"Sir, My attention has been called to a custom which, I am told, prevails at Coventry every thrid year, and which is so offensive to every right feeling, that I could not have believed it to have been permitted in a civilized and christain country, if I had not received my information from what appears to be a good authority. It is stated to me, that every third year a common PROSTITUTE is hired at Birmingham, for the purpose of being paraded through the streets of Coventry as representative of Godiva. That said PROSTITUTE is dressed in a tight fitting dress of flesh colour, so as to give her the appearance of being naked, and is of course followed by a mob of the lowest rabble of Coventry. Such is the statement which has been made to me, and which , very probably, may not be founded on fact; but, in case it should be, I feel that it is nothing more than my duty, strongly to represent to you, as Chief Magistrate of the City, that a custom which is, I believe, contrary to the law, and i am sure contract to the gospel, and which must be revolting to the decent feelings of all the respectable inhabitants of Coventry, ought no longer to be permitted to prevail; and I am induced thus early to communicate with you upon the subject, because I think that, if you determine no longer to permit such a violation of decency and good order, the sooner you give notice of your intention the less likley will it be to meet with opposition from the low and profligate, who only could regret the absense of an exhibition so disgraceful to those who attend it, and, allow me to add, not creditable to those who permit it."

H Worcester