tain sons of perdition full of
fiendish ferocity.' 'Mr Walter de Lechelade' was probably extremely
unpopular locally, because he had obtained the lease for life of the
Manor and Church of Ottery from the authorities at Rouen, and was
allowed to make all the profit he could out of the revenues. It is
interesting to note the ecclesiastical manner of dealing with such a
difficulty at that date. Out of the twenty-one persons convicted of
being concerned in the murder, no fewer than eleven were clerics! The
Vicar of Ottery St Mary was among the number, and it is sad to say that
suspicion fell even on the Dean of Exeter.

Bishop Grandisson found an early English church. He lengthened the nave,
altered the chancel, added a beautiful Lady Chapel, and raised towers on
the already existing transepts. These transeptal towers are peculiar to
this church and the other on which he spent his enthusiasm, Exeter
Cathedral. On one tower is a steeple--there was one on the
Cathedral--the lead scored by cross-slanted lines. The church is of grey
stone. The nave and towers are battlemented, and at intervals in the
outer walls are niches, now bereft of the figures they held. Very
graceful stone tracery is in many windows, pinnacles and crosses rise
from the roof, and the whole effect is of an impressive building of rich
and elaborate detail. The number of consecration crosses is remarkable,
for there are thirteen without and eight within the walls, and each
marks a spot touched by the Bishop with holy oil. Every one is a square
stone panel, carved with an angel bearing a small cross. Some are much
defaced, but a few are still perfect, and beneath several of them are
the remains of iron supports, showing where a light was burned before
the 'cross' on great festivals.

The arches of the nave are supported by clustered columns with most
delicately carved capitals; and in the nave are two very elaborately
decorated tombs--of the Bishop's brother, Sir Otho de Grandisson, and of
Beatrice, Sir Otho's wife--each under a monumental arch, with hanging
tracery and a crocketed ogee canopy.

The finely carved and pierced minstrels' gallery in the Lady Chapel is
an exquisite piece of work; but amongst all that is to be most admired
is the exceedingly beautiful fan-tracery in the roof of the 'Dorset'
aisle--an aisle built by Cicely, heiress of Lord Bonville, and widow of
the Marquis of Dorset, who died in 1501.

Two short pleached alleys of limes stand