Godiva is always traditionally represented riding on a white horse. It is curious that in an illuminated document formerly in possession of the Smiths' company, two Godivas appear, one a white woman on a white horse and another a black woman on an elephant--the last in allusion to the elephant and castle, the arms of the city.[36] Black-a-vised characters--explained by various theories[37]--are of common occurrence at festivals on May Day and Midsummer; it is only about forty years ago that a Jack-o'-green and his attendant sweeps ceased to parade the city on May Day, while at Southam, near Coventry, and possibly in Coventry also, a "black lady" rode in the "show fair" as well as Godiva.[38] As for the "Peeping Tom" incident it may well be older than the eighteenth century, when the first printed allusion appears.[38] A ballad written about 1650 mentions that Godiva ordered all persons to keep within doors during her ride and shut their windows[39]; but in a Coventry version given in the MS. city annals[40]--dating, it appears, before the use of glass became common in domestic buildings--the peeper is said to "let down" a window, _i.e._ the wooden shutter of early times. The famous figure of Peeping Tom, mentioned in the city accounts in the year 1773,[41] still looks out of the northeast top window of the "King's Head" in Hertford Street. It is a wooden figure, thought to represent S. George, with armour of the time of Henry VII, broad-toed sollerets, and under a monstrous and absurd three-cornered hat is a bascinet. The arms, as far as the elbow, have been hacked away, and to the spectator in the street the figure is only visible from the waist upwards. [Illustration: PEEPING TOM] For many people Coventry suggests Godiva. It is always well to bear in mind she was an authentic person, wife of Leofric, mother of Aelfgar, Earl of East Anglia, also buried in the monastery, grandmother of the Earls Edwin and Morkere, and of Aldgyth, first wife, then widow, of Gruffydd, Prince of Wales; then wife and widow of Harold, King of England. After Godiva's death, stories of her holy life and alms-deeds would be soon rife among the oppressed Saxons. It is noteworthy that Matilda, queen of Henry I., a sovereign of the old Saxon blood royal, and a most pious princess to boot, was called Godiva, no doubt in scorn of her birth, by the Norman courtiers. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 4: Harl. _MS._ 6195 f. 7.] [Footnote 5: Poole, _Coventry_, 90. Elizabeth visited the city in 1565.] [Footnote 6: _Polyolbion_, xiii.] [Footnote 7: Some rough (?) Roman pavement was discovered in the Cross Cheaping during excavations at the end of the last century. _Victoria County Hist._ i. 246.] [Footnote 8: Rashdall, _Universities_, ii. pt. ii. 323.] [Footnote 9: Dugdale. _Warw._ i. 134.] [Footnote 10: _Ibid._]