The place remained garrisoned till the end of the year 1659, but, when the Restoration was voted by Parliament, Charles II. was promptly proclaimed by the mayor and aldermen, amidst great acclamations of joy. Drums were beaten, trumpets sounded, and the different companies of infantry fired several vollies on the occasion. A deputation shortly waited on his majesty, and presented a bason and ewer, with fifty pieces of gold; at the same time surrendering to him all the king's lands, with the great park. On the day of coronation Smithford Street and Cross-Cheaping conduits ran claret; and bonfires were lighted in the evening, in testimony of loyalty.

King James II. was at Coventry in 1687. The streets through which he passed were strewed with sand; and the fronts of the houses were whitened, and dressed with green boughs. "George, Lord Dartmouth, attended the king on this occasion; and when his majesty was presented with a gold cup and cover, he immediately gave it to Lord Dartmouth, saying, I would have your lordship receive this cup and cover as a mark of the city of Coventry's concern for your father.' During the time of the civil wars it appears that Colonel W. Legge (his lordship's father,) was confined in Coventry gaol, after being taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester; he, at length, made his escape, through the exertions of his lady, in the habit of an old woman."* How differently would Charles II. have received this present from the city!

The Ecclesiastical History of Coventry, as connected with the bishopric, requires separate notice. Shortly after the Mercian kingdom was divided into five bishoprics, that of Lichfield was so far extended as to comprehend the chief part of the former possessions of the Cornavii. Peter, elected bishop of Lichfield in 1075, moved the see to Chester; and Robert de Limesie, in 1102, removed it again to Coventry, tempted, probably, by the riches and reputation of the monastery founded by Earl Leofric. The five succeeding bishops likewise sat at Coventry; and the whole

Collections, &c. p. 84.

whole of these six prelates styled themselves Coventriæ Episcopi only. Hugh Novant, archdeacon of Oxford, consecrated bishop in 1188, restored the see to Lichfield, though with much opposition from the Benedictine monks of Coventry, who had gained an accession of repute from the bishop's residence, without forfeiting their particular influence; for although their superior lost the name of abbot, and became, as prior, only substitute to the bishop, in whom the abbacy really was vested, he yet remained, like his predecessors the abbots, a baron of parliament. The farther injuries committed by this prelate to the Benedictine monastery will be seen when that religious foundation comes under more immediate notice. In consequence of disputes which now took place between the Chapter of Coventry and that of Lichfield respecting elections, both parties agreed, in the reign of Henry III. to the following regulations: that the bishop should be elected both from Coventry and Lichfield; that the precedence in the episcopal title should be given to the former city; that the two chapters should alternately choose their bishop; and that they should form one body, in which the prior of Coventry should be the principal. From this time, until a period comparatively recent, the prelate was styled bishop of Coventry and Lichfield; and these regulations remained in force till that great era in ecclesiastical concerns, the dissolution of monastic houses. In the 33d of Henry VIII, an act was passed which ordained "that the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield should be for ever the entire and sole chapter of the bishopric of Coventry and Lichfield; whereof the prior and convent of the dissolved priory of Coventry were heretofore the moiety, or halfpart." Such remains the constitution of the bishopric at the present day; but when, on the restoration, the truly excellent Hacket was appointed to this see, he gave the precedence in titular designation to Lichfield, and his example has been followed by succeeding prelates.

*

The

To which change he was induced by the different parts taken by the the

The diocese of Lichfield and Coventry comprehends five hun dred and fifty-seven parishes, of which two hundred and fifty are impropriate; and it extends over the whole of Staffordshire, except the parishes of Brome and Cient; the county of Derby, the greater part of Warwickshire, and nearly the half of Shropshire. This bishopric is valued in the king's books at 5591. 18s. 24d.* The tenths of the clergy amount to 5901. 16s. 11d. According to the charter of the 14th of Charles I. the bishop is to act as a justice of the peace within the town and liberties of Salop.

