To begin with the Chapel of Our Lady, the earliest mention we have of it is in 1364 while in 1392 the Corpus Christi Gild endowed a priest there to sing mass for the good estate of Richard II, Anne his queen, and the whole realm of England, to be called St. Mary's priest. The indenture sets forth that "he is to be at Divine service on Sundays and double Feasts in the chancel and at Matins, Hours, Masses, Evensong, Compline and other offices used in the said church and also daily at Salve in our Lady's Chapel unless hindered by reasonable cause." The records of the Dissolution of the Chantries show how much town property must have been held by them, while from these and other sources we learn the extent of their belongings in tenements, messuages, rent charges and the like. Thus in 1454 Emot Dowte gave several tenements to this altar and in 1492 Richard Clyff "late parson of St. George in London," left a house in Well St. to the church "to the intent that the mass of Our Lady may be observed the better." In 1558 (the year of Elizabeth's accession) William Hyndeman, alderman and butcher, directs that his body be buried in the Lady Chapel "as aldermen are wont to be buried, towards the charges whereof I give twenty nobles to be levied of my quick cattle and if it be too little then I will that Sybil my wife shall lay down 20s. more." He also orders an obit to be kept after the death of his wife "yearly for ever;" a form of words that must surely have sounded unreal after the changes of the last two reigns.

Perceye's chantry again, which Dugdale considered the oldest (though he does not give the date) was endowed in 1350 with six messuages, one shop, six acres of land and 40s. rent, all lying in Coventry, to which in 1407 William Botoner and others, added a messuage and twenty-four acres of land in the city for another priest.

Then the chantry of the Holy Cross (1357) founded for two priests to sing daily a mass for the good estate before death and for the souls after of the royal family, and for the founders and the members of the Fraternity of the Holy Cross, was endowed with seven messuages, fourteen shops and sixteen acres of land in the city.

Dugdale enumerates also four others, Cellet's, Corpus Christi, Lodynton's and Allesley's, to which should probably be added Marler's, assigned by him to St. Michael's. The first two are doubtless the same foundation, for in 1329 land and tenements were granted to the priest of Corpus Christi Chapel for the health of the soul of William Celet and others.

It was almost certainly situated in the south transept, on the upper level over the vaulted passage. The position of Lodynton's chantry (1393) is not known; Allesley's, founded in the reign of Edward I, was sung at St. Thomas's altar.

Richard Marler stipulates in his will that his priest is to have the "stypend or wagis of nyne marks by yere so long as he shall be of good and prestly conversacyon and demeanor, wt' a p'vyso that yf the seyde prest be ffounde otherwyse, after monyc'on and reasonable warnyng to hym geven, he to be removed."

Much of the later history of the church relates to the destruction of its fittings and furniture or to restorations almost as grievous. In 1560 2s. 6d. was paid for taking down the carving about the high altar, while the Mayor bought the panelling of the altar for 33s. 4d., the vail for 5s., the "thing that the sacrament was in over the altar 1s.," the "peyre [pair of candlesticks?] that was upon the altar 5d." Perhaps he thought that all these things would be wanted again ere long. In 1547 a quantity of costly vestments and banners had been sold and we find in the accounts a number of such items as these: "Sold the 6 day of Jennery 5 copps of red teyssew to Mr. Roghers, now mayre (and 4 other persons) pryce of the sayd copps, 10l. To Bawden Desseld one cope of red velvet, 5l. Mr. Schewyll a grene velvet cope, 30s."

But before Mary's death we have a lengthy inventory of copes, vestments, albs, banners and the like, some of which may have come back to the church from the buyers at the sale eleven years before.

The church must have looked like a builder's yard in 1643 when the Committee and Council of War pulled down divers houses outside Bishop's and Spon Gates and stacked the materials here, while the changes of government are indicated by the payment in 1647 of 3s. 6d. "to Hopes for defacing the King's Arms" and in 1660 of 6s. to "Hope for the King's Arms."

Five years after this the spire, which had caused much anxiety and expense for many years, was blown down in a gale, falling across the chancel and causing much destruction. All was restored and the spire rebuilt in three years. Reference has been made to the existence of a vaulted passage through the south transept. This was made necessary by the position of an ancient building known as Jesus Hall which adjoined the transept and thus blocked the way from "the Butchery" in this direction. The Hall had probably been long used as the residence of the priests attached to the church but nothing is known of its origin. It was destroyed in 1742. Only in 1834, when the exterior of the church was recased was the passage blocked and the floor of the upper chapel removed.

The Register records the marriage of Sarah Kemble with William Siddons on 25th November, 1773.



CHAPTER II

THE EXTERIOR OF THE CHURCH

The church of Holy Trinity loses much, in popular estimation at least, by its nearness to St. Michael's. It invites comparison of the most obvious sort. It is not nearly so large and its spire is not so high, these facts alone are sufficient to account for the popular view. Fuller, in his "Worthies" says of the two churches, "How clearly would they have shined if set at competent distance! Whereas now, such their Vicinity, that the Archangel eclipseth the Trinity."

The plan is quite unlike that of its neighbour, being cruciform, with a central tower, a short nave, and a chancel distinctly longer than the nave. On the south both nave and chancel have a single aisle, the transept projecting beyond it and there is a vestry at the east end. On the north there is a similar aisle with a Lady Chapel at the east corresponding to the Vestry, but a large porch and several chapels fill up the spaces so that the transept does not in plan project.

Looking at the exterior as a whole it may be said that the more moderate length (194 feet), the central spire, 230 feet high, and the transepts unite in forming a more satisfactory composition than the long body and immense western steeple of St. Michael's. There however, the superiority ceases for the frequent "recasings" and restorations have left hardly a stone of the exterior that has not been renewed again and again, and the dates of these operations, 1786, 1826, 1843, sufficiently suggest the degree of knowledge and feeling likely to be manifested in the work.

Probably most of the structure was first built of the same friable red sandstone as its greater neighbour. Much of the recasing has been executed in a rather harder gray sandstone, but the tower and spire are still red.

