Exeter Cathedral The Rev Canon Edmonds ied by ,rt Railton IfU LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA PRESENTED BY MISS PEARL CHASE UCSB LIBRARY Exeter Cathedral :-^^^m^ Exeter Cathedral Illustrated by Herbert Railton 'By The Rev. W. J. Edmonds, B.D. Canon of Exeter London : Isbister &f Co. Ltd. 15 ff 1 6 Tavistock Street Covent Garden MDCCCXCVIII Exeter Cathedral THE Cathedral Church of Exeter is a church "of the old foundation." It never was anything else than it is now. It was from the first the church of a bishop and canons. It was never the church of an abbot and monks. In the library there lies, in a glass case, the Charter of Edward the Confessor, which records the foundation of the see. Forty years after the death of the Confessor, the present building began to rise on the time-honoured spot which, for over a thousand years, has been the heart of Exeter. The church and the charter bear witness to an uninterrupted purpose. Exeter Cathedral In outline and character generally, this fine church is unique. There are larger churches and loftier churches ; there are, as at Wells and Salisbury, cathedral churches more picturesquely situated, but nowhere is there a cathedral of greater originality, of more complete harmony, of more obvious and striking unity. "The church of Exeter," says Dr. Freeman, who by the breadth of his knowledge was more than most men competent to say it, " forms a class by itself." " As far as detail goes," he adds, " no building of its age shows us the taste of that age in greater perfection." It does not hold its high place in the hierarchy of churches in virtue of the area of ground which it covers. It does not rank in magnitude with the great cathedral of Wessex, or the greater church of Canterbury, or with Lincoln, or with York. But in originality, in harmony, in unity, it bears comparison with the proudest of them all. 10 Exeter Cathedral Cathedrals of the first rank have their interior walls very variously divided and distributed and pierced. There is the great arcade, " a pillar'd shade, high over-arched." That there must be ; and there must needs be a clerestory above it. There may be or may not be, between these, a triforium, but if there is then the building may challenge a place in the front rank, and perhaps have its claim allowed. In that respect there are splendid churches in England to which in some respects Exeter " goes less," which are yet reckoned of lower rank because they lack this perfectness of plan. The distribution of the wall space is the test of the architect's sense of proportion. Quivil, the genius of Exeter Cathedral, was in this respect severely tried. He had to work under conditions that deprived him of a free hand. The building which he began to transform was like no other that he knew. The Norman towers between which the long unbroken roof stretches out east and west, Exeter Cathedral compelled him to keep his roof low, or else they would be dwarfed. As we see them at this day they are not dwarfed, and yet the choir roof of Exeter gives a sense of loftiness that is not felt even at Lincoln. Impressiveness is the note of Exeter Cathedral as the visitor sees it from without, and harmony is the impression that will be left upon him when he has seen it within. There is richness in many cathedrals and beauty in all of them, but none of them excels Exeter for the harmonious integrity that makes the visitor feel that it is one church from end to end, a church at unity in itself. The impressiveness of the exterior is chiefly produced by the aspect of venerable age which is presented by the west front, in which the sculptured screen, with its broken effigies of saints and kings, though later in time than the rest, has a large share ; then by the marked pyramidal outline of the em- battled and arcaded upper works ; lastly, by Exeter Cathedral the exceedingly beautiful figure of St. Peter in the gable, which, in spite of its condition of almost ruinous decay, the Dean and Chapter have found an architect and sur- veyor with skill enough and reverence enough to preserve. The sculptured screen which catches the eye at the west front of the Cathedral has been the subject of careful examination. It contains five-and-thirty figures of apostles, prophets, martyrs, saints and kings. Some of them are broken and others decayed. The fifth of November bon- fires, often occurring on wet nights, have damaged them sadly. Year by year it is less and less possible to identify them, though courageous persons have been found to give them all a name. One or two figures have been inserted in recent times. Mr. E. B. Stephens, to whose genius the Wellington Monument in St. Paul's is due, tried a not unskilful hand upon the task of replacing a sorely decayed king or two. But nothing has been done, or will be, to restore these 15 Exeter Cathedral figures as a whole, for to do that would be to take five centuries out of the impressive- ness of the building. One of the chief discoveries recorded in recent years was made at this spot. On the right side of the north of the three western entrances a stone or two of a new colour shows where the authorities made an attempt to ascertain what lay