EXETER--WELLS--GLASTONBURY, LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR INTERRED
HERE--DORSET--SHERBORNE--WEYMOUTH.
The houses at the corner of Goldsmith Street, in Exeter, are about to be
pulled down, and are introduced here more for their curiosity than their
beauty; a chapel is quaintly mixed up with them, and there is a sort of
promenade on the top of the chemist’s shop.
Exeter has declined from its ancient trade of woollen manufacture, and
glovemaking and agricultural implements form the chief industry of the
inhabitants. Crediton, at a few miles farther up the county, used at one
time to be the seat of the Episcopate, but Exeter has enjoyed that
dignity since the reign of Edward the Confessor. It has played a
conspicuous part at times in English history, having at one time been
besieged by William the Conqueror; and when the magistrates stole out of
the city to surrender it, the citizens closed their gates against their
return, and took the defence into their own hands. The fortifications
were destroyed by Fairfax in 1646; but part of the castle still remains,
and it has been converted into a gentleman’s residence. Of this
celebrated building we read in Richard III. when his quarrel with
Buckingham is beginning--
“As I remember, Henry the Sixth
Did prophesy that Richmond should be King,
When Richmond was a little peevish boy.
* * * * *
How chance the prophet could not at that time
Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him?
Richmond! when last I was at Exeter,
The mayor in courtesy show’d me the castle,
And call’d it Rougemont: at which name I started,
Because a bard of Ireland told me once,
I should not live long after I saw Richmond.”
[Illustration: OLD HOUSES, EXETER CLOSE.]
Another old house opposite the cathedral in Exeter is given which stands
in a very irregular row. This house is singular in form, and perhaps not
a specimen which will be imitated to any great extent in the present
day; still the bow windows over the shop which do not obstruct the walk,
and the balcony over these, are very curious and convenient.
[Illustration: GUILDHALL, EXETER.]
Formerly an old building stood in Waterbeare Street, which was said to
be the Guildhall of Exeter, and it would be the mayor’s place of
business when King Richard went to Exeter, but this was pulled down in
1803. The present Guildhall in High Street was built in 1593, though it
is said that the internal parts date back to the fourteenth century.
The South gate of Exeter was taken down in 1819, and one of the most
picturesque entrances to any city lost for ever. Lysons has preserved a
drawing of it in his _Magna Britannia_, page 198, that gives an
excellent idea of its former grandeur; a low deep archway, flanked by
vast circular towers, is encroached on upon all sides by picturesque
gabled houses, each built without any regard to the style of its
neighbour.
The Water gate also was taken down at nearly the same time, and this has
also been preserved in a sketch in Lysons’ book. This gate was of
astonishing beauty and lightness.
A sketch of Plymouth harbour has been preserved in a chart drawn by some
engineer of the reign of Henry VIII., and still extant in the British
Museum. The bird’s-eye view represents some four churches, with plenty
of gabled houses, and the necessary number of lookers-on from
men-of-war.
There are many other towns in Devonshire that contain subject matter for
our work, such as Tiverton on the Exe, and Tavistock, so beautifully
situated on the banks of the Tavy. Tavistock once gloried in a fine old
Abbey, and much of the present town is built out of the spoils of this
venerable pile, of which some remains yet stand, and it was also the
birthplace of Sir Francis Drake.
Clovelly is one of the most picturesque villages in England. The street
resembles a winding staircase, each house representing a step.
“Long lines of cliff breaking have left a chasm,
And in this chasm are foam and yellow sands;
Beyond, red roofs about a narrow wharf
In cluster; then a mouldered church; and higher
A long street climbs to one tall-towered mill.
And high in heaven behind it a gray down
With Danish barrows; and a hazel wood,
By autumn nutters haunted, flourishes
Green in a cuplike hollow of the down.”
This description of the village in _Enoch Arden_ has commonly been said
to refer to Clovelly.
Often the towns and villages here receive their names from rivers, for
Devonshire has the honour of a watershed of its own, of which Cranmere
pool, high up in Dartmoor, is the centre; thus Axminster is named from
having a minster on the Axe, and Axmouth from being the town situated at
the mouth of that river. The Dart, of course, gives the name of
Dartmouth, and the Exe, Exeter and Exmouth; and perhaps it is not
commonly known that Mr. Speaker Addington derived his title from the
river Sid, which runs past his property, and suggested the name of
Sydmouth to the original founder of the family.