The tower above the roofs, is of two stages, the upper, or bell chamber, and the lower or lantern opening into the church. Below this are small windows with the lines of the old high-pitched roof visible above the present transept roofs, but in the nave and chancel the lines of the old roofs are now within the church, the clearstory having since been added. Each face of the tower is divided, apart from the narrow angle buttresses, into six vertical divisions separated by thin projections of buttress form. On the south and west the stair turret absorbs one of the outer divisions. Each division is curved in plan in a curious way, which may be the perpetuation of a feature of the original design, but was more probably introduced or modified by the person who recased the tower in 1826. That there was sculpture we know, for in 1709 ten shillings was paid for taking the images down from the steeple. The smallness of the sum indicates that they were few in number, and if they occupied similar positions to those on the belfry stage of St. Michael's, and the structure was as decayed as was the tower of that church it is probable that the cutting away of the niches may have suggested the curving of the surfaces especially as the tower would be thereby lightened. As it is we cannot be certain of much else than that there were vertical divisions serving to emphasize the impression of height and that the openings were in the same positions as now.



The spire blown down in 1665 had been in the previous ninety years five times repaired and repointed. We cannot now say whether the original design was at all closely followed in the rebuilding, but its present likeness to St. Michael's suggests doubts. The lowest stage which takes the place of the octagon and may be an intentional imitation of it, has almost upright sides with two-light windows on the cardinal faces and panelled ones on the oblique sides, while the remaining stages correspond in number and partly in design with those of St. Michael's.

In 1855 it was considered that the bells endangered the safety of the tower, and after recasting by Mears of London they were rehung in a timber campanile in the north churchyard. Even now they cannot be pealed.

The deplorable refacings have left few features of interest on the outside. Were Gothic architecture still a living and not merely imitative and academic art, one would welcome a complete renewal of all outside work—not an imagined harking back to the work of the fifteenth century but showing the lapse of the centuries from the fifteenth to the twentieth as clearly as does the north porch the change from the thirteenth to the fifteenth.



CHAPTER III

THE INTERIOR

It is with a feeling of expectation followed by one of relief that we pass within the church, for restoration has there rarely the same excuse for its devastations as the action of wind and weather on the exterior too generously gives it, and this church is no exception to the general rule.

The clearing away of galleries, the provision of new seating and the renewal of much window tracery have been the principal changes, the greatest loss being the destruction of the Corpus Christi Chapel. The nave is of moderate width and consists of only four bays, the eastern arches being narrower and made to abut against the tower after the manner of flying buttresses. The columns are clusters of four large filleted shafts separated by small ones while the bases are high and evidently meant to be seen above the benches. The caps are shallow and very simple, while the shafts of each pier reappear as part of the arch moulding.

The arcade as a whole is remarkably strong and dignified, it would perhaps have gained by the addition of a bay in length. In the absence of precise records it may be assigned to the second quarter of the fourteenth century or a little later. Above the tower arch can still be seen, beneath the painting and plaster, the marks of the older steep roof. The nave of Stratford-on-Avon Church has points of resemblance to this. There too we have a fourteenth-century arcade (but much simpler) with a fifteenth-century panelled wall and clearstory above, and the panelling comes down on to the backs of the arches in a similar though somewhat simpler manner.

Owing to the inequality of the eastern arches there is, in the position of the windows and roof principals a curious disregard of the lines of the piers and the centres of arches. There are eight equal bays in the roof and each corresponds to two two-light windows. It is interesting to compare the design of this clearstory with that of St. Michael's. It has more solidity to accord with the more vigorous arcade though the treatment of the panelling is similar. The height from the arch to the roof is much less in proportion, but the sills of the windows are kept lower and the heads are square. The form of the windows is perhaps determined in part by the desire for more space for stained glass, but it is also the logical outcome of the space afforded by the level lines of a wooden roof just as the use of the pointed window follows from the use of pointed vaulting. The treatment of the angles after the manner of the thirteenth century "shouldered" lintel in order to take off the harshness of the rectangular form and to give a better bearing for the lintels is noteworthy and should be compared with the more developed forms at St. John's Church.

Above the tower arch is a painting of the Last Judgement, discovered in 1831. It is now so much darkened that very little can be made out. The following is a description of its appearance before 1860: In the centre is the Saviour clothed in crimson and seated on a rainbow. Below are the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist with the twelve Apostles arranged on each hand. Two angels sound the summons to Judgement, and on the right of our Saviour, steps lead to a portico over which three angels look down on the scene and others welcome a pope who has just passed St. Peter. On the Saviour's left are doomed spirits being conveyed by devils in various ways and in ludicrous attitudes to the place of torment, represented in the usual manner by the gaping mouth of a monster, vomiting flames of fire. A large painting of a crucifix, with a priest kneeling beside it and angels flying above, was discovered at the same time on the north side of the Chancel but was too much mutilated to be thought worthy of preservation.

The roofs throughout are of low pitch, and almost all resemble one another in design. Those of the nave, chancel, archdeacon's chapel (on the west of the north porch) and transepts are divided by their principal timbers into large panels, which are again subdivided by mouldings upon the boarded ceiling. At all angles and intersections there are carved leaves, and stars in relief adorn each panel. All these roofs are painted in accordance, it is said, with existing indications of the original colouring. The ground is blue, the mouldings red and white, the stars and carving are gilt. The nave roof spandrels, above the tie-beams, have large painted figures of angels, supporting between them shields emblazoned with the instruments of the Passion. These are also said to be reproductions, but it appears likely that time had left much to the imagination of their restorer.



Nevertheless, the whole effect of the roofs is harmonious, a result apparently obtained by the use of a blue far removed from the ultramarine tint too often employed.

Since the removal of the ringing floor, in 1855, the lantern stage of the tower has been once more visible from the church. A wooden vaulted ceiling was at the same time inserted where a stone one had originally been built or intended.

The chancel is dark owing to the small clearstory windows, the low outer north aisle, and the concealment of a south window by the organ. At the first pier east of the tower came the rood-screen, and on the south side (in the aisle) the door to it may be seen at a height above the floor. Access must have been by steep steps against the wall, or from the top of another screen across the aisle. The church accounts of the year 1560 tell us what it cost to remove:

Payd for taking down ye rode and Marie and John 4s. 4d. Payd to ye carpenter for pullyng down ye rode lofft 4s. 8d.

On the east side of the tower wall can be seen the line of the original roof, showing the height before the rebuilding in 1391. Although there is space for larger windows the aisle roof prevented their sills being brought lower. The west arch of the south arcade has been forced out of shape by the pressure of the tower piers and arches; certainly the piers, which are little more than 4 feet square, seem slender enough for the support of so lofty a steeple.

