ive some idea of
their variety, it may be mentioned that, amongst other poems of an
entirely distinct character, there are religious pieces, many riddles,
the legends of two saints, the Scald's or Ancient Minstrel's tale of his
travels, and a poem on the 'Various Fortunes of Men.'

Seventeen years after King Edward's visit, William the Conqueror's
messengers came before the chief men of Exeter demanding their
submission. But the citizens sent back the lofty answer that 'they would
acknowledge William as Emperor of Britain; they would not receive him as
their immediate King. They would pay him the tribute which they had been
used to pay to Kings of the English, but that should be all. They would
swear no oaths to him; they would not receive him within their walls.'
William naturally would not listen to conditions, and arrived to direct
the siege in person. For eighteen days the repeated attacks of the
Normans were sturdily resisted; then the enemy dug a mine, which caused
the walls to crumble, and surrender was inevitable. 'The Red Mount of
Exeter had been the stronghold of Briton, Roman, and Englishman;' under
the hands of the Norman here rose the Castle of Rougemont, of which a
tower, a gateway, and part of the walls, stand to this day. In
proportion to the size and strength of that castle, however, the remains
are inconsiderable, but it fell into decay very long ago, and as early
as 1681 Izacke writes of 'the Fragments of the ancient Buildings
ruinated, whereon time ... hath too much Tyrannized.'

In the year after King Stephen began to reign, Baldwin de Redvers, Earl
of Devon and keeper of the Castle, declared for the Empress Maud, and
held the Castle for three months against the citizens, headed by two
hundred knights who had been sent by the King. At the end of this time
the wells ran dry, so that the besieged were driven to use wine for
their cookery, and even to throw over their 'engines,' set on fire by
the enemy.

Henry II granted to the citizens of Exeter the first of their many
charters of privileges, and in the reigns of King John and Henry III the
municipal system was very much developed, and the city first had a
Mayor. Under Edward I a beginning was made towards the almost entire
reconstruction of the Cathedral. Bishop Warelwast, the nephew of William
I, had raised the transeptal towers--a feature that no other English
cathedral possesses--and since his time the Lady Chapel had been added,
but the desig