behind this screen. It was found that the whole screen is a beautiful veil of a massive buttress built back upon Grandisson's west front. Instead of being Grandisson's work it covers Gran- disson's work. The mouldings of that earlier work were laid bare, and drawings and models carefully made. There may have been at the end of the fourteenth century some alarm like that which at Peterborough was the occasion of the insertion of a massive porch in the central arch ; beautiful, no doubt, but not inserted because it was beautiful, but made beautiful because it was inserted to do its duty. 16 Exeter Cathedral This motive was at work also at Exeter, and Grandisson's work was covered, with no disrespect to him, but because this homage, due to the Cathedral itself, was greater than that due even to its greatest builder. It may be mentioned here that long, long ago, there was a movement of the roof westwards. The gable overhung the lower stories by some inches. Successive surveyors and architects employed palliatives. It is be- lieved that recent operations have made the west front permanently secure. There is an interesting chapel dedicated to St. Radegund, in the thickness of the great west wall, behind the screen. Bishop Grandisson prepared his tomb there. It is sometimes argued that Grandisson lengthened the nave, and that the whole west wall and front were built in his time. Once more a document alters the conditions of the problem and decides the point. The Dean and Chapter possess a deed conferring upon them the advowson of the living of St, Exeter Cathedral Pancras at Widecombe-in-the-Moor, a parish on the southern slope of Dartmoor. In this a stipulation is made that they shall maintain a memorial service for the benefit of the soul of Roger de Thoriz, late Dean of Exeter ; the date of this document is 1283. It is agreed that the service shall be held in St. Radegund's chapel. There is a second element in the impres- siveness of which notice has been taken. It is produced upon the visitor who comes up from the Palace gate, by the southern of the two Norman towers. These massive erections, though they balance each other so as to satisfy the eye from every point of view, are, as to details, and even as to magnitude, independent creations of the Norman architect who reared them. There is nothing like them in any other part of the building. There is nothing like them in any other English cathedral. They are like castles, and it is possible that some idea of defence was in the mind of their builders. 18 Exeter Cathedral They were reared in 1112, and some nervous- ness may still have haunted the minds of Exeter Churchmen, for, only sixty-two years before, the see was moved from Crediton to Exeter because it was considered that " a safer defence may be had there " than at Crediton. The Danes had left this panic in men's minds, for they had burnt the church that Athelstan reared in Exeter. The appre- hension of danger often lingers long after the peril has passed away. "A safer defence can be had there." The quotation is from the charter of Edward the Confessor. This document is one of the treasures of the library. It has the names of the King, of Earl Godwin, of Earl Harold, afterwards king, \vho fell at Hastings, of Tostig, of the two Archbishops, of Stigand, of half-a-dozen bishops and abbots, and an equal number of nobles and thanes. It recites in legal form the step by which the see had come to be placed at Exeter, and is full of good sense and modern feeling. Exeter Cathedral The see had been at St. Germans and at Creditor), but population was sparse, and pirates had been able to devastate the churches. " It has been considered that a safer defence can be had at Exeter, and so I will that the see be there." The Pope has been consulted and he approves. So the document runs, and it is not unreasonable to think that, as defence was a motive when the see was moved to Exeter, so a haunting sense of danger may have shaped the design, and given to Exeter Cathedral its unique- ness ; the strong towers that flank it north and south symbolising the refuge and strength that so lately good men had come to Exeter to find. The northern tower is, however, usually seen first. A narrow thoroughfare, called St. Martin's Lane, once closed by a gate, leads into the close from the High Street, and offers a view in which more of the Cathedral can be seen at once than from any other spot. *) Bul!re//g/ Exeter Cathedral As the visitor stands a few yards east of the iron gate that leads to the north porch, he is separated from the church by a stretch of green sward carefully kept, beneath which lie the dead of seven centuries. No memorial stone marks any several grave, one "har- bouring shrine " hides them and guards them. The Cathedral itself gives sufficient dignity to their resting-place. At this spot its aspect is singularly calm and restful and impres- sive. The eastern end of the building retreats from the spectator, and incidentally displays in helpful perspective the line of buttresses, the beautiful tracery of the windows, the projections of the chantry chapels, and finally the pinnacles and the geometrical felicities of the Lady Chapel. There, right