Attached to this south-east tower pier is the stone pulpit, one of the two special glories of the church, the other being the brass eagle. The pulpit is either contemporary with the pier or nearly so. There is apparently some difference in the texture and colour of the stone, but as it is probable that a finer-grained stone would be chosen for work of this character, this need not imply a difference of date. It was, however, probably added at the same time as the nave clearstory. The authors of "English Church Furniture" assign it to 1470.[7] Before 1833 (when restored by Rickman) it had been hidden from sight by wood-work and a clerk's desk at a lower level. The lower part is boldly corbelled out and the junction of the octagon with the pier shafts is well managed, but the upper open-panelled part is rather too definitely cut off from the lower by the battlemented cornice. Very few examples of this class of pulpit exist in England, and none equal in importance.

The eagle lectern is a magnificent example of brass casting. It is generally attributed to the late fifteenth century. This eagle narrowly escaped being sold by the Puritans for old brass, as happened to that of St. Michael's. It closely resembles one belonging to St. Nicholas' Chapel, Lynn, save that the latter is not equal in refinement of detail and proportion, and the bird is less vigorous in pose and modelling. In 1560 there was "paid for skowring ye Egle and candell styckes, 10d.," and "for mending of ye Egle's tayle, 16d."



At least nine chapels and fifteen altars are known to have existed in the church. The present choir vestry on the north side was the Lady Chapel. A simple piscina on the south side, about a foot above the present floor, shows that the old floor level was much lower.

The north aisle is lofty and has a clearstory of three windows over the arcade. In the outer aisle was located Marler's, or the Mercers', Chapel, founded in 1537, and beneath it is a crypt or charnel house, now closed save for small ventilating openings.



The black oak roof of low pitch has the panels of the western bay only richly carved with vine leaves and grapes. Its date is, perhaps, as late as the foundation of the chantry. The piscina is in the north wall.

West of the north transept is St. Thomas's Chapel. Dugdale says that Allesley's chantry was founded in the time of Edward I, at the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, "in a chapel near adjoining to the church porch." The chapel is certainly older, for the beautiful double doorway from the porch is not later than mid-thirteenth century. The outer doorway of the porch was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The inner one, with a finely moulded arch with angle shafts and the vault with simple diagonal ribs carried on shafts, is of the early thirteenth century. It is to be regretted that this fine porch is not better seen. Signs of the puzzling reconstructions that have occurred in this part are visible in the aisle wall. Two lancet windows high up are of the same date as the porch, and are blocked by the chamber since constructed above St. Thomas's Chapel, and parts of other window jambs are seen at different levels.

The Archdeacon's Chapel or consistory court, to the west of the porch, is now one of the most interesting parts of the church.

It is divided from the north aisle by two lofty arches with an octagonal column. The original dedication is not known, but in 1588 it was already used as an Ecclesiastical Court, and the next year a bishop's seat was made for use in it. In the south-west angle is a tall, narrow recess, once closed by a door. Lockers of this description were constructed for the safe keeping of the shaft of the processional cross, and for the staves of banners. On the east side the roof now cuts across the head of a window of reticulated tracery of the early fourteenth century. Most of the monuments have been brought hither from various parts of the church; only two or three are of general interest. A late Perpendicular canopied tomb, rudely carved and badly fitted together, stands against the north wall, but there is nothing to show whom it commemorates. On the east wall is the monument of Dr. Philemon Holland, with a long Latin epitaph. Fuller says of him: "he was the translator general in his age, so that those books alone of his turning into English will make a country gentleman a competent library for historians." Born at Chelmsford in 1551 he settled at Coventry in 1595, was usher and then master of St. John's Free School for twenty-eight years, and died in 1636 in his eighty-fifth year. During his usher-ship Dugdale was a pupil of the school.

An engraved brass to John Whithead, who died in 1597, is interesting for the sake of the costumes of himself and his two wives. Three stone coffins have also been deposited here, and two sheets of lead from the roof recording, in fine bold lettering, the repairs executed in 1660 and 1728. In the middle window on the north side are the only remaining fragments of ancient glass. As late as 1779 there were "portraits" of Earl Leofric and the Countess, and also, it is said, a smaller figure of the lady in a yellow dress on a white horse. Part of a small figure holding a spray of leaves and part of a galloping horse are pointed out as the remains of this. To the writer the figure appears to be clearly that of a man, and the horse and rider's leg not to have belonged to it.

The modern stained glass is very unequal in character, and some is very poor indeed. The windows at the west, especially one in memory of Mr. Wm. Chater, a late organist, may be regarded as exceptions. There are still, fortunately, many which are not filled with pious memorials.

The font is the original pre-Reformation one of the fifteenth century, which was removed by the Puritans in 1645 (though devoid of sculpture) and brought back after the Restoration. It stands on three steps, is panelled on bowl and stem, and rather brilliantly adorned with gold and colour.

The south aisle was no doubt divided into two chapels, that on the west belonging to the Barkers' or Tanners' Gild. A small piscina against the south wall indicates the position of its altar. The wall below the windows is recessed so as to form a seat the whole length of the aisle.

The south transept, containing the Corpus Christi and Cellet's chantries, has lost its original character completely. The piscina, high up on the south wall, shows that the floor level was some 9 feet above that of the church. The reason for this has been already explained. The organ chamber is quite modern. The best authorities place the chapel of the Butchers' Gild in the south aisle of the chancel, but do not say to whom the eastern chapel in the nave aisle belonged. It is known that there was a Jesus Chapel, and, in view of the proximity of Jesus Hall, it is believed by some that this was its position.

The present clergy vestry is a fine room, having an excellent dark oak roof with heavy beams and well carved bosses at the intersections of the timbers. The Royal Arms over the fireplace were painted there in 1632. Although usual, the placing of the king's arms in churches was not compulsory until the Restoration; few earlier now remain, and this placing of them in the vestry rather than the body of the church is suggestive of a compromise between opposing factions. A portrait of Walter Farquhar Hook, Vicar from 1828-37 and afterwards Dean of Chichester is hung here.

It seems probable that this was a chapel, perhaps that of the Holy Trinity, to whom an altar was dedicated.

