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Ebook has 91 lines and 17911 words, and 2 pages

Illustrator: E. W. Haslehust

EXETER

Described by Sidney Heath

Pictured by E. W. Haslehust

BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED LONDON, GLASGOW AND BOMBAY 1912

Beautiful England

OXFORD THE ENGLISH LAKES CANTERBURY SHAKESPEARE-LAND THE THAMES WINDSOR CASTLE CAMBRIDGE NORWICH AND THE BROADS THE HEART OF WESSEX THE PEAK DISTRICT THE CORNISH RIVIERA DICKENS-LAND WINCHESTER THE ISLE OF WIGHT CHESTER YORK THE NEW FOREST HAMPTON COURT EXETER

Beautiful Ireland

LEINSTER ULSTER MUNSTER CONNAUGHT

Page

The Quay 8

Guildhall Porch 14

Mol's Coffee House 20

Rougemont Castle 26

St. Mary Steps 32

The Cathedral from the Palace Grounds 38

The Sanctuary, Exeter Cathedral 42

Old Courtyard in the Close 46

The Abbot's Lodge 50

The Exe at Topsham 54

Countess Weir 58

Plan of Exeter Cathedral 4

THE CITY

With the coming of the Saxons, the river, the Roman Isca, became the Exa, and the city was called Exanceaster, modified in due course to Exeter.

In point of position, on a mound rising from the river, it was a splendid site for a fortress in the days of hand-to-hand warfare, and the military value of the site lends support to the statement of some writers that the Romans utilized the British fortifications and built a castle. In few places of its size can one see so clearly the extent of the old walled town, while the disposition and formation of its outer ring of houses, on the lower slopes of the mound, show very clearly the limits of the mural circumvallation before the city burst asunder its tight-fitting belt of stone, within which, for the safety of its populace, it had been imprisoned for centuries.

Climb the higher parts for a bird's-eye view of the city, and the scene is entrancing. We look down upon the calm-flowing Exe threading its way through the valley till it debouches at Exmouth; on the riverside beneath us is the quay, with coasting schooners and barges moored alongside, and sundry bales of merchandise heaped upon the wharf, as though the people were playing at commerce to remind the world at large that Exeter was once an important port, although some ten miles from the river's mouth.

It is a city which has the impress of many ages and many minds stamped upon it. Here each influence--military from the Roman legions, ecclesiastical from the Saxon prelates, feudal from the Norman lords--has sunk deeply into the land, and has affected the general plan of the numerous buildings, as it has moulded the slowly succeeding phases of the civic and the religious life. It is no mere dream of the early ages, no sentimental reverie of mediaevalism. It is enough to go through the streets, noting the remnants of the ancient walls, the brutal strength of the surviving fragment of the castle, the sheltered position of the tidal basin, the many churches dedicated to the honour of Saxon saints, the proud beauty and massiveness of the Cathedral, if one would realize, not the fancies of the artist and the poet, but the hard facts of history that made the ancient days so great, and which have caused our own days to be so full of their memories.

As compared with the sister counties of Cornwall and Dorset, Devonshire is not particularly well represented in memorials of the Roman occupation, although an immense number of Roman coins have been unearthed at various times. Coins, however, unless found with definite structural remains, indicate presence rather than a settled occupation, for large quantities of the Roman coinage must have continued in circulation long after the last of the legions of imperial Rome had departed from British shores. The few Roman antiquities of Exeter that have been found are important in a comparative sense, although they contrast poorly in structural character with those of our other Romano-British towns. It has been held that not only were the foundations of the city walls Roman, but part of the existing remains of Rougemont Castle have also been assigned to this period.

Mr. L. Davidson was of opinion that the old church tower of St. Mary Major exhibited traces of Roman work, and foundations presumed to be Roman were noted by him as having been found at the corner of Castle Street and High Street, in St. Mary Arches Street, Bedford Circus, Market Street, South Street, and Mint Lane.

In 1836 more definite structural remains were found in High Street, consisting of a family sepulchral vault, 7 feet square, arched over, and containing five coarse cinerary urns arranged in niches around its interior. This was discovered behind the "Three Tuns" inn, and during the same year at a great depth below the site of the County Bank, a low-arched chamber was found in which were a quantity of bones of men and animals.

The antiquary Leland mentions two Roman inscriptions as built into the city wall near Southernhay, but they are gone, and besides the inscribed dagger we have only a seal of Severius Pompeyus, and sundry graffiti or funereal pottery, in the way of literary relics of Roman Exeter. The poverty of Devonshire in memorials of the Roman period is shown by the fact that, outside Exeter, there are not a dozen places in the county which have yielded Roman vestigia other than coins.

