d artists end artificers of their time; so, with
the story of the lives of the bishops of a diocese, the history of a
cathedral's building is inextricably woven. To be elevated to a
bishopric generally meant to be put into possession of great
wealth--when Veysey became bishop the revenues of the see of Exeter
have, by some authors, been computed at L100,000; Canon Hingeston-Randolph
puts them, with more reason and authority, at the sum of L30,000--and a
large portion of this money was spent on works connected with the chief
church of the diocese. It is not wonderful, therefore, this generosity
being joined to marvellous skill and taste, that our old cathedrals are
at once the despair and envy of the modern architect. And it is with a
feeling of reverence that one recalls the history of those who built in
the heart of each populous city "grey cliffs of lonely stone into the
midst of sailing birds and silent air."

The story of Exeter has an unique interest, and its church, as we shall
see, is in many respects without a rival. The fact that a building of
such great beauty should adorn a city so situated is remarkable; for
long after--as we read in Macaulay--weekly posts left London for various
parts of England, Exeter was still, as it were, on the borders of
territories scarcely explored, and was the furthest western point to
which letters were conveyed from the metropolis. Fuller thus describes
the county of Devonshire in his day (1646): "Devonshire hath the narrow
seas on the South, the Severn on the North, Cornwall on the West, Dorset
and Somersetshire on the East. A goodly province, the second in England
for greatness, clear in view without measuring, as bearing a square of
fifty miles. Some part thereof, as the South Hams, is so fruitful it
needs no art; but generally (though not running of itself) it answers to
the spur of industry. No shire showes more industrious, or so many
Husbandmen, who by Marle (blew and white), Chalk, Lime, Seasand,
Compost, Sopeashes, Rags and what not, make the ground both to take and
keep a moderate fruitfulness; so that Virgil, if now alive, might make
additions to his Georgicks, from the Plough-practice in this county. As
for the natives thereof, generally they are dexterous in any employment,
and Queen Elizabeth was wont to say of the gentry: _They were all born
courtiers with a becomming confidence_."

The city of Exeter is of great age. "Isca Damnoniorum, Caer Wise,
Exanceaster, Exe