It is perhaps hardly too much to say that Wells is the most picturesque
city in England. The series of houses called Vicar’s Close is connected
with the cathedral by a gallery, over an arched gateway across the
street. “This gallery is approached on each side by a flight of steps,
from which there is a very fine and unique entrance into the
chapter-room. Unlike any other chapter-room in England, the floor of
this is raised several feet above the level of the cathedral on a
vaulted room. The design and construction of this chapter-house, with
its connecting staircase and gallery, are entitled to the especial
admiration of the architect;” so writes Britton, and he further adds, in
admiration of the structure, “We see that the architects of the Middle
Ages were unrestrained by precedent, and exercised their imagination and
judgment in producing novelties.”
The “Vicar’s Close” is a long court of ancient houses built in the
fourteenth century, and retaining many of their original features; at
one end is a noble entrance gateway, and at the other the chapel and
chaplain’s dwelling. All these have been engraved in Britton’s
_Cathedral Antiquities_ and _Picturesque Antiquities of English Cities_.
Each house has a tall graceful chimney rising through the eaves of the
roof, and is provided with a small garden in front. These shafts have
armorial bearings of the see--and of the executors of Bishop Beckington,
who finished the “Close.” Their names were Swan and Sugar, and in the
spirit of the age, a swan and a loaf of sugar have been sculptured. This
singular scene has no rival in England, and nowhere can mediæval
domestic architecture be so well studied. The combinations of chimneys
and gables, buttresses and traceried windows, is really astonishing to
any one who sees it for the first time.
Wells, according to Camden, was so called from its numerous springs, and
now bright clear water runs through the various streets of the city,
which take their rise from wells in the Bishop’s garden, these wells
form a moat or lake of incomparable beauty. The engraving gives only a
partial idea of the scene, as each step unfolds some new delight. There
is an embattled wall with bastion towers, enclosing perhaps fifteen
acres, which is surrounded by a broad moat, and on the north side the
palace is approached by a bridge and baronial gatehouse. Ralph de
Salopia was the builder of this wall, and a great benefactor to the see
and palace. He it was who drew up statutes for the government of
Vicar’s
[Illustration: WELLS CATHEDRAL, FROM BISHOP’S GARDEN.]
Close in 1347. Whatever this prelate undertook he would seem to have
done with vigour, for, as he was partial to the chase in his leisure
hours, he pursued it with such success, that during his prelacy he is
said to have destroyed the game of the vast Mendip forest; but one of
his predecessors, who bore an excellent name, Reginald Fitz Joceline,
seems to have smoothed the way for the pursuit of hunting, as he
obtained a charter from Richard I. entitling all bishops of Wells to
keep dogs for hunting throughout the entire county of Somerset. He was
much esteemed in his day, and relieved the citizens of Wells from some
servile duties. This excellent man, when offered the dignity of
archbishop, replied with emotion, that “so far was he from having any
ambitious desire for that place, that it was a great grief unto him to
be chosen, and he would be very glad if they would take some other in
his room: howbeit,” says he, “if they must needs stand to their
election, though with grief and sorrow I must and will accept the same.”
His “nolo episcopari” was not put to any very severe test, however, for
though he reluctantly permitted his nomination, he never enjoyed the
dignity, for he was very soon after taken ill, put on a monk’s cowl, and
died.
The beneficence of this prelate in procuring the right to keep hunting
dogs for all clergy is celebrated apparently in the monument of Ralph de
Salopia, who has two dogs collared at his feet on the effigy in Wells
Cathedral.
Little would all this advantage another bishop of later date whose name
is intimately connected with the scene here given,--Bishop Ken. He was
one of the “seven bishops” who was tried in James II.’s time, and in a
summer-house from which this beautiful scene is taken, he wrote the
_Morning and Evening Hymns_.
