Chapter 2

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.

Retracing our steps to the beginning of High Street, and proceeding up Castle Street, we reach the highest point of the city, the Red Mount, crowned by the gateway and ruined towers of an ancient castle. The fortress formed a part of the fortifications erected by Athelstan, and the Red Tower, with its triangular-headed window, may be confidently assigned to the Saxon era. During the Norman period the castle was rebuilt by Brian de Molis. In Stephen's reign it was besieged and taken from Earl Baldwin de Redvers, who was banished until the following reign, when his possessions were restored. The castle belonged to the de Redvers and Courtenay families until 1231, when Henry III presented it to his brother Richard as part of the earldom of Cornwall. In 1537 Henry VIII granted Exeter a charter giving the city the privilege of being a county with its own sheriffs, excepting Rougemont Castle, which still belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall.

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.

Continuing along the bastion the limit of the northern wall is soon reached. Many of the old streets in this quarter of the city are worth visiting, for in the narrow thoroughfares are some interesting old houses. In St. Mary Arches Street is the church of the same name, shut in by houses. It is one of the old parish churches of Exeter, and one that takes part of its name from the fine Norman pillars and arcade of the nave, which is the oldest in the city. In the south aisle is a chantry containing the altar tomb of Thomas Andrews, mayor in 1505 and 1510; and who died in 1518. Mint Street, as its name implies, was associated with the mint established there by permission of William III. The coinage minted there may be recognized by the letter E placed beneath the king's head. Bartholomew Street brings us to Fore Street, a narrow and very steep thoroughfare, within which is the fine front of the Tuckers' Hall, belonging to the Incorporated Guilds of Weavers, Fullers, and Shearmen, chartered in 1490. Close at hand are steps leading down to Exe Island, which was for many years a subject of dispute between the Earls of Devon and the citizens; but on the attainder of Henry, Marquis of Exeter, in 1558, the property reverted to the Crown. On the conclusion of the Prayer-Book Riots the island was granted to the city by Edward VI, as a reward for the services it had rendered the authorities. Most of the old portions of the island have been destroyed, many of them in recent years, but an interesting specimen of a Tudor house remains with a covering of slates somewhat resembling scale armour. Shields appear in the ornamentation, one of them bearing the Tudor rose. At one time this style of wall covering was very common in Exeter, but the example in Exe Island is the only one now remaining.

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.

At the lower end of Fore Street is West Street, marking the western limit of the old walls. A right-hand turn leads to St. Edmund's Church, built in the thirteenth century at one end of the old bridge, when it was known as _St. Edmund Super pontem_. In 1831 the original structure was pulled down and the present building begun. It is said to stand upon some of the arches of the ancient bridge. Turning eastwards we reach the foot of Stepcote Hill, and the church of St. Mary Steps. A remarkable exterior feature is the old clock and figures, known locally as "Matthew the Miller". The dial is enriched with basso-rilievos representing the four seasons, and in a niche just above is a small effigy of Henry VIII in a sitting posture, who nods his head as each hour is struck. On each side is a military figure, their morions crowned with feathers, javelins held in their right hands, and small hammers in their left hands, with which they alternately strike the quarter hours on two small bells at their feet. The name of "Matthew the Miller" is said to have originated from the punctuality of a miller of that name who was so regular in going to and from his mill that people set their clocks by him. The church contains a fine chancel screen, with twenty-eight panels of painted saints, which was removed from the church of St. Mary Major. The font is a good one, of Norman date. Just opposite St. Mary Steps stood the West Gate of the city, which was taken down in 1814.

The Westgate quarter formed part of the manor of Exe Island, and was inhabited chiefly by weavers, fullers, dyers, and those whose occupations required a copious supply of water. The whole of this district is intersected with narrow lanes and passages, beneath and around which are many streams diverted from the river to work the mills.

A few old gabled houses with overhanging upper stories still remain in this district, but they are in a very dilapidated condition, as will be noticed by anyone who traverses one of the numerous byways that lead to South Street, at the lower end of which is Magdalen Street, where are two very interesting hospitals--"Wynard's" and the "Magdalen". The former was founded in 1430 by William Wynard, sometime Recorder of the city, for the habitation of a priest and twelve poor men. The attached chapel was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the hospital was called "God's House". The founder left many lands and tenements to provide funds for the establishment. The master might not be absent more than once or twice in the year, and his total holidays in the twelve months were never to exceed three weeks and three days. He was also required to teach from three to nine boys, starting them with the alphabet, and going on to the "great psalter of the holy David". The foundation passed eventually into the possession of William Kennaway, who built a vault within which he was buried.

The hospital to-day is one of the secular buildings of Exeter most worth visiting, with its gabled houses, dormer windows, and garden plots. An archway leads into the courtyard, around which on three sides are grouped the houses of the twelve pensioners; the chapel occupies the fourth side of the quadrangle.

The Magdalen, or Leper, Hospital, just without the South Gate, was founded sometime before 1135, for in 1136 we find that Bishop Bartholomew permitted a continuance of the ancient right by which the lepers were allowed to collect food twice a week in the market, and alms on two other days, to all of which the healthy members of the community naturally objected. In 1244 Bishop Bruere resigned the guardianship of the leper hospital to the corporation, and was given in its stead the mastership of the hospital of St. John. One of the mayors of Exeter, Richard Orange, was a great patron of the lazar house, and when he himself contracted leprosy he took up his abode in the hospital, where he died and was buried in the chapel. Even so late as the sixteenth century there would appear to have been lepers in Exeter, for we find that in 1580 no one was to be admitted to the Magdalen Hospital except "sick persons in the disease of the leprosy".

