[1] Northall, Eng. Folk Rhymes, 403.
[2] Mayor-list or MS. Annals (eighteenth century) in the possession of Mr Eynon of Leamington.
[3] Morris, S. John's Church.
Leofric and Godiva
It was ever the boast of Coventry men that their city was of "much fame and antiquity,"[4] being "remembered," so John Throgmorton, the recorder, assured Queen Elizabeth, "by Polydore Vergil to be of ... small account in the time of King Arviragus (which was forty-four years after our Saviour) in the Emperor Claudius' time."[5] And Shakespeare's contemporary, Michael Drayton, had a pretty fancy of his own concerning the place,[6] whereby its antiquity is made manifest. He tells us how, when Coventry was but "a poor thatched village," the saint of Cologne brought thither
"That goodly virgin-band
Th' eleven thousand maids chaste Ursula's command,"
who at departing,