approximately accurate payment of a specified sum of money. Among other things the entries in Domesday state that in the total—

This entry is significant, for one pound or twenty shillings meant one pound or twelve ounces troy of silver; and when money was payable by weight twenty shillings were not taken as the equivalent of one pound unless they fully weighed one pound. In this instance it is observable that the portion of the customary dues rendered for the 285 houses, which went to the Exchequer, was collected by the sheriff under the strictest rules of weight and assay, whereas the portion allotted to the widow of Edward the Confessor was received by the tale only. The authorities took care that the sheriff collected the full amount due to the Crown, but did not trouble themselves about the ex-queen's share.

It has been affirmed that it was by the Normans that the fairs of England were moulded into the shape with which we are most familiar. At Exeter, in 1276, in reply to a writ of quo warranto, it was satisfactorily shown that the rights of the city, its fee-farm rent and its farms, dated from pre-Conquest days. The privileges and emoluments attached to fairs in large towns were very great. During the time allotted to them the citizens were often debarred from selling anything, whereas strangers could vend their wares during the fair, but at no other period of the year. In Cossin's Reminiscences of Exeter (1877) we are told how "at Exeter, on the occasion of the Lammas Fair, a procession yet perambulates the city, one man bearing a pole with a gigantic stuffed glove at the top of it, the latter being subsequently hung out at the Guildhall".

GUILDHALL PORCH

Many of England's reigning sovereigns have visited the city, among them being Edward IV and Richard III. Henry VII came thither on 7 October, 1497, on the suppression of Perkin Warbeck's rebellion, when that rebel had attempted to capture the city. The rebels were brought before the king, bareheaded and with halters round their necks, and after they had pleaded for mercy Henry pardoned them. On his departure, the king presented the civic authorities with a sword and cap of maintenance, both of which are still carried before the Mayor and Corporation on occasions of state.

The citizens of Exeter have always been noted for their stanch loyalty to the reigning house, with the consequence that many rights and privileges have been granted to it. The city motto, Semper Fidelis, was conferred by Queen Elizabeth in recognition of the contributions, both of men and money, made to the fleet that vanquished the Spanish Armada. That the motto was merited is evident when we recall the fact that, with the exception of Frobisher and Cavendish, practically the whole of the leading seamen who chased the Spanish ships along the Channel were born in the land of the Tamar, the Tavy, and the Dart.

During the early part of the Civil War the citizens were divided in their sympathies, some supporting the Parliament and others the King; but the city soon fell into the hands of the former. In 1643, however, Sir Ralph Hopton, the famous Royalist general, marched on Exeter with a force made all the more formidable for siege purposes by the cannon he had previously captured at Halton. The immediate capture of the city by the Royalist forces was expected, the Mercurius Aulius of 1 June, 1643, remarking that: "if the old observation be of any credit, that cats and mice doe commonly forsake a ruinous and decaying house, that Citie (Exeter) is not like to continue long in the Rebels' hands". The proud and rebellious city was assaulted and captured by the Royalist forces under Prince Maurice on 4 September, 1643, after a siege lasting sixteen days, and a full account of its fall appeared in the issue of the Mercurius Aulius of 8 September.

In May, 1644, Queen Henrietta Maria took up her abode in the city, at Bedford House, where, on 16 June of the same year, the Princess Henrietta was born. In the following month Charles I came to see his little daughter, and again in September, when he appointed Thomas Fuller, Vicar of Broadwindsor, in Dorset, as chaplain to the princess. The queen, who had retired to Exeter as a safe place for her confinement, soon afterwards had to leave there suddenly on the approach of a Parliamentary army in command of the Earl of Essex. Her Majesty's easiest way to France was by sea, and to prevent this Cromwell had sent a fleet to Torbay to intercept her, should she attempt to leave England by that route. Finding this road closed, she made for Falmouth, from which port she got safely away.

During the siege by Fairfax the inhabitants of the city suffered considerably, owing to the food supplies being intercepted. One day a flight of larks came into the town, "which were", says Fuller, "as welcome as quails in the wilderness". The birds were so numerous that, notwithstanding the prevailing famine, they were sold for twopence a dozen. "Of this miraculous event", wrote Fuller, "I was not only an eye but a mouth witness."

The city capitulated on 13 April, 1646, among the conditions of surrender being that the Cathedral should be spared, and the garrison accorded the honours of war.

After the landing of William of Orange at Brixham, in 1688, he marched through the county to Exeter and entered the city by its western gate. He proceeded direct to the Cathedral and took his seat in the bishop's throne with his chaplain Burnet near him. A few of the prebendaries and choristers attended the service, but when Burnet began to read the Prince's Declaration, after the singing of the Te Deum, they hurriedly departed. The bishop, Thomas Lamplugh, had proceeded to James on hearing that the Dutch had landed, and was rewarded with the Archbishopric of York. He afterwards assisted at William III's coronation. The Dean of Exeter had also left the city, and the Deanery was prepared for the Prince's reception. George III was the last English sovereign to stay in Exeter, and he also resided at the Deanery.

Although the Cathedral is the main attraction modern Exeter has to offer to the tourist, a walk through the historic old city will reveal the fact that, in addition to some highly interesting old churches, it possesses a not inconsiderable number of ancient buildings. At the same time there has been an appalling amount of destruction, some of it apparently of an unnecessary kind, as the recent dismantling of the beautiful old courtyard in the rear of Bampfylde House, the city residence of the Poltimore family.

The visitor who arrives at Exeter either by the Great Western or the South-Western Railway, the station of the latter being the more central of the two, can soon reach the busy and picturesque High Street by way of Queen Street, one of the broadest thoroughfares in the city. The most interesting building in High Street, and one that, in this respect, ranks next to the Cathedral, is the Guildhall, with a portico projecting over the pavement. It is probably one of the oldest municipal buildings in the country, for in 1330 we find that the Guildhall was in a ruinous condition, and it was then rebuilt. Again, in 1464, it was built up anew in a more commodious and efficient manner, while the building as