and left of the Norman tower, with its pointed window, cut right through the dog-toothed details of its own native adornments, stretches the work of a .series of builders, covering a hundred years, whose 25 Exeter Cathedral successive labours can be distinguished only by an expert, so faithfully have they co- operated, almost as if they had lived and toiled together in mutual agreement. Just above the battlement, at the foot of the window to which reference has just been made, and a little on one side, the mark is left upon the tower of the gable of a house, long, long ago built at right angles to the tower. That was the treasurer's house, and there, in the autumn of 1497, was lodged King Henry VII., who had been brought west by the rebellion connected with Perkin Warbeck. The rising was over, Warbeck was a prisoner, as indeed were a good many others. The impostor was reserved for other scenes, but minor offenders were deal witht on the spot. A row of sixteen trees stood before the treasurer's house, and the autumn leaves were on them. " Eight of them were cut down that the King from a fair window newly made might better see the prisoners, who stood in order, bareheaded, with halters 26 it -: , ; -. *$ _*?: Exeter Cathedral round their necks, and cried for mercy. Henry made a gracious speech and answered their prayer, ' wherewith the people made a great shout, hurled away their halters and cried " God save the King." ' " Just fourteen years before, Richard III. had been in Exeter, and there a presenti- ment came to him that Shakespeare has made immortal. He asked to be shown all the sights of the city and neighbourhood. " The Mayor in courtesy showed me the castle, And called it Rougemont at which name I started, Because a bard of Ireland told me once I should not live long after I saw Richmond." The impressiveness with which we are dealing should have one final opportunity of stamping itself upon the memory. The Bishop's " courtesy " opens his garden to those who wish to take advantage of it, and there, at the south-east angle, or rather, standing back from the south-east angle, the Lady Chapel, the choir, and the south tower 29 Exeter Cathedral are seen together in such a blending of beautiful features as almost compels the conviction that the secret of the Cathedral will only be revealed to the inquirer who comes to that spot to ask his questions. The ground falls away a good deal on that side, just as it rises a good deal at the west end of the building. To preserve the level, therefore, the Lady Chapel stands upon a platform, and there is a loftiness and a grace in the aspect there presented by the church, which will not soon fade from the memory of those who have, even for a short time, submitted to the control of the genius loci. Everywhere in the walls of this ancient church, in the core of the building, in the lower courses of Aiasonry in the older parts, there are found in abundance, stones squared and shaped of that red conglomerate on which Exeter itself stands. And yet it is quite certain that the Norman Cathedral was not built of it. The towers remain to bear 30 Exeter Cathedral witness that their " cliff-like " masonry it is Mr. Ruskin's epithet was grey, or if not grey when the pile was reared, it was possible for these stones to become grey. This matter does not seem hitherto to have had much attention drawn to it. It is likely, however, that the church in which Leofric was enthroned by Edward the Con- fessor was red, as the old city walls are red, as Athelstan's Tower is red, as all the old city churches are red to this day. But along the picturesque coast of South Devon, as the tourist, taking advantage of the steamers eastward from Exmouth or westward from Weymouth, finds, between the red sandstone of Devon and the chalk of Dorset, there run out to the sea a series of beds, of which two at least caught the eye of the Norman builders, and gave a character to the Cathedral which it has never lost since. Salcombe and Beer provided a large part of the material the Norman builders used, and when the days came that the Norman church 3 1 Exeter Cathedral was transformed into the thing of beauty that Quivil and Bitton and Grandisson made it, the marvel of the change owed nothing to change of material it was out of the same quarries that the stones of the new work came. The eye of the Norman was trained to see in a land of lighter tints than the deep red of Devonshire. The Salcombe stone, as those familiar with it know, has a bright sparkle in it, and the pure white, cretaceous Beer stone is ideally suited to the purpose of the sculptor who has thoughts of beauty and purity and saintliness in his mind. It so happens that a recent discovery has put the aspect of the Norman church once more before our eyes. There is on the north side of the nave, at the extreme west end of it, a chapel called St. Edmund's chapel. In an old document it is described as supra ossileghnn. A crack in the wall above ground induced the Dean and Chapter in the spring of 1896 to order the spot to be investigated, so as to strengthen, if necessary, 32 SIS ! lrt:,->'^ f Hil: < 1 T i ^f* Exeter Cathedral the foundations under the crack. A few