destroyed piecemeal, and like so many other magnificent structures
became a mere quarry for mean buildings and the mending of roads.

The site having been granted by Henry VIII to two gentlemen named
Combes and Stansfield, passed soon into the hands of John Hales, the
founder of the Free School, and in Elizabeth's reign was purchased by
the Corporation.

The changes in religious opinion of the successive sovereigns were
felt here by many poor victims. Seven persons were burnt in 1519 for
having in their possession the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments,
and the Creed in English, and for refusing to obey the Pope or his
agents, opinions and acts that would have been counted meritorious
twenty years later. In 1555 Queen Mary burnt three Protestants in the
old quarry in Little Park--Laurence Saunders, a well-known preacher,
Robert Glover, M.A., and Cornelius Bongey.

Ten years after this Queen Elizabeth's visit was the occasion of much
pageantry and performing of plays by the Tanners', Drapers', Smiths',
and Weavers' Companies, and in 1575 the men of Coventry gave their
play of "Hock Tuesday" before her at Kenilworth Castle. In 1566 Queen
Mary of Scots was in ward here, in the mayoress' parlour, and in 1569
at the Bull Inn.

Coming down to the opening of the Civil War we find that a few days
before the raising of his standard at Nottingham Charles summoned the
city to admit him with three hundred cavaliers, and received for
answer that it was quite ready to receive his Majesty with no more
than two hundred. Whereupon he retired in displeasure, and reappeared
some days later with the threat to lay the city in ruins if it should