About a mile from Coventry I encountered an enormous stream of pedestrians coming out of the city to take their evening walk.  The promenade, which is about ten feet wide at that place, was so thronged with the gay young couples, that I found it impossible to walk against the mighty stream, and took the middle of the street.  After.  I had entered the gate, I found the pavements on both sides of the road becoming more and more crowded, all bound for a pleasant grassy grove known as “the lovers quarters.”

It is difficult to make estimates under such circumstances, but there can hardly have been less than 5,000 to 10,000 persons upon the promenade that evening.

Coventry.

Coventry is remarkable for its elegant parish churches, which are among the finest in England.

“St. Michael’s Church is one of the largest (some say the largest) and noblest parish churches in England.”  Its steeple built between 1373 and 1395, is 303 feet high.  The church was finished in 1450, when Henry VI. heard mass there.  The second and third of the “three tall spires” of Coventry are that of Trinity Church and of Christ Church.  St. John’s is famous for its magnificent western window.

Coventry is well worth, a visit on account of those famous churches.

I was accompanied to those fine edifices by two precociously intelligent little beauties, (of seven and eleven years respectively), whose gayety and cheer fulness not only rendered their society very accept able to “a stranger in a strange land;” but the simple fact of their being permitted to accompany so perfect a stranger to all parts of the city, showed how much trust some foreigners have in Amercans, and consequently, to what extent one may put confidence in them.  Such incidents are very pleasant and encouraging to the lonely pilgrim and may be made a matter of almost daily occurence by any social but circumspective traveler.  The traveling public in Europe are so social, and etiquette so free, that the tourist can at every step form the acquaintance of some one who is bound for the same church, museum or pleasure garden and thus be continually enjoying the benefits of intelligent and cheerful company.

On Monday noon, July 12th, I left Coventry by rail, to return to

Warwick via Leamington.

At 3:30 p.m., I had passed through the many elegant apartments of Warwick Castle, and stood at the top of its tower, overlooking the wood groves, and flower garden, occupying the 70 acres of ground belonging to that princely mansion.

Among the ornamental trees, our guide pointed out “one that Queen Victoria planted with her own hands.”  Scott calls Warwich Castle “the farest monument of ancient and chivalrous splender which yet remains uninjured by time.”

It is said to have been founded in the 10th century, destroyed in the 13th, and restored by Thomas de Beauchamp in the 14th.  It has been preserved so well that it looks almost like a new palace, to-day