Rich in ancient buildings Coventry is full of interest to the students of medieval architecture and to the archæologist. Of the ancient monastery church of the Grey Friars, which was built in the reign of Edward III., little now remains save the beautiful octagonal tower and spire, which rises to a height of upwards of 200 feet. This church became so rich in later years from the gifts bestowed upon it by various benefactors that the historian William of Malmesbury writes of it: “It was enriched and beautified with so much gold and silver that the walls seemed too narrow to contain it; insomuch that Robert de Limesie, Bishop of this diocese in the time of King William Rufus, scraped from one beam that separated the shrines 500 marks of silver.” The church was also a rich storehouse of relics, amongst which, placed in a beautiful silver shrine, was an arm of St. Augustine, and on the casket containing it was a notification of its purchase from the Pope by Agelnethus, Archbishop of Canterbury. After the suppression of the monasteries the site and remains of the church were granted about 1542 to the Mayor and Corporation, and, as was the case with many other similar buildings, the partially ruined church served for a long period as a quarry from which the inhabitants appear to have drawn building materials for their own houses. [Illustration: STONELEIGH ABBEY.] Fortunately, however, the elegant tower escaped. It was ultimately and for many years surrounded by an orchard, which belonged to a nurseryman who turned the lower portion of the tower into a piggery, and who used to laughingly boast that he possessed the tallest pig–sty in the country. In the early years of the last century the idea of building on a new church to the old tower presented itself to the minds of some Coventry people, and the Corporation released their rights to the tower for the purpose. The work, which was commenced in 1829, was finished three years later. The idea, we believe, was to erect this church in the style of the original, but one can scarcely credit that this intention was carried out if one may at the same time accept the statement that the ancient building was of such elegance and beauty as chroniclers have recorded. In St. Michael’s Church one has, however, an early and remarkably beautiful example of Perpendicular architecture, the tower and spire of which is almost world–famed. In the reign of King Stephen a grant was made to the prior of the neighbouring Benedictine monastery, and this constitutes the earliest mention of the church. Of the original building, which was of Norman design, only a few fragments have from time to time been discovered, and the first church was superseded in the thirteenth century by one of Early English design, of which nothing except some portions of the walls, the south–west doorway, and the south porch remain at the present day.