Page:A book of the west; being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall.djvu/98

CHAPTER V.

EXETER

The river Exe—Roman roads—The Saxons in Devon and Exeter—Saxon and British Exeter—The Battle of Gavulford—S. Boniface at Exeter—His persecution of Celtic missionaries—S. Sidwell—Bishop's seat transferred to Exeter—S. Olave's Church—The Cathedral—Its merits and demerits—Ottery S. Mary—Excursions from Exeter—Fingle Bridge—Fulford—Ecclesiological excursions.

EXETER, the Isca Dumnoniorum of the Romans, was the Celtic Caer Wisc; that is to say, the caer or fortress on the Usk. The river-name has become Exe; it derives from the Celtic word which signifies water, and which we have in whiskey and Usquebaugh, i.e. fire-water.

The same word has become also Ock. Thus the Ockment River at Okehampton, a few miles down, becomes the Exe, at Exbourne; and a tributary of the Exe is the Oke, that flows into it near Bampton.

There have been but few Roman remains found in Exeter, and it can never have been an important settlement. Several Roman roads converge on it and radiate from it.

The great Fosseway, that ran from Lincoln through Leicester, reached it. It struck from Honiton, by Rockbeare and Clyst Honiton, and shows its

68