The CITY of COVENTRY is ninety-one miles from the metropolis, on the N. N. W. and is distaut from Birmingham eighteen miles, and from Warwick ten.-"The town of Coventrye," writes Leland, describing the appearance of the place in the reign of Henry VIII." by west is set on a low ground, but by east it somewhat condescendeth. It was begun to be wallid t. Edward II. and has six gates, and many fair towers. It is but a late ago since the walls were finished. There be many fair streets, well builded with timber. There be divers fair suburbs without the walls. The king hath a palace there, now somewhat

in

two cities in the civil war. Dr. Hacket was one of the most firm and disinterested among those who steadily adhered, in these trying times, to the ehurch and the king. His conduct when exalted to the mitre was equally exemplary. He lies buried beneath a raised tomb, ornamented with his recumbent effigies, in Lichfield cathedral; and several anecdotes concerning him will be found under the article Lichfield, in the "Beauties" for Staffordabire.

* In the Collection towards the History and Antiquities of Coventry, the rents and revenues of the bishopric during several periods are stated as follow:

in ruin. The town rose by making of cloth and cappes; which, now decaying, the glory of the city also decayeth."

The chief parts of Coventry are seated on gently elevated ground and the city is watered by the Radford and Sherbourn brooks. The view of a town to the approaching traveller usually rests for interest on some few prominent features; on a few public buildings which rise superior to the mass of habitations, and direct the attention to eras of important story, by displaying the architecture of ages in which the place has conspicuously flou rished. Coventry is fortunate in this particular. It has three spires, (one of pre-eminent beauty, and the others deficient in attraction only from a comparison with St. Michael's,) which rise high in the air, and prepare the examiner for an entrance to a place of great population and striking architectural importance. But the traveller's expectations are not altogether gratified as he advances, and takes, in a cursory manner, a nearer view. The approaches are uniformly mean and bad; and, on entering the city, a person accustomed to contemplate the improved buildings of recent periods, looks in vain for the affluence of domestic archi, tecture which he has been induced to anticipate. The streets are very narrow, and the foot-ways are formed of sharp pebbly stones, which remind the passenger of days in which it was a penance of severe infliction for an offender to walk a furlong with his feet unguarded. In scarcely any instance do we recognize, on a large scale, the hand of modern improvement, or see the progress of such steps of internal accommodation as are now usual in places of much less real wealth and importance. Coventry has been peculiarly fortunate (for so it must needs be termed,) in escaping conflagration. There has not been any fire of an extensive spread since the oldest house now standing was erected.*. In consequence, it presents the aspect of a city of the sixteenth century;

The only instance of a serious alarm from fire is thus recorded ;—" In 1553, a fire broke out in four parts of this city; the common bell rang, which amazed the inhabitants so much that they knew not what they did; watch and ward was kept night and day, but no harm ensued."

century; the upper parts of the houses project, as was customary in ages when a free circulation of air formed no part of the builder's calculations; the streets are merely of the width that was judged necessary when the transit of carriages was slow and of rare occurrence :—and the eye accustomed to modern amplitude of dimensions is not agreeably surprised at the view.

But the circumstance that tends to the displeasure of the ordinary examiner, affords a harvest of high gratification to the lover of domestic architectural antiquities. Honses replete with the venerable traces of the fifteenth century are yet standing in seve→ ral divisions; the freshness of complexion only injured by age, and the main works still firm in massy, and almost impregnable, oak. A person imbued with such a taste must derive true pleasure from a perambulation of this city. The specimens of the style prevailing in different eras are strongly marked, and of the most gratifying description. To some are attached circumstances of local story, which add to their interest; and others possess peculiarities of construction well worthy of the antiquary's notice. In many instances, where the front has experienced alteration, the interior still remains untouched; and the costly character of the carved embellishments here to be seen, explain, without the trouble of appeal to record, the prosperity of the place during the reign of the latter Henries.

The city is viewed to much advantage from the north-east. The whole of its churches stand here disclosed with great pictorial effect. St. Michael's, beautiful and attractive when seen from any point, forms the prominent feature. Its sister-spire (that of Trinity church,) rises modestly beyond, as if retiring in confessed secondariness of pretensions. The tower of St. John's, and the steeple of the Grey-Friars, ascend on either hand, and complete the display. The spot from which the two steeples that so eminently ornament Coventry are seen with the most striking effect, is in the neighbourhood of the now desolated priory, on the margin of Priory-Mill Dam. This view conveys in so satisfactory a manner an idea of the architectural beauty of the two