The history, as traced in the church accounts, of the various organs used in the church gives some idea of the fluctuations of opinion as to the propriety of their use. In 1526 John Howe and John Climmowe, citizens and organ makers of London, contracted to provide, for L30, "a peir of Organs wt vij stopps, ov'r and besides the two Towers of cases, of the pitche of doble Eff, and wt xxvij pleyn keyes, xix musiks, xlvj cases of Tynn and xiiij cases of wood, wt two Starrs and the image of the Trinite on the topp of the sayed orgayns." In 1570 the "payer of balowes" were sold, and in 1583 the pipes, "wayeng eleven score and thirteen pounds, went for fourpence half-farthing the pound." In 1632 a new one was obtained but its life was short, for in 1641 the Puritan party caused it to be sold "for the best advantage."



Once more, in 1684, another was purchased from Mr. Robert Hay wood of the City of Bath for L100; then, in 1732, Thomas Swarbrick of Warwick built one for L600, for which a gallery was erected across the nave.

In 1855 this gave place to a new one by Foster and Andrews of Hull, costing L800; and this was rebuilt by Messrs. Hill and Son in 1900.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: "English Church Furniture." (Antiquary series.) J.C. Cox and A. Harvey.]



ST. JOHN BAPTIST'S CHURCH

The church of St. John Baptist has a history quite different from that of the other parish churches and is specially interesting as a building belonging to a very limited class, namely, Collegiate Churches owned by a Gild. Though Dugdale says that the "first and most antient of the Gilds here was founded in the 14th Ed. III (1340)" it is probable that, as in other places, religious gilds had for long existed here and that the royal license or Charter of this date was like that of Stratford-on-Avon in 1332, really a reconstitution or confirmation of the Gild's rights, privileges and possessions.

This earliest one was known as the Merchant or St. Mary's Gild and its first ordinances provided that "the brethren and sisteren of the gild shall find as many chaplains as the means of the gild can well afford." Then in 1342 that of St. John Baptist and in 1343 that of St. Katharine was founded. The former at once founded a chantry of six priests to sing mass daily in the churches of St. Michael and the Trinity for "the souls of the King's progenitors and for the good estate of the King, Queen Isabella his mother, Queen Philippa his Consort and their children" and others, besides the members of the Gild. In 1344 this Gild, desiring to have a building for its exclusive use, received from Queen Isabella a small piece of land called Babbelak on which to build a chapel in honour of God and St. John, two priests being required to sing masses daily for the souls "of her dear lord Edward," John, Earl of Cornwall and others. Did she seek to satisfy her conscience thus for the woes she had brought upon her dear lord? The site thus given measured 117 feet from north to south and about 40 feet from east to west giving room for the chancel only of the present church, this being dedicated in 1350. But in 1357 William Walsheman, valet to the Queen and now her sub-bailiff in Coventry gave further land, added a new aisle and increased the number of priests while the Black Prince in 1359 gave a small plot on which, perhaps, the tower and transept now stand. Within the next ten years Walsheman and Christiana his wife gave to the Gild certain tenements, called the "Drapery," in the city to build a chapel in honour of the Holy Trinity, St. Mary, St. John, and St. Katharine "within the Chapel of Bablake." William Wolfe, mayor in 1375, is mentioned as a "great helper" in the work at the church, the original nave and aisles being probably built at this time, and some reconstruction of the choir. Records are wanting of the subsequent alterations which gave it its present form. The north clearstory of the nave shows the original design while that of the choir and the south side of the nave belong to the fifteenth century as do the tower and the cruciform arrangement of the building. Leland's "Itinerary" gives the following description: "There is also a Collegiate Church at Bablake, hard within the West Gate (Spon Gate) alias Bablake Gate, dedicated to St. John.... It is of the foundation of the Burgesses and there is a great Privilege, Gild or Fraternity. In this College is now a Master and eight ministers and lately twelve ministers." Stowe adds that there were twelve singing men and extant deeds mention "Babbelake Hall" in which the warden and priests lived.

Many interesting entries of expenditure are to be found in the gild accounts showing how the Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve) and other festivals were celebrated before the suppression of the gilds by Edward VI. In 1541 we have the following (the spelling is somewhat modernized):

Expenses on Midsummer Even and on the day,—Item, 2 doz. & a half cakes, 2s. 6d.; spice cakes, 12d.; a cest' ale and 4 gals. 4s.; 2 gals, claret wine 16d.; 2 gals. malmsey, 2s. 8d.; 2 gals. muskedell 2s. 8d.; to Mr. Mayor 3s. 4d.; the Mayor to offer, 8d.; to priests, clerks and children, 2s. 4d.; the waits, 6s. 8d.; to poor people 6s. 8d.; to the cross-bearers and torch-bearers, 8d.; the bellman, 4d.; the hire of pots, 4d.; boughs, rushes and sweeping, 8d.; a woman 2 days to cleanse the house, 4d.; half a hundred 3d. nails, 11/2d.; half a pound of sugar, 41/2d.; to the crossbearer and torchbearer for St. George Day, Holy Rood Day, Shire Thursday and Whit Sunday, 12d.; to 2 children for the same days, 6d. Summa (total) 38s. 2d.

That these anniversaries and wakes led to much unseemly revelling we have evidence that cannot be gainsaid. The Trinity Gild decided in 1542

that no obite, drynkyng or com'en assemblie, from henceforth shall be had or used at Babalake, except onelie on Trinitie even and on the day, which shall be used as it hath been in tymes past. And that also the P'sts of Babelack shall say dirige on midsum' even and likewise masse of requiem on the morrowe, as they have used to doo. And that the Meire shall not come down thether to dirige ov(er) night for dyv's considerac'ons and other great busynes they used. And on the morowe thei to go thether to masse and brekefast, as thei have used to doo.

Dugdale quotes from an old MS. an interesting passage bearing on this question:

"And ye shall understond and know how the Evyns were furst found in old tyme. In the beginning of holi Chirche, it was so that the pepull cam to the Chirche with candellys brennyng and wold Wake and come with light toward nyght to the Chirch to their devocions; and afterwards they fell to lecherie and songs, daunces, harping, piping and also to glotony and sinne and so turned the holinesse to cursaydnesse; wherefore holi faders ordeined the pepull to leve that waking and to fast the Evyn. But it is called Vigilia, that is Waking in English and it is called the Evyn, for at Evyn they were wont to come to Chirche."

