THE EXETER ROAD WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR =THE BRIGHTON ROAD=: Old Times and New on a Classic Highway. =THE PORTSMOUTH ROAD=, and its Tributaries, To-day and in Days of Old. =THE DOVER ROAD=: Annals of an Ancient Turnpike. =THE BATH ROAD=: History, Fashion, and Frivolity on an Old Highway. =THE GREAT NORTH ROAD=: Vol. I. LONDON TO YORK. [_In the Press._ II. YORK TO EDINBURGH. [Illustration: THE LIONESS ATTACKING THE EXETER MAIL, ‘WINTERSLOW HUT’ (AFTER JAMES POLLARD).] THE EXETER ROAD _THE STORY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND HIGHWAY_ BY CHARLES G. HARPER AUTHOR OF ‘THE BRIGHTON ROAD,’ ‘THE PORTSMOUTH ROAD,’ ‘THE DOVER ROAD,’ AND ‘THE BATH ROAD’ [Illustration: colophon] _Illustrated by the Author, and from Old-Time Prints and Pictures_ LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED 1899 _All rights reserved_ [Illustration: PREFACE] _This, the fifth volume in a series of works purporting to tell the Story of the Great Roads, requires but few forewords; but occasion may be taken to say that perhaps greater care has been exercised than in preceding volumes to collect and put on record those anecdotes and floating traditions of the country, which, the gossip of yesterday, will be the history of to-morrow. These are precisely the things that are neglected by the County Historians at one end of the scale of writers, and the compilers of guide-books at the other; and it is just because this gossip and these local anecdotes are generally passed by and often lost that those which are gathered now will become more valuable as time goes on._ _For the inclusion of these hitherto unconsidered trifles much archæology and much purely guide-book description have been suppressed; nor for this would it seem necessary to appear apologetic, even although local patriotism is a militant force, and resents anything less than a detailed and favourable description of every village, interesting or not._