ILLUSTRATIONS
[King Henry VI.] (From a painting in the National
Portrait Gallery; painter unknown) Photogravure Frontispiece
HALF-TONE
[A Courtyard in Little Park Street]
[Smithford Street]
[Palace Yard]
[Council Chamber, showing Panelling]
[Bablake and S. John's Church]
[New Street]
[Butcher Row]
[Mayoress' Parlour, showing State Chair]
LINE
[The Two Spires from top of Bishop Street]
[8 Much Park Street]
[Remains of Old Wall—back of Godiva Street]
[Saint John the Baptist, Coventry]
[Gosford Green]
[24 Gosford Street]
[130 Far Gosford Street]
[Godiva Window]
[Heraldic Tile found in Hales Street]
[Peeping Tom]
[Cathedral Ruins]
[Carved Miserere Seat, S. Michael's Church]
[Priory Row, Coventry]
[Cheylesmore Manor House]
[Gable of Cheylesmore Manor House]
[34 Far Gosford Street]
[Old Whitefriars' Monastery, now Coventry Union]
[40 Far Gosford Street]
[Courtyard, S. Mary's Hall, Coventry]
[Minstrel Gallery, S. Mary's Hall]
[The City Keys]
[The City Mace—The Sword]
[The Old State Chair]
[High Street, Coventry]
[View of Interior of Saint Michael's]
[Gosford Street]
[Smithford Street, Coventry]
[Cook Street Gate]
[Old House in Little Park Street]
[Queen Mary's Chamber]
[Swanswell Gate]
[The Council Chamber, S. Mary's Hall]
[Trinity Lane]
[Arms of City of Coventry]
[Old House beside S. Mary's Hall]
[Whitefriars' Lane]
[Oriel Window and Stocks, S. Mary's Hall]
[Old Bablake School]
[Ford's Hospital]
[Holy Trinity Church]
[Swillington's Tomb, S. Michael's Church]
[Pulpit, Holy Trinity Church]
[Old House in Cox Street]
[36 Gosford Street]
[91 Gosford Street]
[Old House in Cox Street]
[Entrance to Kitchen, S. Mary's Hall]
[Archdeacon's Chapel, Holy Trinity Church]
[The Staircase, Old Bablake School]
The Story of Coventry
The Three Spires and Coventry
"Now flourishing with fanes, and proud pyramidès,
Her walls in good repair, her ports so bravely built,
Her halls in good estate, her cross so richly gilt,
As scorning all the Towns that stand within her view."
Drayton, Polyolbion, xiii.
Time has brought many changes since old Drayton thus vaunted the stateliness of Coventry. The walls, the cross are gone, and of the twelve stately gates, but two remain. Gone, too, is the splendid conduit in the Cross Cheaping, S. Nicholas' Hall in the West Orchard, meeting-place of the Corpus Christi guild; and S. Nicholas' Church, out to the north beyond Bishop Street, which fell to ruin soon after the Reformation. But the "proud pyramidès," the "three spires," remain yet, and give greeting to all who approach Coventry, dominating the flat midland country for many a mile, changing their relative position as the spectator moves, and their colour in the shifting lights. Highest and fairest of all—so "the Archangel," says Fuller, "eclipseth the Trinity,"—is the nine-storied belfry of S. Michael's, tower, octagon and spire, a wonderful example of symbolism of design and harmonious disposal of ornament. The tower, begun in 1373, was the gift—says tradition—of the men of the Botoner family, the spire of its women, not the least among the many noteworthy achievements that in Coventry history are linked with a woman's name.