In 1362 Queen Isabella helped to procure from the bishop a licence for one Robert de Worthin, priest, to become an anchorite and to inhabit a hermitage attached to the north aisle of the chancel. Traces of the foundations of this have been found on the site of the modern vestry.

When the college was suppressed in 1548 the King granted to the mayor, bailiffs and corporation, on their petition, the church and its appurtenances in Free Burgage for ever on payment of 1d., per annum and gave them "all the rents, revenues and profits of the said church."

But these gifts were not sufficient to support the church and its services, so that the latter were irregular and repairs were neglected. In 1608 Mayor Hancox procured the delivery of a Saturday lecture "for the better fitting of the people for the Sabbath." In 1641 Simon Norton, alderman, left property to his son Thomas, on trust, the condition being that if at any time St. John's should become a parish church, he or his heirs should pay L13 6s. 8d. to the minister out of rents of lands in Coundon, and also the tithes of lands in Clifton.

Prisoners from the Scottish army being quartered on the city in 1647, many were confined in this church and wrought much damage and desecration. From this time services were only occasionally held, until 1734, when an Act of Parliament was obtained making it a Parish Church, appointing a district to it and enabling the Master and Usher of the Free Grammar School to be Rector and Lecturer of the church. The mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty were made patrons, but in 1835, these arrangements having failed to work satisfactorily, the patronage was transferred to trustees who acted as managers of the school and in 1864 the lectureship was abolished, the rectory was severed from the office of Head Master and the Trustees of the school were charged with a payment of L200 per annum towards the stipend of the Rector. In 1874 the advowson was sold to a private person. A great deal of restoration, justifiable and otherwise, has taken place, the decay of the local sandstone having made large repairs necessary. In 1861 much renewal of the external stone work was carried out. Unfortunately shortsighted ideas of economy led to the use of the same poor stone and much has recently had to be done over again, this time with the harder Runcorn stone used also at St. Michael's. The interior was restored in 1875, galleries erected in 1735 and 1838, and high pews were removed, the floor, which had been raised three feet, lowered, the lantern stage of the tower opened up by removing a ringing floor and a light iron gallery above the tower arches provided for the ringers. The original groined ceiling has thus been made visible from below.

THE EXTERIOR

Although small in area compared with the other churches, both exterior and interior give an impression of size and dignity which does not belong to many much larger buildings. In the exterior this is no doubt due to the pseudo-cruciform arrangement, the bold central tower and the height of the main roof, which would have appeared even greater had the roadways not been so much raised.

The tower is in two stages, a lofty lantern story having two transomed two-light windows on each face and a shorter upper one having smaller windows without transoms and a battlemented parapet. Large skeleton clock-dials disfigure the windows of this story. Narrow buttress strips on either side and between the windows run through and serve to connect the stories. The north-east angle has an octagonal stair turret carried up above the parapet. The other angles have narrow buttresses running up to circular bartizans boldly corbelled out from the battlements. This is an extremely unusual feature in ecclesiastical architecture but is common on fortified structures. Of the City gates, Gosford Gate had machicolated ones but not Spon Gate adjacent to the church.



The spacing of the windows and buttresses of the south aisle and the position of the large transept window show how the later changes were effected. The three windows and the buttresses with niches and canopies almost certainly belong to the part built by Walsheman after 1357. The two in the chancel aisle are recent insertions. The doorway at the south-west corner occupies the position where indications showed that an original door had existed. There is also a small priest's doorway of which the jambs are ancient. The clearstory was restored in 1861 "from sufficiently clear indications" in the remains of the original windows. The whole of this part is worthy of careful study and should be compared with the corresponding parts of Trinity Church. Everywhere we see signs of individual thought and design mainly directed to softening the rigidity of the horizontal lines of the square-headed and transomed "Perpendicular" windows. The method of cusping the drop-arch and the varied treatment of these in nave, choir and transepts are noteworthy while the little quatrefoil at the intersection of mullion and transom is a really happy innovation. The flying buttress over the south aisle restores a feature of the old building which had disappeared. Of the variously panelled and battlemented parapets, of nave, chancel and aisles a view of 1864 gives no visible hint. As the report of Sir (then Mr.) G.G. Scott in 1856 specifies as desirable the "renewing all the parapets according to the portions of the original which remain," we can only hope (but with no sense of certainty) that these parts are faithfully reproduced.

The limited site on which the chancel was built (only 40 feet deep) caused the builders to omit any buttresses or other projections at the east end. The east window was renewed in 1861 but the proportions are not good and it is said that one light was suppressed although the old sill remained intact.

The west end has a large six-light window with two transoms. It was restored in 1841 and is said to be a precise reproduction of the original design. On the gable above it is a large niched pinnacle which appears to be an "unauthorized" addition.

While the north aisle is later than the south, the clearstory, as has been said is earlier, being of late Decorated date with large three-light windows of reticulated tracery. The north transept is more consistent in style than the south. The large four-light window is peculiar in design. It has one transom and the tracery is brought down much below the spring of the arch. The centre mullion is very solid, coming forward almost to the wall face both inside and out and running up to the apex of the arch. The clearstory windows in both transepts are similar in general design to those of the south clearstory of the nave but with variations suggesting a rather later date. A very effective view of the north side can be had from the quadrangle of Bond's Hospital, though here too it loses on account of the depressed site in which it lies.

THE INTERIOR

The interior is not less impressive for its size than the exterior, Sir G.G. Scott even saying that he knew of no interior more beautiful than St. John's.



All at least will agree that there is something about it striking and dignified which is obviously not concerned with mere size, is largely independent of elaboration of detail and may therefore be safely attributed to its satisfactory proportions and broad effects of light and shade. Its plan is quite simple consisting of a nave and choir with north and south aisles, a transept not projecting beyond the aisles at either end and a central tower. Yet, although it is more or less oblong as a whole, there is hardly a right angle or two parallel walls throughout the church. In most cases these discrepancies are not apparent, nor do they appear likely to have been intended to produce a studied effect. Thus a diminution in width towards the east (as at Manchester) may be expected to add to the apparent length, but here the south aisles of both nave and chancel expand instead of contracting. By standing within either transept and looking up at the roof the want of parallelism of the walls and other irregularities are plainly seen. The nave has only three bays, the arches being rather lofty and the arch mouldings of the characteristic shallowness of the period. The south-west pier had to be rebuilt on account of settlement and there are signs of it in the south-east arch next the tower. The name Bablake is said to have been derived from a pond or conduit near by and the site may have been swampy, thus affecting the foundations. The district is even now liable to flooding from the Sherborne (or Shireburn) stream and as late as January 1900 the waters rose over five feet within the church as a brass plate at the west end testifies.

