the road, so that people in the highest storey can almost shake hands with their neighbours across the way.  You can see the “Olde House” in which Mary Tudor is said to have stayed, and the mansion of the Owens, built in 1592 as an inscription tells us, and that of the Irelands, with its range of bow-windows, four storeys high, and terminating in gables, erected about 1579.  The half-timbered hall of the Drapers’ Guild, some old houses in Frankwell, including the inn with the quaint sign—­the String of Horses, the ancient hostels—­the Lion, famous in the coaching age, the Ship, and the Raven—­Bennett’s Hall, which was the mint when Shrewsbury played its part in the Civil War, and last, but not least, the house in Wyle Cop, one of the finest in the town, where Henry Earl of Richmond stayed on his way to Bosworth field to win the English Crown.  Such are some of the beauties of old Shrewsbury which happily have not yet vanished.

[Illustration:  House that the Earl of Richmond stayed in before the Battle of Bosworth, Shrewsbury]

Not far removed from Shrewsbury is Coventry, which at one time could boast of a city wall and a castle.  In the reign of Richard II this wall was built, strengthened by towers.  Leland, writing in the time of Henry VIII, states that the city was begun to be walled in when Edward II reigned, and that it had six gates, many fair towers, and streets well built with timber.  Other writers speak of thirty-two towers and twelve gates.  But few traces of these remain.  The citizens of Coventry took an active part in the Civil War in favour of the Parliamentary army, and when Charles II came to the throne he ordered these defences to be demolished.  The gates were left, but most of them have since been destroyed.  Coventry is a city of fine old timber-framed fifteenth-century houses with gables and carved barge-boards and projecting storeys, though many of them are decayed and may not last many years.  The city has had a fortunate immunity from serious fires.  We give an illustration of one of the old Coventry streets called Spon Street, with its picturesque houses.  These old streets are numerous, tortuous and irregular.  One of the richest and most interesting examples of domestic architecture in England is St. Mary’s Hall, erected in the time of Henry VI.  Its origin is connected with ancient guilds of the city, and in it were stored their books and archives.  The grotesquely carved roof, minstrels’ gallery, armoury, state-chair, great painted window, and a fine specimen of fifteenth-century tapestry are interesting features of this famous hall, which furnishes a vivid idea of the manners and civic customs of the age when Coventry was the favourite resort of kings and princes.  It has several fine churches, though the cathedral was levelled with the ground by that arch-destroyer Henry VIII.  Coventry remains one of the most interesting towns in England.