In 926 the Britons were driven from Exeter by Athelstan, who banished them into Cornwall, and fixed the River Tamar as their boundary. Athelstan was one of the greatest benefactors the city has had; for, in addition to increasing the fortifications by means of a massive wall flanked by towers, he built a castle on the Red Mount, now known as Rougemont Castle. Although very little of this now remains, a portion of the ruins is generally known as "Athelstan's Tower", and has a window with a triangular head, which is certainly of Saxon style and date. In 932 Athelstan rebuilt the Monastery of Our Lady and St. Peter, staffing it with monks of the Benedictine Order, and presenting them with the reputed relics of St. Sidwell, a saint who is still somewhat of a puzzle to ecclesiologists. A few years later the monastery was plundered by the Danes, when the monks beat a hasty retreat, but returned in 968 on the entreaty of King Edgar. A mint was shortly established here, wherein the first coins were struck naming Athelstan "King of England".

After the Battle of Hastings, Gytha, the mother of Harold, took refuge in Exeter, and Leofric, the bishop, offered to render homage to William as Royal suzerain; but the Conqueror would have no half-hearted submission, so Exeter closed its gates to the Normans. It held out for eighteen days, when the military science of the Normans, and particularly the skill they showed in undermining the walls, caused it to surrender. The resistance won the besiegers' respect and brought unusually good terms from so ruthless a victor as William. The lives of the garrison were spared, Gytha was allowed to seek safety by sea, and it has been said that the victorious troops were withdrawn from the city gates to prevent them from claiming the licentious privileges so generally granted to their followers by the Norman kings.

As is fitting for its county town, the first entry in the Devonshire Domesday deals with Exeter, in which city, it is recorded, the king had 285 houses rendering customary dues. The generally debased character of the coinage of the time led to various expedients being adopted by the Exchequer for securing approximately accurate payment of a specified sum of money. Among other things the entries in Domesday state that in the total--

"This renders 18 pounds per annum. Of these Baldwin the Sheriff has six pounds by weight and assay, and Colvin has of them 12 pounds by tale for the service of Queen Eadgyth".

This entry is significant, for one pound or twenty shillings meant one pound or twelve ounces troy of silver; and when money was payable by weight twenty shillings were not taken as the equivalent of one pound unless they fully weighed one pound. In this instance it is observable that the portion of the customary dues rendered for the 285 houses, which went to the Exchequer, was collected by the sheriff under the strictest rules of weight and assay, whereas the portion allotted to the widow of Edward the Confessor was received by the tale only. The authorities took care that the sheriff collected the full amount due to the Crown, but did not trouble themselves about the ex-queen's share.

In May, 1644, Queen Henrietta Maria took up her abode in the city, at Bedford House, where, on 16 June of the same year, the Princess Henrietta was born. In the following month Charles I came to see his little daughter, and again in September, when he appointed Thomas Fuller, Vicar of Broadwindsor, in Dorset, as chaplain to the princess. The queen, who had retired to Exeter as a safe place for her confinement, soon afterwards had to leave there suddenly on the approach of a Parliamentary army in command of the Earl of Essex. Her Majesty's easiest way to France was by sea, and to prevent this Cromwell had sent a fleet to Torbay to intercept her, should she attempt to leave England by that route. Finding this road closed, she made for Falmouth, from which port she got safely away.

During the siege by Fairfax the inhabitants of the city suffered considerably, owing to the food supplies being intercepted. One day a flight of larks came into the town, "which were", says Fuller, "as welcome as quails in the wilderness". The birds were so numerous that, notwithstanding the prevailing famine, they were sold for twopence a dozen. "Of this miraculous event", wrote Fuller, "I was not only an eye but a mouth witness."

The city capitulated on 13 April, 1646, among the conditions of surrender being that the Cathedral should be spared, and the garrison accorded the honours of war.

Although the Cathedral is the main attraction modern Exeter has to offer to the tourist, a walk through the historic old city will reveal the fact that, in addition to some highly interesting old churches, it possesses a not inconsiderable number of ancient buildings. At the same time there has been an appalling amount of destruction, some of it apparently of an unnecessary kind, as the recent dismantling of the beautiful old courtyard in the rear of Bampfylde House, the city residence of the Poltimore family.

