the spring or early
summer. To her the produce of the land would be ascribed; and in her
name and by her permission would all agricultural operations be
performed. Such a goddess it must be who is honoured by the ceremonies
already noticed in India. Such a goddess, at any rate, was the Bona Dea;
and to such a goddess we may readily believe would be ascribed the
privilege of cutting wood. It is quite consistent with this that the
payment by every household at St. Briavels should be made to the warden
of the forest, and that it should be spent by him on the goddess'
festival. We are left to surmise what were the tolls and burdens at
Coventry, so vaguely referred to by Roger of Wendover. Pigs and horses,
we learn from two different sources, were not included in the exemptions
obtained by the countess; and the reason for this in the latter case is
accounted for by the incident of Peeping Tom.

One other point is worthy of mention: both at St. Briavels and at
Coventry the commemoration takes place nearly at the same time of year.
The Great Fair at Coventry opens on the day after Corpus Christi
Day--that is to say, the Friday after Trinity Sunday. Corpus Christi Day
itself was the day on which the celebrated Coventry Miracle Plays were
performed; and the Fair opened the next morning. At the same time of
year too--namely, on Ascension Day--a custom, for which there is no
explanation in any record, was observed at St. Michael's Church, York,
when ale and bread and cheese were yearly given away in the church to
the poor of the parish.[58] Although Ascension Day is separated by three
weeks from Corpus Christi, the movable character of the feasts would
bridge this gulf without any difficulty; and heathen observances of the
same nature, and referring to the same season, when they had to be
reconciled to the Christian calendar, might easily find places in some
instances on one day and in others on another day. Godgifu and her
husband were honoured as founders of the Benedictine monastery at
Coventry, which rose upon the ruins of an earlier house of Benedictine
nuns founded by Osburg, a lady of the royal house, nearly two hundred
years before. This nunnery had been destroyed in the Danish wars about
the year 1016. Consequently, if any legend, or ceremony, was known or
practised at Coventry in connection with some traditional patroness, the
name of Godgifu was ready to hand to be identified with it. Through the
monastery Coventry fir