1564. Harvey was steward of the
abbeys of Hartland, Buckland, and Newenham at the time when the
religious houses were suppressed. He is said to have amassed very
considerable wealth; for, in addition to the profits derived from the
spoliation of the above monasteries, he received from Henry VIII
considerable lands belonging to the abbey of Tewkesbury, which he sold,
probably most advantageously, to a clothier of Crediton. Harvey was
connected with the Carews through the marriage of his daughter, and
heiress, with George Carew, Dean of Exeter, the notorious pluralist.
Their son, Harvey's grandson, was created Earl of Totnes, but died
without issue.

At the west end of the south aisle is the monument of Bishop Gary
(1621-26) and a mural tablet commemorating Robert Hall, eldest son of
Bishop Hall, and treasurer of the cathedral. To him Exeter owes a
perpetual debt of gratitude, for, when the city surrendered to Fairfax
in 1646, he took down the Bishop's Throne and concealed it (buried it
according to local tradition), and after the Restoration was able to
re-erect in its proper place the most magnificent Bishop's throne in
England.

Neither the effigy of Bishop Cotton (1621) nor the angel resting on the
sarcophagus of Bishop Weston--a typical Georgian monument--are of much
intrinsic merit. Flaxman's statue to General Simcox, the hero of the
Queen's Rangers in the American War, is the only other notable
monumental achievement in the south choir aisle.

The Peter, or Great Bell, of Exeter is said to have been a gift of
Bishop Courtenay's. This opinion is very much disputed, as the Fabric
Rolls show that there were bells here in the time of Edward II. As early
as 1351 is an entry of 6s. for mending the Peter Bell. Again in 1453,
twenty-five years before Courtenay was created bishop, mention is made
of the spending of twenty pence "in una bauderick pro Maxima Campana in
Campanili Boreali." Oliver, however, acutely points out that this last
entry is dated the very year that Courtenay was appointed Archdeacon of
Exeter, and suggests that "on that occasion he may have offered such
valuable presents." On the 5th November, 1611, the bell was crazed, but
was recast in 1676. Its reputed weight is 12,500 lb. If this is correct,
it is the second largest bell in England. Great Tom of Christ Church,
Oxford, is more than 5,000 lb. heavier, but it easily exceeds its other
rivals, Tom of Lincoln and the Great Bell of St. Paul's, which we