Another portrait here by Lely is of the Princess Henrietta, concerning which the old records state that: "In 1671 the King , in order to keep his promise made the last year when he visited this city in person, and as a signal testimony of his love towards the same, was pleased to send hither the effigy or portraiture, at length and richly framed of his dear sister, the Duchess of Orleans , a princess born within this city, and for beauty was esteemed to be one of the fairest in Christendom; which said picture being placed in a fair case of timber, richly adorned with gold, is erected in the open guildhall of the said city, there to remain as a perpetual monument of his majesty's high favour towards this his truly ancient, loyal, and honourable city of Exeter".

The junction of North and South Streets with Fore and High Streets was formerly known as the Carfoix, or Carfax , where at one time many executions took place. Here also stood the ancient conduit which supplied the city with water, but this was removed to South Street in 1779. At the corner, looking down Fore Street, was a fine fourteenth-century life-size figure of St. Peter, holding a model of a church in his right hand and a book in his left, his feet trampling on a demon. This has been removed from its original position and placed high up in a niche over a shop close by. On the opposite side of High Street is St. Petrock's Church, at one time almost hidden from sight by the adjacent buildings. It is a curious little church, of which portions have been assigned to the Saxon period. The parish of St. Petrock is in the centre of the city, and was one of the oldest and most important, being one of the nineteen churches to which William I ordered the provost to pay a silver penny yearly. The church was enlarged on the south side during the fifteenth century, and in the following century the Jesus aisle was added, when Thomas Chard, acting as Bishop Oldham's suffragan, reconsecrated the church. The chancel is now towards the east in what was once an aisle, the original chancel being where the north aisle is now, with the consequence that the interior of the church has a very curious appearance.

Farther up High Street, on the same side, are some picturesque houses with Elizabethan gables, the interiors of many of them adorned with fine specimens of oak carving in situ. The building now occupied by Messrs. Green as a drapery establishment was at one time the "New Inn", and it is mentioned in this capacity so early as 1456 in a lease relating to the building, in which it is referred to as "le Newe Inne". In 1554 the cloth mart was established here, and early in the seventeenth century the New Inn Hall was used as the exchange where the cloth merchants met to transact their business. The house was rebuilt towards the close of the century, and the Apollo Room was added as a banqueting hall for the judges on circuit. This is now used as a showroom, but it still retains its elaborate plaster ceiling bearing the date 1695, and the original oak panelling. The frieze consists of a series of wreaths upholding shields charged with the armorial bearings of many county families, together with the royal arms and those of the city.

Farther up the street is the church of St. Stephen, mentioned in Domesday. The original church was destroyed by the Commonwealth in 1658, and rebuilt in 1664. Stephen's Bow, the adjacent archway, was always a part of the church, and above it rises the tower; beneath the church is an ancient crypt. A turning to the right close by leads to Bedford Circus, with a statue of the Earl of Devon at the entrance. In the thirteenth century a Dominican Convent was founded in this part of the city, and occupied the southern portion of the circus, together with Chapel Street and the adjoining mews. In 1558 the convent was dissolved, and Bedford House, the West-Country residence of the Dukes of Bedford, was erected. Here Henrietta Maria held her Court, and here the little princess was born. The Dukes of Bedford ceased to use this residence in the eighteenth century, and in 1773 it fell into the builders' hands, when the eastern side of the circus was built, the western side not being begun until 1826. The place to-day possesses no attractive features, and only the memories of its past history remain. The earlier excavations brought to light a great number of skulls, bones, and fragments of sculpture; while during the later building operations, especially those conducted on the site of the conventual church, a large number of carved stones were unearthed which had evidently formed part of the Dominican house. Some of these fragments were richly ornamented with painting and gilding. Another discovery was the life-size stone head of an effigy with a hood of closely set ring mail. This is now preserved in the Cathedral cloisters.

Returning to High Street, Bampfylde Street lies a little higher up. A great portion of this street is occupied by the front of Bampfylde House, built by Sir Amyas Bampfylde at the end of the sixteenth century. In later years this became the town house of the Poltimore family. Although shamefully modernized the house has retained a few interesting features. In the hall is seen a narrow window filled with old glass on which armorial bearings are displayed, while the broad staircase leads to a fine apartment panelled in oak, and having an elaborate plaster ceiling. The mantelpiece is a good piece of work and bears the arms of the Poltimores in its centre. There are one or two other good rooms and some deep cupboards, and one very small apartment is said to be a genuine eighteenth-century powdering closet. The beautiful old courtyard at the back will no longer be recognized by those who knew it a few years ago. It has been "restored".

