telligent
interest the causes of the splendid result to be studied minutely in the
remaining chapters of this book.

Moreover, all lovers of the great in art, all who love what is
beautiful, as all may with a little trouble, will not be sorry to have
even a passing acquaintance with those who have wrought so nobly. And
this short notice of the most famous of the bishops of Exeter proves
that they were for the most part chosen, not for their lineage, however
splendid, nor the favour they had gained as gracious courtiers, but for
their excellent lives, their plain living and high thinking, their taste
and learning, and for qualities which, if rarer now, were not common
even hundreds of years ago.

THE FABRIC OF THE CATHEDRAL.

THE EXTERIOR.

Before examining the various details, it may be well to recall the
following facts, which have already been referred to. First, the
cathedral was Saxon and remained so for nearly seventy years; then came
a Norman bishop who pulled down the existing building and replaced it by
the foundations and towers of a finer one. For ninety-nine years,
sometimes languishingly, sometimes vigorously, the work continued: so
that by the end of Marshall's episcopate (1206) Warelwast's noble
ambition was realized. Between this date and 1280 the church was
scarcely touched, but a chapter house was built by Bishop Bruere "to God
and the Church of St. Mary and St. Peter, a sufficient area to make a
Chapter House in our garden near the Tower of St. John." A third style,
Early English, was then introduced, to be followed by the almost
complete transformation of the entire building into the Decorated style.
Following on this we get some examples of Perpendicular work. Now, this
series of changes is noticeable in itself, and remarkable because it has
not affected the building in a way that might have been expected. The
first impression, indeed, that a view of the exterior gives one, is that
it is the result of one design, which is largely the case. It is only on
closer inspection that the remnants of the pre-decorated periods are
visible. "The Church," as Professor Freeman neatly puts it, "grew up
after one general pattern, but with a certain advance in detail as the
work went westward."

The second thing that strikes the visitor is that he has never seen a
church quite like it. "It forms a class by itself, and can be compared
with nothing save its own miniature at Ottery."

Putting aside the