These trading Guilds were almost analogous to the ancient Companies of the City of London, and have in many cases survived to the present time, although nowadays their _raison d’être_ is somewhat far to seek, and one is forced to the conclusion that the chief excuse for their continued existence is the feeling that old institutions should not be allowed to disappear, even though the original and perhaps justified reasons for their foundation no longer obtain. In some of the Guilds great and striking alterations have been made from their aforetime character, although they survive at the present day. The Guild of Fullers or Tailors and Sheremen, one of the most ancient, had at one time only one surviving brother, who nominated a second, and thus it remained until the year 1860, when the number was once more reduced to a single brother, who then made seven others. Coventry, now so essentially a commercial city, in ancient days saw, perhaps, more of change and tragedy than most towns of central England. In the Middle Ages, indeed, stirring events succeeded one another with somewhat startling rapidity within its walls, and public executions were far less uncommon than the inhabitants could have wished. Opposite the old Black Bull Inn, where Henry VI. stayed after the Battle of Bosworth Field, and where Mary Queen of Scots was confined for several months in 1569 (now the site of the Barracks), one Thomas Harrington of Oxford was beheaded in 1487 for having claimed that he was the son of the Duke of Clarence. In the garden known as Park Hollows, near which are some fragments of the ancient city walls, during the Marian Persecution, several martyrs, including Lawrence Sanders, Cornelius Bungey, and Robert Glover were burnt for heresy. From the town of these days it is a far cry, indeed, to the bustling modern city; still containing, however, somewhat of the philosophy of ancient civic life, though chiefly concerned with the manufacture of such modern things as bicycles, motors, and aeroplanes. Even before the Great War the city was a hive of industry, and its rapid growth, and the wide extension of its boundaries have been, indeed, remarkable during the last decade. To recount Coventry’s part in the waging of the Great War would occupy far more space than can be devoted to it in a book like the present; but many of the most essential elements in the ultimate victory had their origin in the wonderful activities of the ancient town. War material, munitions, motor cars, aeroplanes, and petrol engines were turned out in enormous quantities. Thousands of skilled mechanics were drawn off from industry to play a more active part in the war overseas, but the older men, women, boys, and girls took their places, and magnificently carried on the ceaseless activities of providing the munitions of war.