Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/189

 THE CASTLE OF EXETEIl. 18.'5 said duchy ; the inclosure of which, with its ditches, called in the duchy leases the Castle Close, still retains the title of " the Precinct of Bradninch."^ Early in 1470, during twelve days, the city was invested with a strong force by Sir Wilham Courtenay, Knight, (the first of that name settled at Powderham,) for receiving within its walls the Duke of Clarence and his father-in-law, the Earl of Warwick, and some leaders of the Lancasterian party : but these noblemen contrived to reach Dartmouth and to sail for the French coast before King Edward lY., with all his expedition, could arrive at Exeter on 14th April, that year. Twenty-seven years later, (viz. 17th September, 1497,) Perkin Warbeck attempted to take the city by a coup-de- main. He actually set fire to Northgate ; but the citizens fed the flames with fresh fuel, whilst digging a deep ditch behind it. Directing his force against the east gate, he effected an entrance, and advanced as far as Castle Lane, when he was repulsed with considerable loss. Discouraged by this failure, and at the reports of a rising of the gentry in aid of the citizens, as also of the advance of the royal army, he solicited on the next morning a cessation of hostilities, and then decamped towards Taunton. On the 7th of October King Henry VII. entered the city in triumph. After the gallant defence of the inhabitants against the rebels in the reign of King Edward VI., from 2nd July to the 6th of August, 1549, the Castle of Exeter was suffered to fall into decay. Wcstcofe, who WTote about 1630, several years before the Civil Wars, describes it in his " View of Devon," p. 139, as "an old ruinous castle, whose gaping chinks and aged countenance presagcth a downfall ere long. The amplitude and beauty thereof cannot be discerned by the ruins ; but for former days was of good strength ; but now, as the poet said, ' Magnum nil nisi nomen habct.' " To the same purpose, his contemporary Risdon, in his " Survey," p. 1 1 6 — " The Castle shcweth the fragments of the ancient buildings ruinated, whereon time hath tyran- nized." When Cosmo III., Duke of Tuscan3^ visited the site on the 7th of April, 1669, he found it to be a square inclosure, dismantled of guns and devoid of troops. ^ Survey made 25th Nov., IGoO, of the Honor, Manor aiul borough of Bradninch, in the possession of George Pearse, of Bradniiich, Esq.