feet below the soil the workmen came upon a considerable number of stones of Norman character ; voussoirs of arches, capitals, corbels, grotesque heads, " mopings and mournings " in stone. These were all of Salcombe stone, all of twelfth-century cha- racter, and in addition to these many others were seen built into the foundation walls of the chapel. The secret was soon discovered; the Norman nave wall had been thrown down for the insertion, in the thirteenth century, of the chapel, and there the stones lay in the trench below, almost in the order in which once, in higher dignity, they had stood above ground. The chapel as it stands to-day is of fourteenth-century work, but it was built earlier, as is apparent upon careful examina- tion. It was built when the new wine was working in the faculties of the thirteenth- century builders, and they toppled over the construction of their predecessors with the light heart of men not so much wanting in 35 c Exeter Cathedral reverence, as feeling within them an inex- haustible fountain of new power. So much, then, for the general character of impressiveness which is inseparable from Exeter Cathedral viewed from the out- side. And as the note of the Cathedral outside is that of impressiveness, so inside, every- where, in detail, and in the general effect, the sense of harmony is paramount, and that harmony is not disturbed by the quasi- division of choir and nave that is effected by the organ-screen erected when the Cathedral was transformed. John de Grandisson, that most magnificent bishop, who knew both France and England well, found the church only half-finished when he came to it in 1327. He pushed on the work, grew interested in it, and wrote to his friend Pope John the Twenty-second, that if the church should be worthily com- pleted " it \vould be admired for its beauty 36 Exeter Cathedral above every other of its kind within the realms of England or France." But we are dealing with harmony rather than with beauty. The church is not only beautiful, it is harmoniously beautiful. How comes this ? Certainly not because the work was done at one time. It is the result of ' that rare deference to one superior mind, of which, now and then, we see examples, by virtue of which a man stretches out magic hands back over the past and forward into the future, till he has moulded into harmony the obedient energies of three generations of men. Who is the man who did this for Exeter Cathedral ? The answer to this question is clear and indisputable. It was Peter Quivil, Bishop of Exeter from 1280 to 1291. Quivil did not find the Cathedral merely what the Conqueror's nephew, William War- elwast, had left it. There had come enlarge- ment. As originally designed, the choir was of three bays only, and the towers were 37 Exeter Cathedral simply external castles. Marshall (1194-1206) had lengthened the choir and built a Lady Chapel, and Purbeck marble had begun to appear. The consequences to Exeter Church of the arrival of Purbeck marble were mo- mentous. Exeter is very Exeterian. There is some excuse for this powerful provinciality of temper. Quivil, as has been said, was an Exeter man. He may stand in the group of great architects as Dante saw Plato and Socrates stand with the highest and the ablest thinkers. He it was who moulded Purbeck marble into the distinctive group of shafts which makes the Exeter pillar the very type of the union of beauty and strength, and gives a kind of primacy to Exeter, even in an age of architects. It was not an idea brought from else- where. Standing between the Lady Chapel and the choir, the visitor is in the cradle where Quivil rocked his ideas. There the pillar grew : the Exeter pillar of sixteen shafts was born there. The eye falls there 38 Exeter Cathedral upon a fourfold pillar, then upon an eight- fold ; then upon a clustered pillar of sixteen shafts. Thenceforth there is no change ; that pillar is repeated everywhere and carries harmony in form and colour from one end to the other. Moving westwards to the next sphere of Quivil's operations, we do well to stand where the transepts widen out the ground floor, and give to the whole building a cruciform character. The lofty, pointed arch adorned with Pur- beck shafts, which rises from floor to roof, sustains the weight which once was carried by the inner tower wall. That window, a wheel in the middle of a wheel, piercing the Norman wall, and filling the space under its pointed apex with geometrical grace, is the triumph of the decorated order over the heavy plain massiveness of the castle idea. The winter is over and gone. Old things have passed away. Quivil is contented though to confine himself within modest bounds. All the strong fidelity of the 41 Exeter Cathedral Norman effort that can be left is left ; but light is come into the world of architecture, and Quivil let it in through the Norman wall by an aperture worthy of it. Har- mony is our guiding thought, so let it be noted that what Quivil did on one side of the church, he did on the other. " Bilateral symmetry" is the expression which Arch- deacon Freeman used to express the law which in this wonderful building sets every- where one thing over against