The record-union., 1892-07-16

at once constructed TO absolute compile
ton whenever begun and however long
1t may have been maintained. And, with
European governmental and social con-
dluonS, lnconceiYably hard upon peasant
populations wherever these roads exist,
the condition Of the people is incompara-
Oily more happy and prosperous than
where they do not, while land values
nave invariably been increased from 100
to l 900 per cent
Not SO many years ago Austria built
nearly 1900 miles of stone highway up
ana down and from end to end Of Galicia,
or Austrian Poland. Previous to that
tune, materially, no more wretched,
6od-forsaken land existed on the face of
the earth. What was the result? In
less than ten years time these roads did
more Tor the 5000, 600 people of Austrian
roland IN material and social advance
ment than all the churches, all the books
all the newspapers, all the battles, all the
railways and all the Governments had
ever accomplished for them from the
days Of MiecZyslaW and Boleslas to the
day these roads were done
cannot some of the expensive and high
art trllls OF that great Columbian Exposi-
tlon at Chicago be trimmed little, and
thus make room for a road exhibit, not
IN inaccessible dabs and bits in dozen
different departments, but in one gener-
ous ana comprehensive department? The
millions of visitors, including city and
suburban folk everywhere whose health
and pleasure largely depend on good
roads, as well as farmers whose better
ment and comfort would be incidentally
augmented by perfect roads, might thus
carry away with them a knowledge and
purpose which would not only add bill
ions TO our national wealth, but make,
IN good time, our broad land bloom and
AG fl l1r-nF =
spots IN all this old and worn out Eu-
rope.
With such thoughts as these came,
with the carts and cartmen, along the
brow OF the hills skirting the noble val
ley OF the Exc to ancient Exeter, which
looks Tar away to the warm green sea that
beats upon the red cliffs of Devon.
1t was in ancient days an old British
town, built long before Caesar, and called
Caer Isc, or the city on the river. Anti
quarlans observe that, like most Celtic
trading towns, it was built for safety
some little distance from the sea, and lust
beyond where the river Exc ceases to be
navigable. Discovered coins Of the Greek
dynasty in Syria and Egypt prove that
fhWnIclan merchants must have come
here many years before Christ 10 trade
for Cornish and Dartmoor tin. Then
the Romans marched III and made it q
great station. Lastly the SaXonS for
tilted the town on The Exc, ana traded
here with the Cornish Britons across the
lamar.
The Exc was the frontier then for the
DamnOnians, but Athelstan came and
drove them pellmell into Cornwall and
rebuilt the walls Of Exeter. The Cornish
Brltons, cOOped up among the rocks of
Cornwall, soon had their avengers. The
Danes came crowding up the Exc with
their black sails and black banners. and
Wlntered in Exeter in S76, rejoicing in
Saxon beeVes and ale. The old red tower.
still seen i'll the ROugemont ruins OF to-
day, was always getting beaten about by
stones from military engines and Clipped
by crOSsbOW bolts. William the Condueror
besieged it, wishing TO sieze Githa. moth
er OF Harold, and her daughter, but they
escaped safely to Bruges, while Perkin
Warbeck. as Richard ", when Joined
by the Cornishmen of BOdmiu, besieged
the place, but uusuccesStully, and was
finally hanged at Tyburn.
And 50 on and on runs the grim story
that has left Just enough scar and hard
ness on the lovely, leaty old city to add a
mellow charm TO all you may see and
know. Fifty thousand folk do not live
together in more winsOme spot in Eng
land. The emboWered Devon hills which
surround it, the glorious valleys which
reach their green's and blooms TO its very
doors, the grand sweep of the Exc vale
TO the sea, the city's noble old antiques
its beautiful streets, half in the shadows
OF remote architectural past, and half in
the sunshine Of modern elegance and
adornment, give everything upon which
you look sweet and winsome face.
1t all blends in that fine sunset glow
which some OF these old cathedral.towns
take on so fittingly. The pleasant SEEM
ing smiles back to you from Dolished
ypFHF hi al
bright red roofs and brighter red banks
Of roses, from marvelously clean stone
steps and areaways, from bits of ancient
things, from dOorknobs and brasses gilt
tering like FURNISHED gold, from the
Snuggest and trlmmest of shOp-windoWs
indeed from all things that can tell sub
stantial, weil-kept age without the semb-
lance Of wrinkle or frown upon it,
Y on feel this sense OF radiating hearth
ness and amplitude again in Exter around
the market places on these pleasant mar
ket days. All the country folk gathered
here are well garmented comfortable and
CHEEKY. They all look as though they had
stepped out of the ''merrie old EngiandU
of the books, now so hard to find outside
the covers of those books. Pride glows
in their faces for old Devon and Exeter.
its capital and in themselves. They do
say Dickens found his Fat Boy'' of
Dingley Dell among them. And well he
might, tor they are fat and fine and
stanch, one and all. Rosy, overlapping
jowls and big paunches, suggestive of
plum puddings and the famous ''clotted
cream" OF Devon, are everywhere among
them.
You are thus in love with Exeter lonp
before you have many times wandered up
and down Queen and High streets, saun-
tered through the arcade of Chapel street
peering into the old, half-timbered struct-
ures that cluster in stately fashion around
the wide cathedral close and have at last
come among the silences within the great
cathedral walls. A pedant can alone tell
another the exactitudes and measure
ments Of such messy, massive, marvel
Gus edIhce. Coming one by one to Eng
lands splendid cathedralS YOU will at
least surely remember Of them all those
impressions upon your mind and heart
which seemed most powerfully character
istic OF each.
In the sense of architectural distinct
lveness Exeter cathedral will remain in
your memory remarkably distinguished
from all other English cathedrals. Their
plans invariably comprise a huge central
tower and smaller towers at the west end
here are towers crowning the transient
Tins does away with the usual four cum-
DersoIne arches architecturally separating
nave and choir, and permits the grandest
uninterrupted view of vault and vista of
the entire nave and choir to be found in
England.
Two other structural peculiarities are
seen In this cathedral. The choir and the
nave are of equal length, and throughout
the whole edliice the openings are wide
and low, rather than narrow and lofty.
The latter feature contributes greatly.
along with the emphatic feeling that the
structure is not hodgepodge of ''resto-
ration," but one great design, to a sense
in the beholder OF indescribable breadth
and spaciousness. Whatever else Won
may feel within Exeter cathedral, which
has stood here practically as you now see
il for certainly more than GOO and Nor