The record-union., 1891-10-17
Especial Correspondence of RECORD UNION
Copyright, 1917

Icpeclal Correspondence or RECoRD-UN1
Copyright, 1884,
COVENTRY, Eng, October 5, 1891.
The pertinacity with which a single
fact, belief or legend from bygone times
finds lodgment in the minds of men, and
eventually becomes a bulwark of local
pride and power as well as subject of
universal interest is nowhere in Britain
more strikingly illustrated than in this
ancient city of Coventry.
Every well-known old world place has
its greater or lesser shining beacon of
splendid fact or myth to which the tour
ist, like mariner, directs his often tenn
pestuous way. Blarney has its ''stone."
Belfast its spinning mills and historic
places of riot. Old st. Ives and Banbury
are dear in nursery-rhyme memory.
York and Canterbury are rich in cathe-
drals and lore of pilgrims. Salisbury
was the Old Sarum of Britain. Bristol
had its Chatterton. Grasmere and Rydal
Mount knew Wordsworth, and Keswick
was the home of Southey and Coleridge.
When Gad's Hill is mentioned we see
Dickens and all his wondrous brood of
tender creation. Yarmouth is simply
where the ''Peggottys'' dwelt. Newstead
only recalls Byron. Abbottsford, Mel
rose and Dryburgh tell more than all else
Of Sir Walter Scott. Naseby and Cullo-
den mean the dethrOnement of one King
and the utter observation of a heroic
Prince and his glorious house. Glouces-
ter recalls the origin of the eSunday-School.
henilworth reveals the reVelries of Eliza
beth, Rugby suggests everything whole
some and good in School-boy life. One
sees in the mere words of Dumfries or
Aver the radiant face of 'BObbY'' Burns.
The name Aughrim discloses the entire
tragedy OF the irish nations overthrow.
Stratford to the mind is but another word
for Shakespeare. And Coventry has for
500 years meant, and will forever sole
Iy suggest-Lady Godiya and Peeping
Tom.
Nor does ii matter whether these per-
SonageS and the curious drama in which
they are placed by popular and historic
belief as actors were fact or fiction. The
warp and woof OF it are set so firmly in
the texture Of romance, ballad and song
that even Cromwell of literature would
meet but ignominy and defeat in attempts
to raZe these splendid cloisters of tradi-
ton and drive them from their recluses
OF tender cOnceit. Matthew of Westmin-
ster, who tiourished about 1900 and 1910,
first set down the episode as sober histo-
ry. but failed to make a place for Peep
ing Tom" He says:
This Countess (Godiva) devoutly anx-
grievous and base thraldom, often be-
sought the Count, her husband, that he
would, for the love of the Holy Trinity
and the Sacred Mother of God, liberate it
from such servitude. But he rebuked
her for vainly demanding thing so in
furious TO himself, and forbade her to
move further therein. Yet she, out of
her womanly pertinacity, continued to
press the matter. insomuch that she OBJ
tanned this answer from him. Ascend
he said, thy horse naked and pass thus
through the city, from one end of it to the
other, in sight of the people, and on thy
return thou shalt obtain thy request,
Upon which she returned, And should [
lee willing to do this wilt thou give me
leave?' 1 will, he responded. Then the
Countess GodiYa, beloved OF God, as
cended her horse naked, loosing her long
hair, which clothed her entire body ex-
cept her snow-white legs, and having
performed the journey, seen by none, re-
turned with JOY to her husband. who, re-
garding it as a miracle, thereupon granted
Coventry a Charter of Freedom, confirm
ing it with his seal"
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 thankIess
The fatal byword of ali years to come.
Boring a little auger hole in fear,
Peeped-but his eyes before they had their
Were shrivelrd into darkness in his head.
And dropt before HIM. SO the Powers, who
wait
On noble deeds, cancel a 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 voca-
ton OF tailor WIS called upon to supply
culprlt, no one can tell. But sure it is
that ''Peeping Tom,' whose pseudonym
VIII continue for all time as type of exc
cradle and InSufferable inquiSitivenesS
was none other than a tailor, and that ali
these terrible things happened to him in
ancient Coventry. Worse shame than all
other TO Peeping Tom are his appalling
remaining ettigies. They are countless
here IN Coventry-in stone, in wood, in
delft, in porcelain, in wax, while the
very school-boys are eternally testing
new lackknives upon grotesque imita-
tons OF the repulSfve object. The thing
laerS at you from inches above ancient
buildings; seems to crane its lecherous
head from the cornices of new and old
hotels; shows its horse-like teeth from
among shop window tritles, and haunt
and pursues you until you are startled to
see It's lineament reproduced in the faces
OF tramps and beldameS in shadowy
quarters of the musty old town. Truly
the Peeping Tom you will find every
where III Coventry IS dreadful travesty
upon the human form and face. They
have put his trunk and chest in armor.
he IS made man of arms as well as
shears, with military cooked hat decked
with a huge rOSette. His face is wide
square and white. The eyes are Brob-
dignagian in size and possess a Ieer both
sanctimonious and repulsively suggest
i've. His bearded chin looks the mirage
OF savage flame. And the mouth, as
wide a cows, disclose 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. She IS a historic character of
authentic certification. She was sister to
Thorald, Sheriff of Lincolnshire, and wife
of LeOiric, Earl OF Alercia, prime favor
ite 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 found
ed here great monastery for Benedic-
tine monks, which attained enormous
wealth and splendor, suffered strange
vicissitudes, passed into silence and de-
cay. and massive vestiees of its remains
are still seen on the banks of the river
here. Leofric died at Bromley, Stafford
shire, but was buried in one porch OF the
monastery at Coventry, while his wife
who, ut her death, gave ''rich chain of
precious stones to be put around the
neck of the blessed Virgins image, so
that those who came of devotion thither
should say as many prayers as there were
several gems Within, was given burial
in the other. 1t was incontestably true
that the citizens of Coventry, when Leo
5ric's vassals did receive, through Lady
Godiva's efforts with her grim warrior
husband, some sort of manumission from
L.