another. And one bay of the nave Quivil left behind him. The material of pier and pillar was composed of Purbeck marble. Necessity was laid upon his successors to finish as he had begun, and when a generation had passed away, John de Grandisson came and saw and was conquered. Grandisson finished what Quivil began, and, what is more, he finished as Quivil began. It was no slavish following of his leaders ; Grandisson was too great for that. The beautiful Minstrels' Gallery, the very poetry 42 Exeter Cathedral of symbolism, proves that. Lifted, as our illustration shows, high out of ordinary reach, and protected, strange paradox, by its unec- clesiastical character, there it is, each figure perfect, just as it was when the Black Prince saw it, when he came home this way. Thus the harmony is complete of roof and pillar. To turn for a moment from general im- pressions to details, there is a mine of historical interest, easy to be worked by the careful observer, in what Exeter Cathedral has embodied in its stones. The corbels of the nave, the points from which the vaulting shafts spring, on the north side especially, strike upon the eye, and pass on from the eye to the mind. They are portraits, personalities, not sugges- tions of character, however unearthly. In the niches on either side of the Minstrels' Gallery are Edward 1 1 1. and Queen Philippa. Blanche, John of Gaunt's wife, was Gran- disson's cousin. His episcopate coincided almost throughout with the reign of Ed- 45 Exeter Cathedral ward III. These corbels are a portrait gallery of the Plantagenets. The greatest of the Plantagenets came to Exeter while Quivil was at his work. Edward and Eleanor spent their Christmas here in 1285. Then the "close" as a close came into existence. Then the gates were made that for centuries shut up the precincts at the sound of the curfew bell. Edward was in Exeter again twelve years later, just as Alfred was in Exeter twice, though with a still longer interval between the two comings. The second time Edward gave larger rights within the close to the citizens, and drew tighter as well the formal as the personal bonds that made him popular. He became " Lord " of Exeter. The Minstrels' Gallery has been already briefly referred to. This beautiful insertion into the building has quite a foreign cha- racter. Twelve winged figures, each holding an instrument of music, fill the front space and the two returns. A guitar, the bagpipes, 4 6 Exeter Cathedral a flageolet, a violin, a harp, two wind in- struments of some kind, a trumpet, an organ, another guitar, a tambour, and the cymbals, display the powers of a fourteenth-century orchestra. Grandisson was consecrated at Avignon, and his residence there may have furnished him with some of the suggestions here carried out. This gallery is said in the guide-books to have been erected in honour of the Black Prince when he came back from his wars bringing with him King John of France as his prisoner. It seems almost disloyal to cast doubt upon this story, but as at Canterbury it is claimed on the authority of Froissart that the Prince and his prisoners landed at Sand- wich and came to Canterbury, it is plain that the Minstrels' Gallery may have had a less illustrious motive. Dean Stanley, however, finds discrepancies in the Canterbury version of the visit, and gives the story in what he calls the " usual " form. 47 Exeter Cathedral Of the windows, it must be said, that throughout the church they are rich and beautiful. With the one exception of the great east window, " Decorated " is written upon tracery and mouldings, and each win- dow has its fellow on the other side of the church. Of the glass in these windows there will be something presently to say. No visitor to Exeter Cathedral of any sen- sibility to beauty will have been in it five minutes before he lifts his eyes to the roof. It is the high-water mark in England of vaulting. The great minster at Lincoln, the, yet more dignified fane at Canterbury, are inferior in this respect to their smaller sister at Exeter. The towers being outside the church, there is no lantern or central tower to cut the roof in two, so that for three hundred feet there stretches from west to east a vault which spreads its fans, over- arching the worshippers, as if it embodied the guardian spirits of the place. These fans are keyed together by massive bosses, some I'W/^^\\i\ Exeter Cathedral quaint, some simple, but all expressive of devout ideas. Between Quivil and Grandisson came two eminent bishops, one of them eminent for what he suffered, as well as for what he did. One was Bitton, under whom the vaulting of the roof was carried out, and the trans- formation of the choir. The other was Stapledon, Edward II.'s treasurer, who was lawlessly beheaded by a London mob, and flung headless into the ditch. Much of the splendour which he gave to the Cathedral was due to the fittings which he provided. They have long ago perished, but two things remain, one in wood, the other in stone, both alive with artistic feeling ; the soaring canopy, under which the bishop has his seat, and the triple sedilia within the rail of the sacrarium, where in sermon time the offici- ating clergy have