The town is one of the oldest in the state; it was founded in 1638 by Rev. John Wheelwright, an Antinomian leader who with a number of followers settled here after his banishment from Massachusetts. For their government the settlers adopted (1639) a plantation covenant. There was disagreement from the first, however, with regard to the measure of loyalty to the king, and in 1643, when Massachusetts had asserted her claim to this region and the other three New Hampshire towns had submitted to her jurisdiction, the majority of the inhabitants of Exeter also yielded, while the minority, including the founder, removed from the town. In 1680 the town became a part of the newly created province of New Hampshire. During the French and Indian wars it was usually protected by a garrison, and some of the garrison houses are still standing. From 1776 to 1784 the state legislature usually met at Exeter.
See C. H. Bell, History of the Town of Exeter (Exeter, 1888).
EXETER BOOK [Codex Exoniensis], an anthology of Anglo-Saxon
poetry presented to Exeter cathedral by Leofric,[1] bishop
of Exeter, England, from 1050 to 1071, and still in the possession
of the dean and chapter. It contains some legal documents, the
poems entitled Crist, Guthlac, Phoenix, Juliana, The Wanderer
and others, and concludes with between eighty and ninety
riddles. It was first described in Humphrey Wanley’s Catalogus
... (1705) in detail but with many inaccuracies; subsequently
by J. J. Conybeare, Account of a Saxon Manuscript
(a paper read in 1812; printed with some extracts from the
MS. in Archaeologia, vol. xvii. pp. 180-197, 1814). A complete
transcript made (1831) by Robert Chambers is in the British
Museum (Addit. MS. 9067). It was first printed in 1842 by
Benjamin Thorpe for the Soc. of Antiq., London, as Codex
Exoniensis ... with an English Translation, Notes and Indexes.
More recent editions, chiefly based on Thorpe’s text, are:—in
Chr. Grein’s Bibliothek der A. S. Poesie (vol. iii. part 1, ed.
R. