Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts | Page 7

an exchange, and here were held

yearly three great cloth-fairs, where merchants from London and from
all parts gathered, and stalls and shops in the inn were let to 'foreigners.'
The Tuckers' Hall, built of ruddy stone, still stands in Fore Street, and
the hall has a fine cradle roof with plaster panels.
The most powerful of all the companies was incorporated later than
many of the guilds, for the Merchant Adventurers received their charter
from Queen Elizabeth. Their power and wealth was very considerable;
they cast their lines in all directions, and they secured a monopoly of
trading with France. This company supplied with money, and had a
stake in, some of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's and Captain Davis's
enterprises, and Sir Francis Drake himself invited the 'gentilmen
merchauntes' and others of the city to 'adventure with him in a voiage
supportinge some speciall service ... for the defence of 'religion, Quene
and countrye.'' About Charles I's reign the importance of the company
gradually declined, and the society was eventually dissolved.
During the Civil War, Exeter was twice besieged, but on neither
occasion so rigorously as in 1549. When the war broke out, the Earl of
Bedford appointed the Mayor, the Sheriff, and five Aldermen,
Commissioners for the Parliament. The defences were put in order and
arms collected, and amongst other expenses is recorded '£300 for 17
packs of wool taken from Mr Robin's Cellars for the Barricadoes.'
Nevertheless, zeal for the Parliament must have been but lukewarm, for
when Prince Maurice's troops surrounded the city, it was surrendered at
the end of fourteen days, and after the besieged had suffered no further
inconvenience than 'the being kept from taking the air without their
own walls.' The next year Queen Henrietta Maria came to a city which
was considered a safer refuge than Oxford, and here Princess Henrietta
was born, and was baptized in the Cathedral with great pomp, 'a new
font having been erected for the purpose, surmounted by a rich canopy
of state.' Charles II always showed the warmest affection for his sister,
famed, as Duchess of Orleans, for her beauty and charm, and a portrait
of the Princess given by the King to the city hangs in the Guildhall. It is
a full-length portrait, and she is represented standing, one hand lightly
gathering together the folds of her white satin dress.

During the autumn and winter of 1645-46 Exeter was gradually
hemmed in by bodies of Parliamentary troops stationed at posts in the
neighbourhood, and with the new year the siege became a closer one. It
would seem, however, that there was no very acute distress from lack
of food; but Fuller, who was in the city at the time, mentions with
satisfaction the appearance of 'an incredible number of Larks ... for
multitude like Quails in the Wildernesse, and as fat as plentifull ...
which provided a feast for many poor people, who otherwise had been
pinched for provision.' As the spring advanced, the King's cause lapsed
into a condition too hopeless to be bettered by further resistance, and
on April 9 Sir John Berkeley, for over two years the faithful guardian
of the city, signed the articles of its surrender, on honourable terms, to
Sir Thomas Fairfax.
There is no space to speak of later dramatic incidents in Exeter--the
trial and execution of Mr Penruddocke and Mr Grove, leaders of a
Royalist rising of Wiltshire gentlemen, whose speeches on the scaffold
are given at length by Izacke; nor of the joy that greeted the Restoration,
when 'Tar-barrels and Bonefires capered aloft'; nor of Charles II's visit,
nor the entrance of the Duke of Monmouth in 1680 with five thousand
horsemen, and nine hundred young men in white uniforms marching
before him. One may not even pause before the gorgeous spectacle of
William III's arrival, heralded by a procession in which appeared two
hundred negroes in white-plumed, embroidered turbans, and a squadron
of Swedish horsemen 'in bearskins taken from the beasts they had slain,
with black armour and broad flaming swords.'
It has been only possible to name the most outstanding points in the
history of a city--once more to quote Professor Freeman--'by the side of
which most of the capitals of Europe are things of yesterday.... The city
alike of Briton, Roman, and Englishman, the one great prize of the
Christian Saxon, the city where Jupiter gave way to Christ, but where
Christ never gave way to Woden--British Caerwisc, Roman Isca, West
Saxon Exeter, may well stand first on our roll-call of English cities.
Others can boast of a fuller share of modern greatness; none other can
trace up a life so unbroken to so remote a past.'

CHAPTER II
The Exe
'Goodly Ex, who from her full-fed spring Her little Barlee hath, and
Dunsbrook her to bring