theirs. Bitton was a Somersetshire man ; his name is linked with Wells. The Bitton family in 51 D Exeter Cathedral both counties had a full share of good things, but they appear to have deserved them. Bitton followed Quivil, and worthily followed him. The vaulting of the roof is one of the glories of the Cathedral. The choir was vaulted first. Bitton did it. It follows that the beautiful flying buttresses which are the arms that hold up the vaulted roof are his also. There is no evidence like that of contemporaneous documents. Exeter possesses a series of " fabric rolls," far from complete indeed, but as far as they go decisive of matters with which they have to do. They establish Bitton's claim to be the transformer of the choir. Quivil had shown the way, and, at two points, had left his mark, never to be blotted out or even obscured. The Lady Chapel and the central transept displayed his ideas. Bitton carried them out in the intervening choir, and so joined Quivil's work at one end of the choir with his work at the other ; the harmony of 52 Exeter Cathedral the whole eastern end of the church was, when he died, complete. Only the nave, west of the first bay, was left for Grandisson to do. To the deciphering of the fabric rolls it is due that the bishop's throne is assigned to its true date. For a series of years, guide- books, diocesan calendars, everybody of light and leading ascribed this structure to Bishop Bothe. The experts were wrong wrong by more than a century and a half. They put it not too early, but too late. The fabric rolls enable us to assign this throne, on which in splendid isolation the bishop sits, to Stapledon. The throne is of oak ; it is possible to point with high probability to the two parishes from which the oak came, and almost to the woods in which it grew. It is possible to say exactly what was paid for the work and timber ; it was under thirteen pounds. When the value of money has been thought of, and the proper calculation made, the wonder is not altogether got rid 55 Exeter Cathedral of. There is not a nail in this canopied seat, though it rises more than sixty feet from the floor. It has more than once been taken to pieces. Once in the days of the Civil Wars, by the care of a son of good Bishop Hall, when it was hidden away; once in our own days, under the superin- tendence of Sir Gilbert Scott. The stalls, of course, are new, but the seats are formed upon the old misereres which Bishop Bruere gave to the Cathedral. He it was who gave to the canons their chapter-house and founded the deanery. His heart was in the Crusades, and with his brother-prelate, Peter de Rupibus of Win- chester, he went to the Holy Land. Those misereres, more than forty of them, have a distinct carving. Camels, elephants, strange and fanciful forms bear witness to an Eastern influence, while the figure of a knight in a boat drawn by a swan marks the first appearance in Exeter of Lohengrin. It must be confessed that the reredos, new 56 Exeter Cathedral twenty years ago, is hardly up to the level of the dignified place it occupies and the solemnities that belong to it. Yet, it was the occasion for a wrangle and a lawsuit ; for the usual "judgment," and the equally usual reversal on appeal. A different, yet "not an indifferent temper now prevails, and a lighter, more soaring structure in harmony with the neighbouring masterpiece in stone, Bishop Stapledon's sedilia, would have had a warmer welcome. Such, then, are the main architectural features of this beautiful church. It lacks one thing only, and even that is not lacking everywhere. It is not rich, save in the great east window and some of the side chapels, in the matter of stained glass. But that last window atones for a great many deficiencies ; the eye is never tired of it. It is probable that more than one window contributed to its wealth of colour. There are, at any rate, two St. Catherines in it. St. Sidwell is in it, a local saint, a great 59 Exeter Cathedral perplexity to severe historians. Kings are in it and patriarchs, and no definite scheme dominates the details ; but the patron saint is there, and Andrew, his brother, and the great Apostle of the Gentiles. A great opportunity of filling Grandisson's magnificent window at the west end of the church was missed when "the good Earl of Devon " died. A not very successful window was placed on the cold side of the church in honour of a man who shed lustre even upon his high dignity by the greater dignity of his character. A Yorkshire genius filled the west window in the last century with glass of a yellow character. It has faded and is fading still. Some day it is to be hoped something worthier will fill a place next in importance to the great east window, of which the church is so justly proud. The monuments of the Cathedral are a subject in themselves. The clock, pre- Copernican in its ideas, but keeping time still, is noteworthy, if only for its solemn 60 Exeter Cathedral admonition that the hours of man pereunt et imputantiir. The font is linked with the sorrows and penalties of the life of Charles I. His youngest child was born in Exeter, and the font was constructed for the christening. The pulpit is a tribute to