situated above a fine crypt, is 76 ft. long, 30 ft. wide and 34 ft. high; its roof is of carved oak, and in the north end there is a large window of old stained glass, with a curious piece of tapestry beneath nearly as old as the building. In the treasury is preserved a valuable collection of ancient muniments. A statue of Sir Thomas White, lord mayor of London (1532–1533), founder of St John’s College, Oxford, was erected in 1883. The cemetery, laid out by Sir Joseph Paxton, the architect and landscape gardener, and enlarged in 1887, is particularly beautiful. The educational institutions include a well-endowed free grammar school, founded in the reign of Elizabeth, in modern buildings (1885), a technical school, school of art, endowed charity schools, and a county reformatory for girls; and among the charitable foundations, which are numerous and valuable, Bond’s hospital for old men and Ford’s hospital for old women are remarkable as fine specimens of ancient timber work. Swanswell and Spenser Parks were opened in 1883, and a recreation ground in 1880.
Coventry was formerly noted for its woollens, and subsequently acquired such a reputation for its dyeing that the expression “as true as Coventry blue” became proverbial. Existing industries are the making of motor cars, cycles and their accessories, for which Coventry is one of the chief centres in Great Britain; sewing machines are also produced; and carpet-weaving and dyeing, art metal working and watch making are carried on. An ancient fair is held in Whit-week. A county of itself till 1843, the town became a county borough in 1888. The corporation consists of a mayor, 10 aldermen and 30 councillors. The parliamentary borough returns one member. In 1894 a suffragan bishopric of Coventry was established under the see of Worcester, but no longer exists. Area, 4149 acres.
The village which afterwards became important as Coventry (Coventreu, Coventre) owed its existence to the foundation of a Benedictine monastery by Earl Leofric and his wife Godgyfu, the famous Lady Godiva (q.v.), in 1043. The manor, which in 1066 belonged to the latter, descended to the earls of Chester and to Robert de Montalt, and from him passed to Isabella queen of Edward II. and the crown. Ranulf, earl of Chester, granted the earliest extant charter to the town in 1153, by which his burgesses were to hold of him in free burgage as they held of his father, and to have their portmote. This, with further privileges, was confirmed by Henry II. in 1177, and by nearly every succeeding sovereign until the 17th century. In 1345 Edward III. gave Coventry a corporation, mayor and bailiffs empowered to hold pleas and keep the town prison. Edward the Black Prince granted the mayor and bailiffs the right to hold the town in fee farm of £50 and to build a wall. In 1452 Henry VI. formed the city and surrounding hamlets into a county, and James I. incorporated Coventry in 1622. It first sent two representatives to parliament in 1295, but the returns were irregular. The prior’s market on Fridays was probably of Saxon origin; a second market was granted in 1348, while fairs, still held, were obtained in 1217 for the octave of Holy Trinity, and in 1348 and in 1442 for eight days from the Friday after Corpus Christi. As early as 1216 Coventry was important for its trade in wool, cloth and caps, its gilds later being particularly numerous and wealthy. In 1568 Flemish weavers introduced new methods, but the trade was destroyed in the wars of the 17th century. During the middle of the 16th century there was a flourishing manufacture of blue thread, but this decayed before 1581; in the 18th century the manufacture of ribbon was introduced.
The popular phrase “to send to Coventry” (i.e. to refuse to associate with a person) is of uncertain derivation. The New English Dictionary selects the period of the Civil War of the 17th century as that in which the origin of the phrase is probably to be found. Clarendon (History of the Great Rebellion, 1647) states that the citizens of Birmingham rose against certain small parties of the king’s supporters, and sent the prisoners they captured to Coventry, which was then strongly parliamentarian.
See Victoria County History, Warwick; William Dugdale, The Antiquities of Coventre, illustrated from records (Coventry, 1765).
COVER (from the Fr. couvert, from couvrir, to cover, Lat.
cooperire), that which hides, shuts in or conceals, a lid to a
box or vessel, &c., the binding of a book or wrapper of a parcel;
as a hunting term, the wood or undergrowth which shelters game.
As a commercial term, the word means in its widest sense a
security against loss, but is employed more particularly in
connexion with stock exchange transactions to signify a “deposit
made with a broker to secure him from being out of pocket in the
event of the stocks falling against his client and the client not
paying the difference” (In re Cronmire, 1898, 2 Q.B. 383). It is a
mode of speculation engaged in almost entirely by persons who
wish to limit their risk to a small amount, and, as a rule, the
transactions are largely carried out in England with “outside”
brokers, i.e. those dealers in securities who are not members of
the Stock Exchange. The deposit is so much per cent or per
share, usually 1% on the market value of the securities up to
about twice the amount of the turn of the market; the client
being able to close the transaction at any time during the currency
of the cover, but the broker only when the cover is exhausted or
has “run off.” Cover is not money deposited to abide the event
of a wager, but as security against a debt which may arise from
a gaming contract, and it may be recovered back, if unappropriated.
COVERDALE, MILES (1488?–1569), English translator of the
Bible and bishop of Exeter, was born of Yorkshire parents about
1488, studied philosophy and theology at Cambridge, was
ordained priest at Norwich in 1514, and then entered the convent
of Austin friars at Cambridge. Here he came under the influence
of the prior, Robert Barnes, made the acquaintance of Sir Thomas
More and of Thomas Cromwell, and began a thorough study of
the Scriptures. He was one of those who met at the White
Horse tavern to discuss theological questions, and when Barnes
was arrested on a charge of heresy, Coverdale went up to London
to assist him in drawing up his defence. Soon afterwards he
left the convent, assumed the habit of a secular priest, and began
to preach against confession and the worship of images. In
1531 he graduated bachelor of canon law at Cambridge, but from
1528 to 1534 he prudently spent most of his time abroad. No
corroboration has, however, been found for Foxe’s statement
that in 1529 he was at Hamburg assisting Tyndale in his translation
of the Pentateuch. In 1534 he published two translations of
his own, the first Dulichius’s Vom alten und newen Gott, and the
second a Paraphrase upon the Psalms, and in 1535 he completed
his translation of the Bible. The venture seems to have been
projected by Jacob van Meteren, who apparently employed
Coverdale to do the translation, and Froschover of Zürich to
do the printing. No perfect copy is known to exist, and the five
or six which alone have title-pages give no name of publisher
or place of publication. The volume is dedicated to the king of
England, where Convocation at Cranmer’s instance had, in
December 1534, petitioned for an authorized English version of
the Scriptures. As a work of scholarship it does not rank
particularly high. Some of the title-pages state that it had been
translated out of “Douche” (i.e. German) “and Latyn”: and
Coverdale mentions that he used five interpreters, which are
supposed to have been the Vulgate, the Latin version of Pagninus,
Luther’s translation, the Zürich version, and Tyndale’s Pentateuch
and New Testament. There is no definite mention of the
original Greek and Hebrew texts; but it has considerable
literary merit, many of Coverdale’s phrases are retained in the
authorized version, and it was the first complete Bible to be
printed in English. Two fresh editions were issued in 1537, but
none of them received official sanction. Coverdale was, however,
employed by Cromwell to assist in the production of the Great Bible of 1539, which was ordered to be placed in all English churches. The work was done at Paris until the French government stopped it, when Coverdale and his colleagues returned to England early in 1539 to complete it. He was also employed in the same year in assisting at the suppression of superstitious usages, but the reaction of 1540 drove him once more abroad. His Bible was prohibited by proclamation in 1542, while Coverdale himself defied the Six Articles by marrying Elizabeth Macheson, sister-in-law to Dr John MacAlpine.
For a time Coverdale lived at Tübingen, where he was created