The graceful treatment of the windows of the nave and choir clearstories is shown in the illustration. Comparing these with the clearstory of Trinity nave (p. 71) questions of priority arise. If not designed by the same mind the influence of one on the other is easily seen. On the whole the greater rigidity of treatment and the anxiety to increase the area of glass in the Trinity windows suggest that the date is rather later and that the designs did not spring from the same brain. The roof is very simple, the curved brackets springing from the shafts which run down to the arches below. The wall is deeply recessed beneath the windows. The north windows, however, are continued down in plain panels, but this only makes more apparent the fact that they are not placed centrally over the arches.

The north aisle has a doorway and two north windows. The windows are of good Perpendicular design, and the mullions are continued down the wall below, forming panels. The lowered sill and recess probably formed a convenient retable to an altar against the wall. The west window preserves some fragments of glass dated 1532. There is an obliterated inscription and small etched figures—among them an acolyte carrying a cross, one of those whose services are mentioned in the accounts after this wise: "to the crosebeirer and torchebeirer, for Seynt George day, hollieroode day, shire thuresday and Whit Sunday, 12d.; to 2 childern for the same dayes 6d."

The south aisle of the nave, including the lower part of the transept, is doubtless the aisle erected for the Gild by William Walsheman in 1357. The two windows are not central with the nave arches, and the third is not in the centre of the transept. Their tracery is somewhat peculiar in design and refined in detail, and has the transitional character one would expect from its date. There are signs on the face of each western tower pier of the altars which once stood there, probably those of the Trinity and St. Katharine, which are known to have existed.

The eastern piers of the tower are later than the western, and very unlike them in plan. A bold and ingenious treatment of the vaulting shaft of the tower groining is used on these piers; on the western ones the shafts stop upon the ends of the hood moulding.

The choir is now closed by a screen carrying a large rood carved in oak. Like St. Michael's, but to a smaller extent, the axis of the choir inclines to the north. Whether symbolic, or only a part of what may be described as the studied irregularity of the whole building it is hard to say. The column on each side of the choir is later than the east respond and also later than the west tower pier, but corresponds with the east tower pier. The deep panelling beneath the windows must have been carried out when the clearstories were constructed in the fifteenth century.

The south aisle of the choir, the original chapel of the patron saint, is now fitted up and used as a morning chapel. The piscina still remains in the south wall, and there is a trace of the old altar visible on the wall.

The east end of the north aisle is now the organ chamber, and was originally the Lady Chapel. The base of the altar still exists, and so does the piscina in the south wall.

In connection with these or other altars we hear of a payment of 22d., in 1474, for painting a cloth for the image of St. John Baptist, and in 1462 sums of 40s. and 7s. were paid to a sculptor of Burton-on-Trent for an alabaster statue of the Virgin and a base for it.

At the foot of the south-west tower-pier are some decayed but interesting ancient tiles. The new ones have been copied from them.

The vicissitudes in the church's fortunes have left little for us to see that is not part and parcel of the structure.

That there were "orgaynes" as early as 1461 we know from entries in the city records giving the cost at different times of wire, glue, nails, thread, etc., for the reparation of them, while a payment of 2d. for "a string" suggests that they were a combination of wind and string stops, similar to the 1733 organ of St. Michael's as built by Thomas Swarbrick. In 1519 the Prior bought the "metell of ye old orgayns in bablake" for 9s. 10d., but doubtless the new one disappeared in the troublous times that followed. A new one has recently been set up.

The pulpit is of stone and quite new, and the font, erected in 1843, is a copy of that of St. Edward's, Cambridge.

There are five bells, the inscriptions on them being as follows:

1st. Henrycus Bagley. M.C. Fecit 1676. 2nd. Pack & Chapman. London 1778. Richard Eaton, Church-warden. 3rd. Henric Dodenhale, Fecit. M.C.E.I.C.R.I. 4th. (Illegible.) Probably of the end of fifteenth century. 5th. I ring at six to let men know When to and from their work to go.

Neglect and decay it has been seen had provided only too plausible excuses for restoration. In 1858 the church had a narrow escape from a worse fate, for it was proposed to extend it in some direction, and the architect suggested the lengthening of the north transept and the addition of a new north aisle. Probably lack of funds alone prevented the carrying out of a proposal which would have completely spoilt the proportions of this beautiful interior.



THE GREY FRIARS' CONVENT

CHRIST CHURCH

The third of the "three tall spires," albeit nothing else remains of the church to which it belonged, deserves that some notice should be given of it and of the men who reared it.

In 1234, eleven years after their first coming into England, the Franciscan Friars are heard of at Coventry, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, having granted them land for their oratory, and the Sheriff of Warwickshire, on behalf of the King, giving them shingles from the woods of Kenilworth wherewith to cover it. In 1359 the Black Prince, then owner of the Manor and Park of Cheylesmore, just outside the walls of the city and adjacent to their convent, granted them so much stone from his quarry there, "as they should have occasion to use about their buildings and walls," and probably at this time the church, of which Christ Church spire is a remnant, was built.

At the same time he gave them "liberty to have a postern into the Park to carry out any of their convent that should be diseased."

The house was surrendered to the King in 1539, the warden and ten brethren being compelled to sign a humiliating document, in which they professed to "profoundly consider that the perfection of Christian living doth not consist in dumb ceremonies, wearing of a grey coat, disguising ourself after strange fashions, ducking, nodding and becking, in girding our selves with a girdle full of knots and other like Papisticall ceremonies."



It is certain at least that they had no accumulated wealth. Whatever they had received had been distributed for the advantage of the Church or the poor. At their suppression they had neither lands, tenements, nor other possessions, save their church and house and the land these stood on. The site was granted to the city and the buildings thrown down, only the spire with its supporting walls and arches being allowed to stand until 1829, when it was incorporated with the new nave of Christ Church from the designs of Rickman, to whom we are indebted for the first comprehensive and systematic account of English Mediaeval architecture. The work shows how imperfectly in those days even a genuine admirer of Mediaeval Art understood its spirit. Unfortunately the tower and spire were recased with new stone, and the original character of the work largely disappeared. The total height is 204 feet, exclusive of the vane. The plan of the old church was interesting, especially in the arrangement of the crossing. The short transepts had little real relation to choir or nave, which were almost completely separated from one another, the nave being intended for the use of the public.