Bishop John Cole- ridge Patteson. Two divines of different schools come to mind in Exeter Cathedral. Here the witty Fuller had good thoughts in bad times, and here Gilbert Burnet saw his patron pro- claimed King of England. There is about all historical buildings a great power to dwarf momentary interests as w r ell as an opposite power to exalt them. In our own days we have seen an Archbishop of Canterbury received with every mark of respect and homage at the great west door by the Bishop and clergy of the diocese, and an impressive, perhaps memorable service took place. More than five centuries and a half ago, another Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Meopham, was repelled from the 61 Exeter Cathedral same door by the then bishop and his clergy, although he came with eighty men in armour, determined to force an entrance. Buildings are few and far between that can provide comparisons like this. Yet all the while this church has existed it has been what it is to-day a church of a bishop and canons, with duties to the people. Some cathedrals, as was said at the beginning, have had a previous history, have been churches of an abbot and monks. Not so Exeter. Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, died in 1072 ; forty years afterwards, the nucleus of the present Cathedral was rising from the ground. The walls that rose then are standing now, and the high purpose for which they were reared was never more fully realised within them than it is to-day. CHAPELS Printed by BALLANTYNE. HAXSOX & CO. London & Kdinburgh In dainty white vellum bindings, each is. net (post free is. zd. Strong cloth case, gilt lettered, to hold 12 vols., ss. net. Catbefcrals. The PALL MALL GAZETTE says: " Daintily printed and ably- written guides. There is no better series of handbooks to the English Cathedrals." 1. WESTMINSTER ABBEY. By the Dean of CANTERBURY. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON. 2. YORK MINSTER. By the Dean of YORK. Illustrated by ALEXANDER ANSTED. 3. WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL. By the Rev. Canon BENIIAM, B.D. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON. 4. ST. ALBAN'S ABBEY. By the Rev. Canon LIDDELL, M.A. Illustrated by F. G. KITTON. 5. CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. By the Dean of Ri PON. Illustrated by W. LAPWORTH. 6. NORWICH CATHED.RAL. By the Dean of NORWICH. Illustrated by ALEXANDER ANSTED. 7. GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL. By the Dean of GLOU- CESTER. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON. 8. SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. By the Dean of SALISBURY. Illustrated by ALEXANDER ANSTED. 9. ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. By the Rev. Canon NEW- BOLT, M.A. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON. 10. ELY CATHEDRAL. By the Rev. Canon DiC.KSON, M.A. Illustrated by ALEXANDER ANSTED. 11. WELLS CATHEDRAL. By the Rev. Canon CHURCH, M.A. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON. 12. EXETER CATHEDRAL. By the Rev. Canon EDMONDS, B.D. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON. 13. LINCOLN CATHEDRAL. By the Rev. Canon VENABLES, M.A. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON. 14. PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL. By the Dean of PETERBOROUGH. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON. Othtrs in course of preparation. ISBISTER & Co. Ltd., Covent Garden, London. Episcopal palaces of Royal 8vo, gilt top, 2is. net. By the late PRECENTOR VENABLES, M.A., AND OTHERS. With an Etched Frontispiece of Lambeth Palace from the Thames, and over One Hundred Illustrations by Alex. Ansted. The DAILY TELEGRAPH says: " One of those books over -which the antiquary -will linger. . . . These excerpts show the impartial spirit in which the work is written, but they do not show the genial reminiscences, the loving spirit in which the writers dwell on each interesting part of the historic fabrics and the memories they recall. With these every page abounds, description and story being alike admirable. The illustra- tions are delightful ; . . . scattered all over the work arc artistic engravings of chapels, towers, gateways, windows, and little architectural morsels, which everybody with a soul for things of ancient art can appreciate." The MORNING POST says: ' ' A richly illustrated and well-written work. The many beautiful engravings, and the excellence of the paper and type, add much to the attractiveness of the volume, but its chief interest will be found in its historical information, its biographical notices, its antiquarian lore, its statistics, and its anecdotes in connection with the palacis which have domiciled for centuries the Bishops and Archbishops of the Anglican Church.' 1 ' The SCOTSMAN says: " Without as within, the book is worthy of the theme. Lovers of the memories that are bound up with the great names and great sites in the history of the Anglican Church, and admirers of graceful and spirited drawing, will turn over with peculiar pleasure the pages of this be.iutiful work. ' ' ISBISTER & Co. Ltd., Covent Garden, London. A /"\ """"" HI II illll III II Hill IIIJI HI Jill