with the words, "Good Lord, what fools ye be!" The good Queen
Bess, we are told, liked to visit Coventry to see bull-baiting. As we
have said, Coventry formerly had a cathedral and a castle, but both have
been swept away; it was an important stronghold after the Norman
Conquest, when the Earls of Chester were lords of the place. In the
fourteenth century it was fortified with walls of great height and
thickness, three miles in circuit and strengthened by thirty-two towers,
each of the twelve gates being defended by a portcullis. A parliament
was held at Coventry by Henry VI., and Henry VII. was heartily welcomed
there after Bosworth Field; while the town was also a favorite residence
of Edward the Black Prince. Among the many places of captivity for Mary
Queen of Scots Coventry also figures; the walls were mostly knocked down
during the Civil Wars, and now only some fragments, with one of the old
gates, remain. In later years it has been chiefly celebrated in the
peaceful arts in the manufacture of silks and ribbons and the dyeing of
broad-cloth in "Coventry true blue;" at present it is the "Coventry
bicycle" that makes Lady Godiva's ancient city famous, and provides
amusement for youth who are able to balance their bodies possibly at the
expense of their minds.

[Illustration: COVENTRY.]

BELVOIR CASTLE.

In describing the ancient baronial mansion, Haddon Hall, it was
mentioned that the Dukes of Rutland had abandoned it as their residence
about a hundred years ago and gone to Belvoir in Leicestershire. Belvoir
(pronounced Beever) Castle stands on the eastern border of
Leicestershire, in a magnificent situation on a high wooded hill, and
gets its name from the beautiful view its occupants enjoy over a wide
expanse of country. In ancient times it was a priory, and it has been a
castle since the Norman Conquest. Many of the large estates attached to
Belvoir have come down by uninterrupted succession from that time to the
present Duke of Rutland. The castle itself, however, after the Conquest
belonged to the Earl of Chester, and afterwards to the family of Lord
Ros. In the sixteenth century, by a fortunate marriage, the castle
passed into the Manners family. Thomas Manners was created by Henry
VIII. the first Earl of Rutland, and he restored the castle, which had
for some time been in ruins. His son enlarged it, making a noble
residence. The sixth Earl of Rutland had two sons, we are told, who were
murdered by witchc