The narrowing of the tower from east to west, and the insertion of secondary north and south arches to carry the slender octagonal tower is unusual and ingenious. The whole length was 250 feet, and the transepts were 96 feet from north to south. The nave and choir differed little in length.



The connection of the Franciscans with the production of the Mysteries, or sacred plays, should not pass unnoticed. Dugdale, who had spoken with eye witnesses, thus alludes to the subject:

Before the suppression of the Monasteries this City was very famous for the Pageants that were played therein upon Corpus Christi-day; which occasioning very great confluence of people thither from far and near, was of no small benefit thereto; which Pageants being acted with mighty State and Reverence by the Friars of this House, had Theatres for the several scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheels and drawn to all the eminent parts of the City for the better advantage of spectators; and contained the story of the Old and New Testament, composed in the old English Rithme, as appeareth by an ancient MS. intituled, Ludus Corporis Christi, or Ludus Coventriae.

Along with a number that were performed by the city companies they are still to be seen in the British Museum. We know that the Friars presented them as late as 1492, when Henry VII was present with his Queen to see the plays "acted by the Grey Friars."

No remains exist of the domestic buildings of the Friary. The well-known Ford's Hospital hard by is often called Grey Friars' Hospital, but this arises merely from the situation. It was founded in 1529 by Mr. William Ford of Coventry, Merchant of the Staple, for five men and one woman, but is now inhabited by women only. It is an exceptionally beautiful example of Tudor timber construction in perfect condition.



THE WHITE FRIARS

The Carmelite or White Friars were, says Dugdale, fixed in Coventry in 1343 by Sir John Poultney who had been four times Lord Mayor of London. Although their buildings were ornate and extensive, their revenue apart from oblations amounted to only L3 6s. 8d. per annum and the whole came to less than L8. At the Dissolution the house and its revenues came eventually to John Hales, Clerk of the Hanaper to Henry VIII. Having amassed a great estate in monastery and chantry lands, Hales founded the Free School in Coventry, the Church of the White Friars being at first used for the purpose. Later, he made of the Friary a dwelling and removed the school to St. John's Hospital, granted to him by the king in 1545. Part of the church of the Hospital still exists at the foot of Bishop Street, but the school has been removed to new buildings in the Warwick Road.

Of the buildings of the White Friars there are considerable remains incorporated with the Union Workhouse at the top of Much Park Street. The east walk of the cloister, 150 feet in length, has a fine groined roof of the fifteenth century. A range of vaulted apartments runs alongside the cloister on the east side, divided midway by the vestibule to the Chapter House now destroyed. The upper story above the cloister and the range of rooms was, we may assume, the friars' Dormitory. A huge fireplace and a bay window are part of John Hales' reconstruction. The gateway to the south-west corner of the cloister remains, and the outer gate of the precincts may still be seen in Much Park Street.



ST. MARY HALL

The Gilds were so important a part of the religious and social life of the city that it is imperative that some notice of their hall, which stands in suggestive proximity to the churches, should be given. St. Mary Hall, opposite the south side of St. Michael's is one of the most complete and beautiful examples of a fifteenth-century town dwelling now remaining in England. It originally belonged to the Gilds of Holy Trinity and Our Lady to which were united at a later time those of St. Katharine and St. John Baptist, the oldest to be founded. By the fine groined gateway we enter the courtyard, on the south side of which is the kitchen, probably the hall of an older structure of the first half of the fourteenth century, the present hall and its undercroft on the west side having been built between 1394 and 1414. On the east side is the entrance to the staircase leading to a gallery from which the hall is entered. At this end is the Minstrels' Gallery and beneath it are three doorways, the centre one leading to the kitchens below, that on the right to the old Council Chamber, that on the left to a smaller room known as the Princes' Chamber. From the Council Chamber is reached the stone-groined Treasury, now used for the safe keeping of muniments and records. It forms the first floor of a low tower.

The hall, 70 feet by 30 feet, is of five bays, with the usual dais and oriel window at the far end from the entrance.



The nine-light window over the dais has its original glass, made, it is believed, by the John Thornton of Coventry who is known as the maker of the east window of York Minster. The upper part has numerous coats of arms of kings, cities, and princes, while the nine lights are filled with "portraitures of several kings in their surcotes," William I, Richard I, Henry III, IV, V, VI, King Arthur, the Emperor Constantine, and another unnamed. The windows on either side of the hall have suffered grievously. Those on the west (left) were deprived of their heraldry and portraits in 1785. In those on the east new glass with poor imitations of the ancient series of figures and coats-of-arms was placed in 1824. At the same time the wainscotting painted in 1580 with inscriptions and heraldry was cleared away and replaced with cement. The inscriptions were copied with care, but "the ornamentation was followed without any very fastidious copying of the uncouth ancient style"![8] The timber roof is of low pitch, with traceried spandrels above the tie-beams. Angels playing on a variety of instruments are placed at the centre of each tie-beam and there is much good carving of foliage and animals at the intersections of the timbers. The most famous adornment of the hall is the tapestry behind the dais. The following views as to its origin and subject are those of George Scharf the antiquary. It is of Flemish design but probably of English manufacture, is woven, not embroidered, and was made in the early sixteenth century for the place it occupies, its compartments corresponding with those of the window. It is in six compartments in two rows. The upper central has a figure of Justice, an insertion probably in the place of Christ, angels with the instruments of the Passion being on either side. The lower central represents the Assumption of the Virgin in presence of the apostles. The upper left in order from the centre has eleven saints, SS. John Baptist, Matthias (?), Paul, Adrian, Peter, George, Andrew, No. 8(?), Bartholomew, Simon, Thaddeus. The corresponding female saints on the right are SS. Katherine, Barbara, Dorothy, Mary Magdalen, No. 5 (?), Margaret, Agnes, Gertrude of Nivelle, Anne, Apollonia.

