Yes, Coventry bore its burden, did its share, and played its part.
But, seen from a little distance and from certain aspects, Coventry still possesses a strange old–world charm, and the more modern elements of its present–day life seem to fade away, leaving a picture of elegant spires rising from amid a sea of indistinct and even picturesquely disposed roofs.
CHAPTER VI
KENILWORTH AND ITS PRIORY—THE STORY AND ROMANCE OF KENILWORTH CASTLE
Kenilworth, which is prettily situated, and lies almost equidistant between Warwick and Coventry, and about five miles direct north of the former town, is reached by the turnpike road passing Guy’s Cliff, the beautiful Blakedown Mill, which existed prior to the reign of Henry II., and Chessford Bridge. Few who visit Kenilworth at the present day would imagine that this quiet, straggling country town, with a population of about four thousand, could ever have played the important part it did in the history and romance of the county and the nation at large.
Kenilworth of to–day at first sight gives the traveller the impression of being merely a sleepy town, with the architecture of its long main street, which is a full mile in length, picturesquely broken up by the interspersing of modern and older buildings. Few, indeed, would suppose that any manufacture of the slightest importance could occupy the thoughts or the energies of its inhabitants; but there are still some carried on amid its rural surroundings.
One of the most interesting buildings in Kenilworth is the old Elizabethan House, standing just beyond the King’s Arms Hotel, at which Sir Walter Scott put up when visiting the place in 1820. Over the door of the house, which is of two stories, is a wooden panel on which is carved a representation of the bear and ragged staff, with the initials R. L., standing for Robert Leicester. The building was in former times one of the lodges of the castle, to which the roadway passing the house leads, thus forming the principal approach. In this house, tradition asserts, Amy Robsart used to stay, and there is at least a tradition that years ago a secret underground passage was discovered leading from the house to the castle.