Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-18


towers. The old-time cross of Coventry
gave the place a 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 800 years old. All these, and count
less more, things of exceeding interest de-
yelop and charm all pilgrims here; though
the central figures which mainly attract
them all are radiant Godiva and rascally
Peeping Tom.
Ones first impressions Of Coventry are
disappointing. From score of mics
away its beautiful spires are visible and
are enchantingly suggestive of antiquity
and repose. Nearing the city it rises
from a monotonous champaign country,
little wooded, and with an unpleasant red
Of the clayey soil checkering the fields
and outlining the rather lonesome and
hedgeess adjacent highways. Entering
the city from any direction, modern streets
bordered with modern houses hint of a
sponging out of all the old hooks and nests,
and give a foreboding sense of gainless
quest But once well into High street. to
the right and left, in every direction and in
interminaDle maze. are narrow thorough
fares winding and interlacing in quaint and
charming confusion. Godivas and Peeping
Toms begin TO smile and glover upon you
from every niche and window.
Up there to the right runs narrow
Not hundred yards more and down to
your left opens one of the most character
full thoroughfares in Europe. 1t is Butch
er's row. You instantly step from the
Nineteenth to the Sixteenth century. A
days lettering would be amply rewarded
here Just behind its ramshackle old
house are perhaps primeval trees firing
ing shadOwy close, into which are
huddled the churches of ST. Michael's and
Trinity. All about them is almost
UNREcoRDED AGE IN ARCHITECTURE.
five centuries old. crowd around the place
III all manner of angles and fantastic IA
oades. AT the corner of Hay lane and Bar
ley lane, just where the fine old picture is
mellowest as you look back upon the half
verdure-covered masses of angles and cary
ingS, stands 300-year-old inn. restored in
its ziz-zag pattern of oak and NOR
tar, black and lavender paint and over
hanging stories, that the visitor may
know how the old town looked when its
builders had left their work spick-and-Span
in the glory of first completion.
A little beyond its low, wide front mass
of crumbling carving, stands one of the
most interesting structures of former age
in England. This is ST. Mary's hall. The
other, TO me, most fascinating spot in Cow
entry, is Ford's hospital in Gray Friar's
lane, an alms-house for old, old women.
There are many, many other struct-
ures most rare and curious here;
among them St. Michael's church, over
which even a Hawthorne could be warmed
into exclaiming: $50 old, yet enduring; so
huge. so rich: with such intricate minute
ness in its finish, that, look as long as you
will at it, you can always discover some
thing new directly before your eyes; land
that ''of all English things 1 have seen me-
thinks the churches disappoint me least"
Trinity church with its pulpit accounted
1.-The very finest in the kingdom;' and
Bonds hospital, remarkable structure,
founded nearly 400 years ago
as a home for aged men. But these
two places are so perfect in their linking
of an olden with the present day; preserve
in themselves such striking pictures of
remote and mellow past; and withal present
so fully and at glance the very rime and
mold of that which has held all English
speaking lands to the pleasant pages from
the golden age of English literature; that
one comes to them in their hale and sturdy
age as we turn with heart-thrill and delight
to the beaming
FACES OF DEAR OLD FRIENDS.
As early as can be ascertained by anti
quarians. the date of ST. Mary's hall is be-
tween 400 and 1425. 1t is therefore nearly
600 years old. The ancient guilds of Cow
entry were famous for their wealth and
sumptuous hospitality, and this hall was
the gathering place of the united guilds.
1t stands entire just as it was built 1t is
also remarkable as being one of the few
places of public interest to which
strangers are admitted in England where
a fee is not demanded or expected.
That alone makes one fond of the splendid
antique. Its entrance is opposite ST
Michael's church. The carvings, though
crumbled badly, were originally almost IS