The records or archives possessed by the city of Exeter are almost continuous from the time of Edward I, and have been written and compiled in the most careful manner.  They are probably the most remarkable of those kept by the various towns or cities in the provinces.  They include no less than forty-nine Royal Charters, the earliest existing being that granted by Henry II in the twelfth century, and attested by Thomas a-Becket.  A herb (Acorus calamus or sweet sage), which was found in the neighbourhood of Exeter, was highly prized in former times for its medicinal qualities, being used for diseases of the eye and in intermittent fevers.  It had an aromatic scent, even when in a dried state, and its fragrant leaves were used for strewing the floors of churches.  It was supposed to be the rush which was strewn over the floor of the apartments occupied by Thomas a-Becket, who was considered luxurious and extravagant because he insisted upon a clean supply daily; but this apparent extravagance was due to his visitors, who were at times so numerous that some of them were compelled to sit on the floors.  It was quite a common occurrence in olden times for corpses to be buried in churches, which caused a very offensive smell; and it might be to counteract this that the sweet-smelling sage was employed.  We certainly knew of one large church in Lancashire within the walls of which it was computed that 6,000 persons had been buried.

It was astonishing how many underground passages we had heard of on our journey.  What strange imaginations they conjured up in our minds!  As so few of them were now in existence, we concluded that many might have been more in the nature of trenches cut on the surface of the land and covered with timber or bushes; but there were old men in Exeter who were certain that there was a tunnel between the site of the old castle and the cathedral, and from there to other parts of the city, and they could remember some of them being broken into and others blocked up at the ends.  We were also quite sure ourselves that such tunnels formerly existed, but the only one we had actually seen passed between a church and a castle.  It had just been found accidentally in making an excavation, and was only large enough for one man at a time to creep through comfortably.

There were a number of old inns in Exeter besides the old “Globe,” which had been built on the Icknield Way in such a manner as to block that road, forming a terminus, as if to compel travellers to patronise the inn; and some of these houses were associated with Charles Dickens when he came down from London to Exeter in 1835 to report on Lord John Russell’s candidature for Parliament for the Morning Observer.  The election was a very exciting one, and the great novelist, it was said, found food for one of his novels in the ever-famous Eatonswill, and the ultra-abusive editors.  Four years afterwards Dickens leased a cottage at Alphington,