In South Street is College Hall, or the Hall of the College of Priest-Vicars or Vicars Choral, a fine oak-panelled apartment. The original hall was built by Bishop Brantyngham about 1388, and access was then gained to it from the Close; the houses of the priest-vicars being arranged on each side of a green. All this has now disappeared with the exception of the hall, which was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. At one end is a gallery upon the upper panels of which are paintings representing former bishops of the diocese, beginning with Leofric. On the carved mantelpiece is the date, 1629, and the owls which constitute the punning, or allusive, arms of Bishop Oldham. Near the hall a road leads into the Close, passing the church of St. Mary Major, a modern building replacing a beautiful old one which appears to have been needlessly destroyed. On the eastern side of the Close is a picturesque Elizabethan building known as Mol's Coffee House. At the time of the Armada it was a private residence. In 1596 the original house was pulled down and the present building erected. On the introduction of coffee into England it was opened as a Club and Coffee House by an Italian named Mol. As such it was a well-known and popular resort with the citizens of Exeter and the squires of the neighbourhood until 1829. It is now used as a shop by a firm of fine-art dealers, but the fine "Armada" room upstairs is willingly shown to all visitors who express a wish to see it. It is a good panelled room with low windows, and an elaborate frieze of shields bearing the arms of many ancient Devonshire families, among them being those of Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, and General Monk. Adjoining Mol's Coffee House is the very small Church of St. Martin, now but rarely used for divine service. On the Catherine Street side of the church is a building, formerly an almshouse, which has an attached chapel of much interest dedicated to St. Catherine. The chapel is conjectured to have been built by the Annuellor monks, whose college originally stood on the site of Mol's Coffee House, where traces of it may still be seen in the cellars. The narrow passage of St. Martin's Lane, known to the present-day citizens as "Luxury Lane", on account of its shops, leads direct from the busy High Street to the Cathedral Close.

THE CATHEDRAL

The present cathedral church of the diocese of Exeter may be said to be the third building that has stood on the site. Nothing remains of the Saxon church elevated to the dignity of a cathedral when the bishopric was removed from Crediton, and of the Norman church erected by Warelwast, a nephew of the Conqueror, only the two massive towers are standing, the remainder of the building belonging almost entirely to the late Decorated style, of which it is one of the most beautiful examples we possess.

The city of Exeter does not appear to have been divided into parishes until the year 1222, in pursuance then no doubt of Archbishop Langton's Constitution of the same year. The Cathedral itself was first constituted a parish by being placed under the charge of a single dignitary, the dean, by Bishop Briwere, in 1225.

Four years after he ascended the throne in 1042, Edward the Confessor gave the united bishopric of Crediton and Cornwall to his chaplain, Leofric, who, observing that Crediton was an open town, difficult to fortify against the Danish raiders, obtained from Pope Leo IX permission to remove the episcopal see to Exeter, when the Benedictine minster of St. Mary and St. Peter became the cathedral church of the diocese.

Although no part of this church remains, an ancient seal of the Cathedral is of special interest as showing some of the architectural features of the Saxon church. It depicts the west front with two towers, the northern square and the southern circular, the latter surmounted by a cross, and pierced by three round openings in the walls. There are two porches, one in the centre the other in the north tower, and the walls show indications of characteristic Saxon masonry. On the central roof is a large flêche or turret of two stages carrying a weathercock on a very tall shaft.

Of the succeeding church the only contemporary pictorial representations we have are those on early, and somewhat imperfect, seals dating from the end of the eleventh century. The first has a church with cresting of fleurs-de-lis on a hipped and tiled roof, two gable crosses, flanking pinnacles, an arcaded clerestory, and a double door with ornamental hinges, on each side of which is a quatrefoil opening. The second seal shows an arcaded building standing on a stone plinth of four courses, and flanked by towers with conical roofs and ball finials. The roof is surmounted by a large fleur-de-lis, and exhibits an unusual form of tiling. A third seal (1194-1206) shows the west front of the Cathedral with two western towers and a central porch, and a large roof turret. Another view of the west front occurs on the seal of the Archdeacon's official, 1267, and in this example there are three pointed towers, the central one carrying a cross, the others being capped with flag vanes. In the doorway stands a figure of the official. The two Norman transeptal towers still standing give the Cathedral a unique appearance, this arrangement being found nowhere else in England, save at the highly interesting and not far distant Collegiate Church of Ottery St. Mary.

Having thus briefly sketched from pictorial evidence the architectural characteristics of the predecessors of the present Cathedral, we may begin our tour of the building. Exeter is known as a Cathedral of the Old Foundation, as in pre-Reformation days it was served by secular canons, and as such it was not refounded by Henry VIII; so that there has been no break in the continuity of its ecclesiastical history since its original institution in the days of Leofric. With the exception of Carlisle, which was served before the Reformation by Augustinian or Austin canons, all the cathedrals of the Old Foundation were served by secular canons. It must be remembered that although nearly the whole of the architectural merit of the Cathedral lies in the interior, and particularly in the magnificent stone vaulting of the roof, which is the high-water mark of vaulting on a large scale in England, there are several portions of the exterior that are worth noting. Externally the great defect of the building is the low elevation of the body, and the want of a central tower to counteract the heavy effect produced by solid square towers at each transept.

The west front, with its low, embattled screen of figures, is not a very happy architectural composition, and is not to be compared to the west fronts of Lincoln and Peterborough, where the figure sculpture is earlier and better executed than at Exeter. The one redeeming feature of an otherwise unimposing west front, is the Decorated tracery of the great window, now filled with modern, and not very satisfactory, glass in memory of Archbishop Temple, who was Bishop of Exeter from 1869 to 1885.