Our county is rich also in monumental brasses, most of which date from
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Among the finest are the splendid
triple-canopied fifteenth century brasses in the church of St Saviour,
Dartmouth, in memory of Sir John Hawley and his two wives, the fifteenth
century brass of Sir Nicholas Carew in Exeter Cathedral, which is a
wonderful representation of the military costume of the period, and the
fine sixteenth century brass at Tiverton, in memory of John and Joan
Greenway. Other good brasses are in Exeter Cathedral and in the churches
of Stoke-in-Teignhead, Stoke Fleming, Clovelly, Braunton, Haccombe, and
Clyst St George.
Many of the churches, that of Pilton, for example, have specially
musical peals of bells; and there are very old bells at Ogwell,
Abbot's Beckington, Alverdiscott and Hittesleigh. At the latter place is
the most ancient bell in the county.
[Illustration: The Seymour Tomb, Berry Pomeroy Church]
By far the most important and remarkable ecclesiastical building in
Devonshire is Exeter Cathedral, which, although not one of the largest
or--externally, at any rate--one of the most majestic cathedrals in this
country, is without doubt the most beautiful example in all England
of the Decorated style of architecture. It is built of Beer stone; a
material which when first quarried is white and easily worked, but
which, in this case, is now dark and crumbling with age.
The two features which specially distinguish this from all other
cathedrals are its transeptal towers, of which the only other English
example is at Ottery St Mary; and the great length of its roof, which
extends unbroken over nave and choir.
The exterior is further remarkable for the statuary on its west front
with its figures of kings and knights, saints and angels; for its flying
buttresses and its richly carved pinnacles. And the interior, which has
been called the finest in Europe, is distinguished for the beautiful
tracery of its many Decorated windows, the elaborate details of its
side-chapels; its episcopal throne, more than fifty feet high, a marvel
of wood-carving, without a rival in the island; its noble screen, one
of the best in a county particularly rich in screens; its ancient and
quaintly-carved misereres, the earliest in England; its fourteenth
century minstrels' gallery, the most nearly perfect known; its long
stretch of stone vaulted roof, the longest of the kind in existence; its
clustered columns; its richly yet delicately carved bosses and finely
sculptured corbels; its many monuments and recumbent effigies of knights
in armour and of bishops in their robes of office; and, generally, by
the wonderful uniformity and symmetry of its design.
[Illustration: Exeter Cathedral, West Front]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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