COVENTRY, an ancient city and municipal and parliamentary borough of England, county of Warwick, 18 miles E.S.E. of Birmingham. By charter of Henry VI. it was with certain adjacent villages constituted a separate county; but an act of parliament in 1842 incorporated it with the county of Warwick. It takes its name (Conventre, i.e. convent town) from a priory founded there in 1044 by Earl Leofric and his wife Lady Godiva. The city stands on a gentle eminence, and is watered by the Sherbourne and the brook Radford, which unite within the town. The old streets are generally narrow and darkened by high houses on either side, but the modern parts of the town and suburbs are better planned. The principal buildings are the churches, the spires of which from a distance have a most imposing effect. The chief of these is St Michael's church, one of the finest specimens of lighter Gothic in England, with a beautiful steeple 303 feet in height. The Holy Trinity church is a cruciform structure in the later English style, with a steeple 237 feet high, and containing the tomb of P. Holland, the translator of Camden's Britannia and other works. St John's church is a plain cruciform edifice founded in the reign of Edward III.; and attached to Christ church is the spire of an ancient monastery. St Mary's hall is a venerable building of the fif-
teenth century, the principal room of which is 63 feet by 30, with a grotesquely carved roof, and a great painted window facing the street. It is ornamented with portraits, inscriptions, coats of arms, and a curious piece of tapestry made in 1450, and measuring 30 feet by 10. A fine market cross 57 feet in height, with eighteen niches filled with statues, erected in 1554, was taken down in 1771. Among the other buildings may be mentioned the county hall, "mayor parlour," drapers' hall, jail, cavalry barracks. There are also a theatre, dispensary, mechanics' institute, public library, savings-bank, free grammar-school with five exhibitions three fellowships and one scholarship, several other schools, hospitals, and charities. Pop. (1851) 36,812. It returns two members to parliament, and is governed by a mayor, twelve aldermen, and thirty-six councillors. Registered electors (1851-2) 4502. Coventry was early celebrated for its manufactures. About the commencement of the fifteenth century woollen cloths, caps, and bonnets were considerable articles of trade, and woollens, broad cloths, and caps were its staple manufactures till the destruction of the Turkey trade near the close of the seventeenth century. In the early part of the sixteenth century it became famous for the manufacture of blue thread, called "Coventry true blue;" and during a part of the last century the manufacture of tammies, camlets, shalloons, and calimancoes was flourishing, but it now no longer exists. Its staple manufactures at present are silk, ribbons, and watches. According to the census of 1851, 9761 males were twenty years of age and upwards, and of these 1104 were watchmakers, 1233 in the silk, and 1895 in the ribbon manufacture. Coventry was in former times defended by walls and towers, but these were destroyed by Charles II. on account of the active part taken by the citizens in the parliamentary cause. Three gates and part of the walls still remain. The procession of Lady Godiva, who is said to have obtained important privileges to the city from her husband, Earl Leofric, by riding naked through the town, still takes place annually on Trinity Friday. "Peeping Tom" is said to have been an inquisitive tailor who was struck blind for looking out at her ladyship as she passed; and his effigy is still to be seen protruded from an upper window in High Street. The phrase "to send to Coventry" seems to have originated with military men who at one time were kept at a distance by the inhabitants.