Stukely groaned aloud, but he offered no further opposition, and the party, escorted by the constables, took the road for Bovey, _en route_ for Exeter gaol. FOOTNOTES [31] The title “Sir” did not in these days _necessarily_ imply knighthood; it was commonly given to Justices of the Peace, scions of noble family, and even to Parish Priests, although we have not used it in that connexion for fear of creating confusion in the mind of the modern reader. [32] Until late in this reign no edible roots were grown as food in England. [33] These cruel lines are authentic; the martyrdoms related really occurred on July the sixteenth, 1546, but perhaps the news had not reached Devon, and was not “stale news” there. CHAPTER IV. _EXETER GAOL._ One of the foulest disgraces resting upon mediæval England, but not upon her alone, was the state of her prisons. In such filth were the prisoners kept, that a peculiar fever, called the “gaol fever,” broke out from time to time amongst them, and swept off the poor wretches by hundreds. But often this malady, the source of which was neglect and cruelty, avenged itself upon the gaolers, and not upon them only, but upon judges, jury, and officers alike; thus at Oxford the assizes known as the Black Assize, in the reign of Elizabeth, became historical.[34] It was convened for the trial of some Catholic recusants, when the foul miasama spread from the wretched prisoners, and judges, jury, sheriff, and officers alike sickened and died. Thus at the time of which we are writing, rosemary, rue,[35] and sweet smelling herbs were scattered about the court house at Exeter, where “as worshipful a jury as ever was seen,” was convened for the trial of the Trevannions, “father and son,” for the crime of high treason. Their condition evoked great sympathy, and the county town, or rather cathedral city, was crowded upon the day of trial by sympathizers with the accused. It took place in the ancient citadel called Rougemont, which for five centuries offered defiance to the English--when held by the early British or Welsh--until the days of Athelstan; and only a century and a-half later, in the hands of the English, it bade a brief defiance to the Norman conqueror. Tradition, falsely enough, assigned its origin to Julius Cæsar, and derived its name more truly from the red sandstone which forms the substratum of the castle hill; but whoever founded it, it shared the usual fate of our edifices, both secular and ecclesiastical, in being rebuilt by the Normans, who were rarely contented with aught their old English predecessors had done. Here, during the brief period of Anglo-Saxon domination, many of the royal race of Cerdic held their court, when they visited their western conquests.