urally to one of the most
interesting of our national legends, namely, that of Lady Godiva; and it
will well repay a little consideration. As generally told to-day it
bears an unmistakable resemblance to the foregoing stories; but there
seems some difficulty in classing it with them, because Peeping Tom is
wanting in the most ancient version known to us.

Godiva, properly Godgifu, was an undoubted historical personage, the
wife of Leofric, Earl of the Mercians, and mother of the Earls Morcar
and Edwin, and of Edith, wife first of Gruffydd, Prince of North Wales,
and afterwards of King Harold the Second. The earliest mention of her
famous ride through Coventry is by Roger of Wendover, who wrote in the
beginning of the thirteenth century, or a hundred and fifty years or
thereabout after her death. His account of the matter is as follows:
"The countess Godiva, who was a great lover of God's mother, longing to
free the town of Coventry from the oppression of a heavy toll, often
with urgent prayers besought her husband, that from regard to Jesus
Christ and His mother, he would free the town from that service, and
from all other heavy burdens; and when the earl sharply rebuked her for
foolishly asking what was so much to his damage, and always forbade her
evermore to speak to him on the subject; and while she, on the other
hand, with a woman's pertinacity, never ceased to exasperate her husband
on that matter, he at last made her this answer: 'Mount your horse, and
ride naked before all the people, through the market of the town from
one end to the other, and on your return you shall have your request.'
On which Godiva replied: 'But will you give me permission if I am
willing to do it?' 'I will,' said he. Whereupon the countess, beloved of
God, loosed her hair and let down her tresses, which covered the whole
of her body like a veil, and then mounting her horse and attended by two
knights, she rode through the market place without being seen, except
her fair legs; and having completed the journey, she returned with
gladness to her astonished husband, and obtained of him what she had
asked, for Earl Leofric freed the town of Coventry and its inhabitants
from the aforesaid service, and confirmed what he had done by a
charter."[44] According to the more modern version, the inhabitants
were enjoined to remain within doors, and, in the Laureate's words:

"one low churl, compact of thankless earth,
The fatal byword of