Exeter

Exeter, a city, seaport, parliamentary (one member) and municipal borough, capital of Devon, on the left bank of the Exe, about 10 miles N. of the English Channel, and on the Great Western Railway. It is built on the top and sides of a hill sloping down towards the river, which is crossed by a stone bridge at the western entrance of the town, which consists of two main streets at right angles with others branching from them. Much of the town is very ancient, but there are modern terraces and villas, which are daily increasing as the educational advantages of the town make it desirable as a residence. The cathedral is cruciform, and is 408 feet long, with two Norman towers 130 feet high. The choir is 128 feet long, and there are 10 chapels, and a chapter-house. The architecture of the west front is everywhere admired. There is much Norman work in the different churches of the city; and parts of the old Saxon walls remain, and the ruins of the castle of Rougemont. The free grammar school has 16 exhibitions to Oxford or Cambridge, and there are libraries, museums, a, diocesan training college, a hospital, etc. Formerly, Exeter was a seat of the woollen trade, but this industry is now extinct. There are iron-foundries, agricultural implement works, paper-mills, corn-mills, and tanneries, and some manufactures of gloves and lace. There is a basin to which ships of 400 tons have access by means of a canal 5 miles long. The town was an old British station before being the Isca Damnoniorum of the Roman times. Many coins, statues, and fragments of pavement have been discovered. The Saxons called it Monktown for its many ecclesiastical establishments.