great state transactions. Both
history and tradition unite in honoring
Lady Godiva with the possession of unusual
piety, goodness and beauty.
The devout pair certainly founded here a
which attained enormous wealth and splen-
dor, suffered strange vicissitudes, passed
into silence and decay, and massive vestiges
of its remains are still seen on the
banks Of the river here. Leofric
died at Bromley, Staffordshire,
but was buried in one porch of the monas-
terry at Coventry; while his wife who at her
death gave erich chain of precious stones
to put around the neck of the blessed Vir-
gins image, so that those who came of de-
votion thither would say as many prayers
as there we're several gems within, - was
given burial in the other.
This much for history and historical ira
dition. Literature and art, sometimes more
powerful and incisive than history, have
done the rest: Coventry is not very large
city, containing barely $4,000 inhabitants
but some of its quarters are very ancient
and picturesque. The wonderful spires of
its churches, especially of Trinity and st.
Michael, the latter being 303 feet in height,
add much interest to the old city.
A MECCA FOR PILGRIMS.
Then in the old days of monasteries, Gov
entry was noted for its pilgrimages from
France. Later, Parliaments were held with
in it. The pageants of kings and queens to
the pious city have equaled the most splen-
did professions at ancient Canterbury
Great jousts and tournaments were held
here.
The old city walls were three miles long,
nine feet thick, and were surrounded BY 80
lofty towers The old-time Cross of Coyen-
try gave the place certain fame. Mary
Queen of Scots was for long time impris-
oned here in the Mayoress' parlor Of ST.
Mary's Hall, still standing. though more
than 500 years old All these, and countless
more, things of exceeding interest develop
and charm all pilgrims here; though the CEN
tral figures which originally attract them
all are radiant Godiva and rascally Peeping
Tom
Ones first impressions of Coventry are
disappointing. From a score of miles away
its beautiful spires are visible and are en-
chantingly suggestive of antiquity and re-
pose. Nearing the city it rises from mo-
notonous champaign country, little wooded
and with an unpleasant red of the clavev
soil checkering the fields and outlining the
rather lonesome and hedgeless adjacent
highways Entering the city from anv
direction, modern streets bordered with
modern houses hint of sponging out of all
the old hooks
QUAINT NooKS OF THE TOWN.
But once we'll into High street, to the
right and left, in every direction and in in
terminable maze are narrow thorouphfares
winding and interlacing in quaint and