the periods of quarter sessions, until the rebuilding of the Shire Hall, by the "Act of Parliament passed in 1773 for taking down the Shire Hall of the County of Devon, and for rebuilding a new Shire Hall in a more commodious manner;" and in which a new chapel was provided. Another Act of Parliament for making and declaring the gaol for the County of Devon, called the High Gaol, a public and common gaol; and for discharging Denys Rolle and John Rolle, Esqrs., and their respective heirs and assigns, from the office of keeper of the said gaol, and for improving and enlarging the same, or building a new one, and also for taking down the chapel in the Castle of Exeter, and for other purposes, was passed 27 Geo. III., 1787. In 1792 the ancient building was removed: there is an engraving of it from a sketch by the late R. S. Vidal, Esq., which indicates no architectural beauty, indeed, all its later reparations appear to have been most unsightly.
A quantity of ancient armour which had been deposited in the chapel, was given by Lieutenant-General Simcoe, the commander of the district, to John Houlton, Esq., of Farleigh Castle, Colonel of the Wiltshire Militia; an act as ill-advised as it was illegal, and extremely to be regretted by those who take an interest in the preservation of local vestiges and memorials of by-gone times.
Though a well-endowed Chapel within a Royal Castle, it would be an error to suppose that it was exempt from the visitation of the Ordinary, as the old prebendal chapels of our sovereigns weve at Wolverhampton, Gnoushale, in Leicestershire, St. Mary's at Stafford, Penkridge, Tetenhall, Bridgenorth, St. Mary's at Shrewsbury, All Saints, Derby, Bosham, in Sussex, St. Martin's, London, and Wimburne Minster (Stapeldon's Reg. fol. 28); and subsequently St. George's, at Windsor. That our bishops did exercise their right of visitation and jurisdiction here, is manifest from their registers; it is sufficient to specify the one so publicly made by Bishop Stapeldon, on 19th of January, 1321, of its neglected condition:—"Memorandum quod xix die Januarii MCCCXXI. Dominus existens personaliler in Castro Civitatis Exon' ingressus est in capellam ejusdem Castri, que prebendalis est, assistentibus sibi Henrico de Walmesford, tunc tenente locum Vice Comitis Devon. Domino Roberto de Stokhay, Milite, Henrico do Bokerel, et aliis in multitudine