It is impossible to travel far in Glastonbury without being reminded of
its once famous monastery. The buildings are either constructed from its
spoils, or else are themselves parts of the original structure, and many
walls and farm buildings in the neighbourhood owe their existence to
materials quarried as it were from its vast stores. The durability of
the stone is something marvellous: most of the enrichments on the chapel
of St. Joseph, though they date back to the thirteenth century, are as
perfect as when first chiselled, and retain all their original
sharpness. The Tribunal here shown was intended for very different
purposes than a suite of lawyer’s offices, to which use it is now
adapted. It is fortunate that
[Illustration: GLASTONBURY TRIBUNAL.]
it remains at all, as its destruction was decreed, but a gentleman in
the neighbourhood, a son of the late Dean of Windsor, came forward and
purchased it; he now represents the county in Parliament. The oriel
window and deeply-recessed lights of the lower storey have a very
venerable appearance. The tower is characteristic of the Somerset towers
of the fifteenth century. A little lower down on the same side of the
street is the celebrated “George Inn,” built for the convenience of the
Pilgrims, and this yet remains as an inn, and is the best in
Glastonbury. A gatehouse with some fine work inside, forms another inn,
not very far distant. The tradition of “Weary-all-Hill” is so familiar
as hardly to need repeating here. It says that Joseph of Arimathea,
toiling up the steep ascent, drove his thorn staff into the ground, and
said to his followers, “Here let us rest.” This was regarded as an omen,
and to it the monastery owed its origin. The thorn budded, and now
flowers, it is commonly said, at winter. The grand Abbot’s kitchen is
familiar to every one, and it is said to be owing to a boast of the last
Abbot, when Henry VIII. threatened to burn down his buildings, that he
would have a kitchen all the wood of Mendip Forest would not suffice to
burn down. Here St. Patrick spent the latter part of his life, and here
also, it is said, King Arthur was buried.
Giraldus Cambrensis says he was an eyewitness of his disinterment in the
twelfth century, on the return of Henry II. from the Irish wars; and
seven feet below the surface a large stone was discovered with the
inscription “HIC JACET SEPULTUS INCLYTUS REX ARTHURIUS IN INSULA
AVALONIA.” Nine feet below this they found the remains of the King, and
by his side those of his wife. The shin-bone of the King, says Giraldus,
when placed side by side with that of a tall man, reached three fingers
above his knee, and his skull was fearfully wounded. The remains of his
wife were singularly perfect, but fell into dust on exposure to the
atmosphere,--a statement that seems rather to confirm than otherwise the
curious discovery, for some similar phenomena have occurred among much
more ancient remains, as ancient indeed as the mysterious people of
Etruria.
Edward I., it is said, had these remains subsequently exhumed. The
skulls were deposited in the Treasury, to remain there, and the rest of
the bones were returned to their resting-place, Edward placing an
inscription over them, which recorded the circumstances.
Though Dorsetshire is rich in relics of the Roman and Celtic period, the
towns generally have a somewhat modern appearance. Sherborne is finely
situated in the northern part of the county, on the slope of a hill
rising from the vale of Blackmoor, and was a place of importance even in
the early Saxon times; indeed it was for three centuries the seat of a
bishopric, which included the southwestern counties. The see was
afterwards removed to Old Sarum. Sherborne Castle was the seat of Sir
Walter Raleigh, who received the estate from Queen Elizabeth.
The scene here given is a beautiful example of a quiet English
market-place. There is a water conduit to supply the townspeople, and
behind it is a covered area much resembling a market cross, and
apparently built about the year 1500. On market-days, when there are
groups of farmers and country people round the space in front of the
“Sun Inn” the effect is very picturesque; the huge abbey rises over all,
and forms a fine gray background, and, as will be seen, the rest of the
picture is finely broken.
Weymouth is the largest town in Dorsetshire, and it has many interesting
traditions connected with it. It was one of the principal harbours of
the south when the Spanish Armada appeared on our shores, and Queen
Elizabeth united it with Melcombe Regis, in order to end the constant
lawsuits that were carried on between these two places to secure the
rights of harbour. Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, has played no
inconsiderable a part in English history. It contributed four ships to
the Calais expedition of Edward III. In 1544 the French landed here, but
were repulsed with great slaughter. A century later it held out for two
months against a
[Illustration: SHERBOURNE, DORSET.]
Royalist army; and here the Duke of Monmouth landed in 1685 on his
ill-starred expedition against James II. Many other towns in this county
are full of historic interest.
[Illustration: PASSAGE IN EXETER CATHEDRAL CLOSE.]
[Illustration: CARDINAL BEAUFORT’S GATE AND ANCIENT BREWERY,
WINCHESTER.]