ed to the Benedictines as early as
the seventh century, and it lasted until after the Norman Conquest. The
Normans built a new church in the twelfth century, which contained the
present towers, but the remainder of the structure was afterwards
transformed as we now see it. The rich western facade consists of three
stages, receding one behind the other; the lower is the porch,
subdivided into three enriched arcades containing figures and pierced by
three doorways. The second stage is formed above this by the ends of the
nave and side-aisles, being terminated with a battlement flanked by
small pinnacles about halfway up the nave gable. A fine window pierces
this stage, and above it the remainder of the gable forms the third
stage, also pierced by a window which opens over the battlement. The
figures in the lower stage represent the kings of England, apostles, and
saints. The interior of the nave discloses stone vaulting and Decorated
architecture, with large clerestory windows, but a small triforium. The
bosses of the roof, which presents an unbroken line, are seventy feet
above the floor. One of the bays on the north side of the triforium is a
beautiful minstrels' gallery, communicating with a chamber above the
porch. The inner walls of the towers have been cut away, completely
adapting them for transepts, the towers being supported on great pointed
arches. In the large east window the stained glass commemorates St.
Sidwell, a lady murdered in the eighth century at a well near Exeter by
a blow from a scythe at the instigation of her stepmother, who coveted
her property. The cathedral is rich in monumental relics, and it has
recently been thoroughly restored. Little remains of the ancient
convent-buildings beyond the chapter-house, which adjoins the south
transept.

[Illustration: THE THRONE, EXETER CATHEDRAL.]

The older parts of Exeter present a quaint and picturesque appearance,
especially along the High Street, where is located the old Guild Hall, a
ponderous stone building, with a curious front projecting over the
footway and supported by columns; it was built in the sixteenth century.
Sir Thomas Bodley, who founded the Bodleian Library of Oxford, was born
in Exeter, and also Richard Hooker the theologian. Among its famous
bishops was Trelawney (then the Bishop of Bristol), who was one of the
seven bishops committed by King James to the Tower, and whose memory
still lives in the West-Country refrain, the singing of