[Illustration: EXETER CATHEDRAL, WEST FRONT.]
[Illustration: RUINS OF ROUGEMONT CASTLE.]
[Illustration: OLD HOUSES IN THE CATHEDRAL CLOSE.]
About eleven miles up the river Exe, before it has broadened out into
the estuary, but where it flows through a well-marked valley and washes
the bases of the cliffs, stands Exeter, a city set upon a hill. Here was
an ancient "dun," or British hill-fort, succeeded by a Roman, and then
by a Norman, castle, with the town descending upon the slope towards the
river and spreading into the suburb of St. Thomas on the other side. The
growing city now covers several neighboring hills and tributary valleys,
one of the flourishing new suburbs being named Pennsylvania. Upon the
ridge, where was located the old hill-fort, there still remain in a
grove of trees some scanty ruins of the Norman castle, while well up the
slope of the hill rise the bold and massive towers of Exeter Cathedral.
Unique among English municipalities, this is essentially a hill-city,
the ancient British name of Caerwise having been Latinized by the Romans
into Isca, and then changed to Exanceaster, which was afterwards
shortened into the modern Exeter. Nobody knows when it was founded: the
Romans almost at the beginning of the Christian era found a flourishing
British city alongside the Exe, and it is claimed to have been "a walled
city before the incarnation of Christ." Isca makes its appearance in the
Roman records without giving the date of its capture, while it is also
uncertain when the Saxons superseded the Romans and developed its name
into Exanceaster. They enclosed its hill of Rougemont, however, with a
wall of masonry, and encircled the city with ramparts built of square
stones and strengthened by towers. Here the Saxon king AEthelstan held a
meeting of the Witan of the whole realm and proclaimed his laws, and in
the first year of the eleventh century the Danes sailed up to the town
and attacked it, being, however, beaten off after a desperate struggle.
Two years later they made another attack, captured and despoiled it; but
it rose from its ruins, and the townsmen afterwards defied the Norman as
they had the Dane. William attacked and breached the walls, the city
surrendered, and then he built Rougemont Castle, whose venerable ruins
remain, to curb the stout-hearted city. It was repeatedly besieged--in
the days of Stephen, Henry VII., and Henry VIII., the last siege during
the quarrels preceding the Reformation lasting thirty four days, the
defenders being reduced to eating horse-flesh. In the Civil War the
Royalists captured it from the Parliamentarians, who held it, and it
remained in the king's possession until after the defeat at Naseby, when
Cromwell recaptured it. Charles II. was proclaimed at Exeter with
special rejoicings. When William, Prince of Orange, first landed in
England, he came to the valley of the Teign, near Newton Abbot, where
the block of granite is still preserved from which his proclamation was
read to the people. Three days later he entered Exeter, escorted by a
great crowd of the townspeople. He went in military state to the
cathedral and mounted the bishop's throne, with its lofty spire-like
canopy, rich with the carving of the fifteenth century, while the choir
sang the Te Deum, after which Bishop Burnet read his proclamation. He
remained several days in Exeter, while events ripened elsewhere for his
reception. Here many Englishmen of rank and influence joined him, and
his quarters began to display the appearance of a court. The daily show
of rich liveries and of coaches drawn by six horses among the old houses
in the cathedral close, with their protruding bow-windows and balconies,
gave the usually quiet place a palatial appearance, the king's
audience-chamber being in the deanery. He remained here two weeks, and
then left for London, the entire kingdom having risen in his favor and
James having deserted the capital for Salisbury. This ended Exeter's
stirring history. It afterwards grew in fame as a manufactory of
woollens, but this has declined, and the chief industries now consist in
the making of gloves and agricultural implements.
[Illustration: EXETER CATHEDRAL, FROM THE NORTH-WEST.]
Exeter Cathedral is the most conspicuous feature in the view upon
approaching the city, rising well above the surrounding houses, its two
massive gray towers giving it something of the appearance of a fortress.
This feature makes it unique among English cathedrals, especially as the
towers form its transepts. The close is contracted, and around it are
business edifices instead of ecclesiastical buildings. The exterior is
plain and simple in outline, excepting the western front, which is a
very rich example of fourteenth-century Gothic. A church is said to have
been standing on its site and dedicated to the Benedictines as early as
the seventh century, and it lasted until after the Norman Conquest. The
Normans built a new church in the twelfth century, which contained the
present towers, but the remainder of the structure was afterwards
transformed as we now see it. The rich western facade consists of three
stages, receding one behind the other; the lower is the porch,
subdivided into three enriched arcades containing figures and pierced by
three doorways. The second stage is formed above this by the ends of the
nave and side-aisles, being terminated with a battlement flanked by
small pinnacles about halfway up the nave gable. A fine window pierces
this stage, and above it the remainder of the gable forms the third
stage, also pierced by a window which opens over the battlement. The
figures in the lower stage represent the kings of England, apostles, and
saints. The interior of the nave discloses stone vaulting and Decorated
architecture, with large clerestory windows, but a small triforium. The
bosses of the roof, which presents an unbroken line, are seventy feet
above the floor. One of the bays on the north side of the triforium is a
beautiful minstrels' gallery, communicating with a chamber above the
porch. The inner walls of the towers have been cut away, completely
adapting them for transepts, the towers being supported on great pointed
arches. In the large east window the stained glass commemorates St.
Sidwell, a lady murdered in the eighth century at a well near Exeter by
a blow from a scythe at the instigation of her stepmother, who coveted
her property. The cathedral is rich in monumental relics, and it has
recently been thoroughly restored. Little remains of the ancient
convent-buildings beyond the chapter-house, which adjoins the south
transept.
[Illustration: THE THRONE, EXETER CATHEDRAL.]
The older parts of Exeter present a quaint and picturesque appearance,
especially along the High Street, where is located the old Guild Hall, a
ponderous stone building, with a curious front projecting over the
footway and supported by columns; it was built in the sixteenth century.
Sir Thomas Bodley, who founded the Bodleian Library of Oxford, was born
in Exeter, and also Richard Hooker the theologian. Among its famous
bishops was Trelawney (then the Bishop of Bristol), who was one of the
seven bishops committed by King James to the Tower, and whose memory
still lives in the West-Country refrain, the singing of which had so
much to do with raising the English revolt in favor of the Prince of
Orange:
"And shall Trelawney die?
And shall Trelawney die?
There's twenty thousand Cornish lads
Will know the reason why."
[Illustration: THE MINSTRELS' GALLERY, EXETER CATHEDRAL.]
[Illustration: THE GUILD HALL.]