The lower left has a king kneeling at a prie-dieu on which is his crown and an open book. A cardinal kneels behind him but there is no other ecclesiastic among the seventeen courtiers standing behind. In the opposite compartment is a queen kneeling with a number of ladies, among whom are two in monastic dress. Although the work belongs to the reign of Henry VII, the king and queen are almost certainly Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou.

On the walls are portraits of later sovereigns from William III to George IV, that of George III being by Lawrence. The Mayoress' Parlour opening from the dais has been drastically restored. It contains portraits of Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, and four benefactors to the city, John Hales, founder of the Free School, Sir Thomas White, Thomas Jesson and Christopher Davenport.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 8: "Coventry: its History and Antiquities," B. Poole, 1870.]



THE CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY

Little remains of this monastery which stood on the south side and not far from the city. The Order settled in Coventry in 1381 only ten years after the foundation of the London Charter-house. At the Dissolution the Prior and brethren, ten in all, did not emulate the heroism of the London monks and were fortunate enough to obtain pensions instead of martyrdom. Some trifling remains exist incorporated in a modern mansion, and a wall of the garden shows the position of doors which led to the isolated cells of the monks. The Botoners had given freely to the building of the church and cloisters of which Richard II laid the first stone in 1385 and afterwards largely endowed "on condition that they should find and maintain within the precinct of their house, twelve poor scholars from seven years old till they accomplished the age of seventeen years, there to pray for the good estate of him the said King and of his Consort, during this life, and for the health of their souls after death."



INDEX

Abbots of Coventry, 4.

Alms-boxes, 56, 77.

Apse, 36.

Bells, 56, 91.

Benefactors of Coventry, 99.

Botoner, William and Adam, 22.

Carthusian Monastery, 99.

Chantries, Foundation of, 9.

Christ Church, 91.

City, History of, 1-15.

Cross, 15.

Dissolution of Monasteries, 13.

Duel, Hereford and Norfolk, 11.

Evens or Wakes, 83.

Fonts, 51, 76.

Ford's Hospital, 94.

Friars, Coming of, 8.

Grey Friars Convent (Christ Church): History, 94. Plan of Crossing, 93. Suppression, 92.

Gilds, 6, 10.

Glass, Ancient, 56, 75, 89.

Godiva and Leofric, 4, 75.

Hales, John, 14, 94.

Hermitage. 83.

Hospital, Ford's, 94.

Hospital, St. John's, 94.

Lollards, 11.

Martyrs, 14.

Midsummer Eve, 82.

Misereres, 48.

Monastery, History, 1-15.

Monastery Ruins, 16-18.

Orders of Angels, 47.

Organ, 55, 77, 90.

Pageants and Plays, 13, 14, 93.

Parliamentum Indoctorum, 11.

Parliamentum Diabolicum, 12.

Persecution, 14.

Pilgrims' Rest or Guest House, 15.

Priory, Ruins, 16-18.

Royal visits: Henry VI, 11, 12. Margaret, 23. Edward IV, 12. Richard III, 13. Henry VII, 13. Henry VIII, 13. Elizabeth, 14. Mary Queen of Scots, 14. Charles I, 14.

St. John Baptist Church: History, 81. Exterior, 84. Interior, 86. Bells, 91. Clearstory windows, 85. Collegiate foundation, 81. Glass, ancient, 89. Organ, 90.

St. Mary Hall: Glass, ancient, 97. Plan, 98. Portraits, 99. Tapestry, 98.

St. Michael's Church: History, 21-26. Exterior, 29. Interior, 41. Apse, 36. Bells, 56. Brasses, 51, 55. Chapels: Cappers', 53. Drapers' or Lady, 36, 47. Dyers', 52. Mercers, 54. Chapter, Constitution of, 25. Chest, 50. Crypt, 36. Font, 51. Glass, ancient, 56. Old church, position of, 42. Organ, 55. Porch, south, 34. Proportions of Steeple, 30. Pulpit, 56. Spire, 32. Tombs: Berkeley, 49. Bond, 49. Nethermyl, 50. Skeffington, 55. Swillington, 54. Wade's, 55.

Trinity Church: History, 61. Exterior, 65. Interior, 69. Chapels: Archdeacon's, 75. Butchers', 76. Corpus Christi, 76. Marler's, 73. St. Thomas's, 74. Clearstory, 69. Font, 76. Glass, ancient, 75. Lectern, Eagle, 73. Organ, 77. Plan, 66. Pulpit, 72. Spire, 66. Tombs: Philemon Holland, 75. Whithead (Brass), 75.

White Friars' Convent, 94.



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"The volumes are handy in size, moderate in price, well illustrated, and written in a scholarly spirit. The history of cathedral and city is intelligently set forth and accompanied by a descriptive survey of the building in all its detail. The illustrations are copious and well selected, and the series bids fair to become an indispensable companion to the cathedral tourist in England."—Times.

"They are nicely produced in good type, on good paper, and contain numerous illustrations, are well written, and very cheap. We should imagine architects and students of architecture will be sure to buy the series as they appear, for they contain in brief much valuable information."—British Architect.

"Each of them contains exactly that amount of information which the intelligent visitor, who is not a specialist, will wish to have. The disposition of the various parts is judiciously proportioned, and the style is very read-able. The illustrations supply a further important feature; they are both numerous and good. A series which cannot fail to be welcomed by all who are interested in the ecclesiastical buildings of England."—Glasgow Herald.

"Those who, either for purposes of professional study or for a cultured recreation, find it expedient to 'do' the English cathedrals will welcome the beginning of Bell's 'Cathedral Series.' This set of books is an attempt to consult, more closely, and in greater detail than the usual guide-books do, the needs of visitors to the cathedral towns. The series cannot but prove markedly successful. In each book a business-like description is given of the fabric of the church to which the volume relates, and an interesting history of the relative diocese. The books are plentifully illustrated, and are thus made attractive as well as instructive. They cannot but prove welcome to all classes of readers interested either in English Church history or in ecclesiastical architecture."—Scotsman.

"They have nothing in common with the almost invariably wretched local guides save portability, and their only competitors in the quality and quantity of their contents are very expensive and mostly rare works, each of a size that suggests a packing-case rather than a coat-pocket. The 'Cathedral Series' are important compilations concerning history, architecture, and biography, and quite popular enough for such as take any sincere interest in their subjects."—Sketch.

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS YORK HOUSE, PORTUGAL STREET, W.C.

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