COVENANT 



COVENTRY 



631 



Solemn League ami Covenant was renewed in 

 Scotland in IWembcr lt>48, an. I along \vitli the 

 National Covenant \\ a- sworn to and Hulmcribed by 



Charles II. lit S|ieyniolltli and Scone. Ill lighting 



for hi* succession against Cromwell, the Scot* in 

 1650 enacted that the motto on all their colours 

 and standards should he 'For Covenant, religion, 

 kin^ r and kingdom,' and their watchword at the 

 hat tie of hmiliar was 'The Covenant.' After the 

 Restoration, jiarliament decreed that the Covenants 

 were not obligatory on the lieges ; in 1662 they 

 were declared unlawful oaths, and all acts ratifying 

 and approving them were annulled; in 1682 an 

 oath was imposed specially renouncing the obliga- 

 tions of the Covenants, and in 1685 it was declared 

 to be treason to take them. 



During the period, however, between the Restora- 

 tion and the Revolution, the Covenants were ad- 

 hered to by many who, upon this account, were 

 called COVENANTERS. They maintained that these 

 Covenants, notwithstanding all acts of parliament 

 to the contrary, were binding upon the nation, and 

 great numbers of them Buttered and died in this 

 testimony. Their heroic resistance was justified by 

 the Revolution of 1688, when the nation united in 

 one final effort for the restoration of civil and reli- 

 gious freedom. The Covenants, however, found no 

 place in the polity of the reconstructed Church of 

 Scotland, and so far as it and the nation in general 

 is concerned, they remain a dead letter. They are 

 nevertheless printed along with the authorised 

 standards of the church viz. the Westminster 

 Confession of Faith, and Catechisms, &c. Hut 

 their continued obligation upon the entire nation 

 remained a prominent principle of the Original 

 Secession and Reformed Presbyterian churches, 

 both of which have frequently renewed them from 

 the Revolution down to the present day. See 

 SCOTLAND (CHURCH OF), CAMERONIANS. 



Covenant, in English Law, an agreement by 

 Deed (q.v. ) in writing, signed, sealed and delivered. 

 A special action oj covenant lay where a party 

 claimed damages for breach of a covenant ; but 

 since the passing of the Judicature Act, 1875, this 

 is no longer a technical expression. A covenant 

 may also be implied. ' Covenant running with the 

 land,' is a covenant affecting the land into whose- 

 soever hands it comes. In the United States, the 

 term covenant is used with the same sense as it has 

 in England. The action of covenant is not there in 

 use, a covenant being enforced by an ordinary civil 

 action. The covenant running with the land is 

 almost universally replaced in the United States by 

 a covenant of warranty, by which the granter of 

 the deed, and not the land itself, is bound. 



Covent Garden* corrupted from Convent 

 Garden, from having been originally the garden of 

 the Abbot of Westminster, is a spacious square in 

 London, celebrated for a great market hehi within 

 it of fruit, vegetables, and flowers. The square was 

 formed about 1631 from the designs of Inigo Jones, 

 and has the arcade or piazza on the north and 

 north-east side, Tavistock Row on the south, and 

 <he church of St Paul's on the west. In the 17th 

 century Covent Garden was a very fashionable 

 quarter of the town. The scene of one of Dryden's 

 plays is laid here, and frequent allusions are made 

 to the place in plays of Charles II. 's time. The 

 market, now so famous, appears to have originated 

 about 1656 in a few wooden sheds and stalls. 

 Covent Garden is for a stranger one of the sights 

 of London, and is seen to greatest advantage about 

 three o'clock on a summer morning ; Tuesday, 

 Thursday, and Saturday being the principal days. 



Coventry, a city, parliamentary and municipal 

 borough, and manufacturing town in the north of 

 Warwickshire, on the Sherboume, an affluent of 



the Avon, IHi milen KsK. of Birmingham, and 94 

 NW. of London. It *tandn on a gentle eminence 

 in a valley, with a ridge of hill on the -mitli, and 

 "till contain* nome old IIOUMCM, with timbered front* 

 projecting into the streets, and which belong to the 

 15th and 16th centuries. Town improvement** in 

 recent years have necessitated the removal of many 

 old houses and the construction of new streets, the 

 area of the city being greatly extended. The 

 modern buildings include a corn exchange, market- 

 hall, baths, Free Public Library, School of Art, new 

 grammar and other schools, churches, chapels, and 

 hotels, many tricycle and bicycle works, the Cov- 

 entry and Warwickshire Hospital, and the Coventry 

 Provident Dispensary >, -ilx.il i 20,000 members being 

 connected with the last-mentioned institution). 

 Coventry is rich in benevolent and charitable 

 institutions, which have been greatly augmented 

 by the benefactions of the late David Spencer. In 

 1887 Mr Spencer provided a building for a technical 

 school ; a few years earlier he had given four 

 thousand guineas for a public recreation ground ; 

 and at his death (June 9, 1888) he bequeathed 

 about 100,000 for benevolent purposes. A beau- 

 tiful approach to the city from the London and 

 North-western Railway Station has been made by 

 the opening of the Coventry Park for building 

 purposes, and the laying out and ornamentation 

 of Grev Friars' Green. A statue of Sir Thomas 

 White "has been erected, and a memorial of James 

 Starley, the inventor of the modern tricycle. At a 

 cost of many thousands of pounds the principal 

 streets have been widened, and a steam tramway 

 now runs through the city. During recent years 

 upwards of 70,000 has been expended in church 

 restoration, and during 1887-89 all of Tennyson's 

 ' three tall spires ' were in the restorere' hands. 

 Large sums have also been expended by the various 

 nonconformist congregations in the erection of new, 

 and the restoration of existing places of worship. 

 The chief buildings are the ancient churches, with 

 imposing spires, that of St Michael's rising to a 

 height of 300 feet. St Michael's Church, built 

 1230-1395, is said to be the largest parish church 

 in England, and is one of the noblest of the lighter 

 Gothic structures. St Mary's Hall, built in the 

 14th century, for the Guild, is one of the finest 

 specimens of ornamental work in England, with gro- 

 tesque carved oak roof, ancient tapestry, and great 

 painted window. The ancient walls, three miles in 

 circuit, round Coventry were demolished by Charles 

 II. Coventry returns one member to parliament. 

 The chief manufactures are ribbons, watches, bi- 

 cycles and tricycles ( see CYCLING ), cotton, worsted 

 and woollen goods, and art metal works ( the Albert 

 Memorial, Hyde Park, London, l>eing of Coventry 

 manufacture). There are large silk-dyeing works. 

 Coventry is nearly in the centre between the four 

 great English ports, London, Hristol, Liverpool, and 

 Hull, and has extensive .-anal communication with 

 other parts "of the country. The city is in an 

 excellent sanitary state, its sewage being treated 

 by an improved system of precipitation, at works 

 erected at Whitley, about one mile from Coventry. 

 The gas and water works both belong to the 

 corporation. Under the Local Government Bill 

 (1888), Coventry is reconstituted a county, and 

 thus reverts to an ancient privilege which it en- 

 joyed from 1451 to 1842. The ancient * Coventry 

 Great Fair' (formerly eight days) is now held 

 annually, for five days, commencing on Whit- 

 monday. Pop. of parliamentary Itorough (1841) 

 30,743; (1861) 41,647; (1881) 46,563. A county 

 borough since 1888, it had in 1891 a pop. of 54,743. 

 The name Coventry has usually been interpreted 

 1 Convent-town,' but as the form in Domesday is 

 Couentrev, it is more likely 'town on the Couen' 

 Coven being the ancient British name of the 



