The west front, which is one mass of elegant tracery and canopied niches
adorned with statuary, is the Decorated period merged into that of the
Perpendicular, covering the years from about 1369 to 1394, under the
episcopacy of Brantingham. The windows are excellent examples of elegant
tracing. Under successive bishops after Quivil, the chief alteration was
the lengthening of the nave and the roof vaulted by Grandison. The year
1420 really saw the completion of the building under Bishop Lacey. Time
and weather having caused certain decay, Sir G. G. Scott was directed in
1870 to restore it. The undertaking took seven years. A new stall, a
reredos, the choir repaved, rich marbles and porphyries used, and
stained glass put up mainly by Clayton and Bell, were the chief items of
restoration. When erecting the reredos Scott could never have foreseen
the little storm it gave rise to, just when he was half-way through with
the general renovation. Prebendary Philpotts, the Chancellor, and
several others had their conscientious objections, which they laid
before the Bishop's visitation court in 1873. It was ruled that the
Bishop had the jurisdiction in the matter. He ordered the removal of the
reredos in April 1874. In August of the same year Dean Boyd appealed to
the Court of Arches, and had the previous decision reversed by Sir R.
Phillimore. However, Prebendary Philpotts saw fit to appeal to the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. They decided that the reredos
should remain. Thus in 1875 was ended the controversy; and there rests
Sir G. G. Scott's design, open to the criticism of all who are capable
of framing an impartial one.
In this same year of 1875 much excitement arose over the church-tax. It
was called indifferently "dominicals" and "sacrament money," which were
said to be of the nature of tithes. However, the disputes were ended by
the distraints for payment.
In the Chapter House is preserved an important manuscript, including the
famous book of Saxon poetry presented by Leofric on his accession to the
See of Exeter. It is called the "Exeter Book," and is the life of St.
Guthlac, by Cynewulf, who was an early English writer. Born somewhere
between 720 and 730 at Northumbria, Cynewulf was a wandering bard by
profession. Late in life he suffered a religious crisis, and devoted his
remaining years to religious poetry. An early work of his is a series of
ninety-four Riddles.
It is an example of the effects of Latin influence, which in the end
revolutionised the style of Old English literature as a whole. Cynewulf
appears to have been a prolific writer. Besides the Riddles, the "Crist"
(dealing with the three advents of Christ), the lives of St. Juliana and
St. Elene, and the "Fates of the Apostles" are ascribed to him, as well
as "The Descent into Hell," "Felix," and the lives of St. Andreas and
St. Guthlac. A valuable treasure is that in the possession of Exeter.
Many such precious relics are to be found distributed among the various
ecclesiastical buildings in England, known only to antiquarians and
people with interest akin to theirs. The quaint, picturesque old coffee
tavern, with its bow windows of square-leaded panes, ends curiously at
the top with a moulded outline so reminiscent of many houses in Belgium.
The tombs are mostly to the memory of bishops who each in his own time
maintained the dignity of the See. Of those natives who came to the
front through sheer ability may be enumerated the following: Josephus
Iscanus, or Joseph of Exeter, a distinguished Latin poet of the twelfth
century; his contemporary, Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury; John
Hooker, author of "A History of Exeter in the Sixteenth Century"; Sir
Thomas Bodley, who founded the magnificent Bodleian Library at Oxford;
Matthew Lock, a seventeenth-century musical composer of note; and many
others.
Amongst many notable institutions is the Grammar School, which dates
from the reign of Henry VIII.
The manufactures are few. The woollen trade, at one time only surpassed
by Leeds, has now entirely departed from Exeter. If it were not for its
glorious minster and the river Exe, up which vessels of three hundred
tons' burden can come up right to the city's quay, Exeter would have
long ago sunk to mere insignificance.
The river, which decided the early Britons to settle on its banks, the
Romans to station the Second Legion of Augusta, the monks to establish
their humble monastery, eventually to be absorbed into a see, has from
the early times afforded facilities for exports and imports. The ship
canal from Exeter to Topsham, which is in the estuary of the Exe, begun
in 1564, enlarged in 1675 and again in 1827, materially assisted and
rescued commerce from a serious decline. Those vessels that are too deep
in the water remain at Topsham, whilst those of still greater tonnage
discharge their holds at Exmouth, a port at the mouth of the river.