The Church of St. Lawrence is situated on the north side of High Street, and dates from 1202. It was sold during the Commonwealth, and bought by the parishioners for ?100. On the south side, and slightly farther up, is St. John's Hospital, situated near to where the old East Gate formerly stood. The hospital was founded circa 1225 by Gilbert and John Long. Bishop Grandisson was a great benefactor to it, as, in addition to increasing the number of inmates and clergy, he added "a master of grammar and twelve scholars". The foundation was suppressed in 1540, but in 1620 its restoration was planned by Hugh Crossing and carried out after his death by his widow. The institution was refounded in 1629--when only the school was revived--and is now known as the "Blue Boys' School". The playground is partly bounded by a piece of the old city wall, whence one can look down on the Southernhay Gardens and obtain a good impression of the strength of the ancient fortifications.

The seal of St. John's Hospital is an interesting one of thirteenth-century date on which is depicted the exterior of St. John's Chapel, which is shown as having a shingled roof and gable crosses; also an external arcade of three semicircular arches. Another interesting seal of the same century is that of the Hospital of St. Alexius, founded in 1170. This foundation, and the hospital of the bishops, formerly on the site of the present Vicars' College, were afterwards united with the Hospital of St. John at the East Gate. The seal shows the hospital with gable crosses, an arcaded clerestory, and three quatrefoil openings in its wall; beneath is an arcade of six arches.

High Street merges into Sidwell Street. St. Sidwell's was one of the nineteen old city parishes although without the walls. The site of St. Sidwell's Church is said to be on the spot where a saint of this name suffered martyrdom. She is one of those half-mythical British saints, said by tradition to have been beheaded by a scythe whilst praying beside a well. A church is said to have been built in her honour so early as 749. The present building has undergone repeated restorations, but some ancient pillars still remain with sculptured capitals, and there is also a representation of St. Sidwell, or Sidwella, whose attributes are a well and a scythe. To the monastery he had founded Athelstan presented some reputed relics of the saint.

At the top of Sidwell Street is St. Anne's Almshouse, one of the most interesting foundations in the city. It was originally a hermitage, but little is known about it until 1418, when it was "newly constructed", and in 1561 Oliver and George Mainwaring founded a hospital for eight poor people. The chapel is a small building that has retained its piscina and two niches for holding figures. The almshouse was fortified by Fairfax during the Civil War, and for many years the chapel was in a ruinous condition, but it was restored early in the nineteenth century. St. Anne's Day, 26 July, has been observed regularly by the inmates of the charity since its foundation.

In 1774 a large portion of the castle ruins were cleared away, when several interesting buildings were destroyed, among them the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin, to make room for the present Assize Court, a plain building with no pretensions to architectural beauty. On the right of the castle yard is a little path leading to the top of the walls, whence a comprehensive view of the city and the neighbourhood can be obtained. Looking straight across the valley, beyond the county jail, one can see the site of the ancient camp of the Danes, against whom Athelstan built his fortifications, now occupied by the reservoir. At the foot of the wall are the Northernhay Gardens, a favourite resort with youthful Exonians. From Northernhay the old walls can easily be traced westwards, and crossing Queen Street we may proceed down the narrow Maddocks Row to find the wall pierced by the only archway now remaining. Continuing westwards we cross North Street, where the old North Gate stood until it was demolished in 1769. Entering Bartholomew Street East we are on the ramparts again, and from the bastion near All-Hallows-on-the-Walls Church we may look down upon the old Bartholomew burying-ground, consecrated in 1639, and used as the principal city cemetery for nearly two hundred years. The Church of All-Hallows-on-the-Walls is a modern one that stands on the site of a more ancient edifice. From this point one can see the tapering spire of St. Michael's Church, in the grounds of Mount Dinham, where are the almshouses erected and endowed in 1860 by John Dinham. Here are forty free cottages and episcopal charity schools, the latter founded originally in 1709 by Bishop Offspring Blackall.

On the south side of Fore Street stands St Olave's Church, where, according to Domesday, a church with the same dedication existed before the Conquest. It is said traditionally to have been built by Gytha, Harold's mother, in order that masses might be said for the souls of her son and Earl Godwin. William I gave the church to the monks of Battle Abbey, in whose possession it remained until the Reformation. More than a century later St. Olave's was lent to the French Huguenot refugees, many of whom settled in Exeter where they established an important woollen industry. The present church bears few indications of antiquity, beyond some Norman arches and a little early carving in the tower.

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