The interior of the cathedral, however, was
very fine, and we were sorry we had not time to explore it thoroughly.
Some very old books were preserved in it--the most valuable being a
Saxon manuscript called _Codex Exoniensis_, dating from the ninth
century, and also the _Exeter Domesday_, said to be the exact transcript
of the original returns made by the Commissioners appointed by William
the Conqueror at the time of the Survey, from which the great Domesday
was completed.
The minstrel gallery dated from the year 1354, and many musical
instruments used in the fourteenth century were represented by carvings
on the front, as being played by twelve angels. The following were the
names of the instruments: cittern, bagpipe, clarion, rebec, psaltery,
syrinx, sackbut, regals, gittern, shalm, timbral, and cymbals!
Some of these names, my brother remarked, were not known to modern
musicians, and they would be difficult to harmonise if all the
instruments had to be played at the same time; his appreciation of the
bagpipe was doubtless enhanced, seeing that it occupied the second
position.
The cathedral also possessed a marvellous and quaint-looking clock some
hundreds of years old, said to have been the production of that famous
monk of Glastonbury who made the wonderful clock in Wells Cathedral,
which on striking the hour sets in motion two armoured figures of
knights on horseback, armed with spears, who move towards each other in
a circle high above the central arches, as if engaged in a tournament.
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