American city.

From Yeovil to Torquay, through Exeter, with a stop at the latter place,
was an unusually good day's run. The road was more hilly than any we had
passed over heretofore, not a few of the grades being styled
"dangerous," and we had been warned by an English friend that we should
find difficult roads and steep hills in Devon and Cornwall. However, to
one who had driven over some of our worst American roads, even the "bad"
roads of England looked good, and the "dangerous" hills, with their
smooth surface and generally uniform grade, were easy for our
moderate-powered motor.

Exeter enjoys the distinction of having continuously been the site of a
town or city for a longer period than is recorded of any other place in
England. During the Roman occupation it was known as a city, and it is
believed that the streets, which are more regular than usual and which
generally cross each other at right angles, were first laid out by the
Romans. It is an important town of about fifty thousand inhabitants,
with thriving trade and manufactures, and modern improvements are in
evidence everywhere.

The cathedral, though not one of the largest or most imposing, is
remarkable for the elaborate carving of the exterior. The west front is
literally covered with life-sized statues set in niches in the wall, but
the figures are all sadly time-worn, many of them having almost
crumbled away. Evidently the Roundheads were considerate of Exeter
Cathedral that such a host of effigies escaped destruction at their
hands; and they were not very well disposed towards Exeter, either, as
it was always a Royalist stronghold. Possibly it was spared because the
Cromwellians found it useful as a place of worship, and in order to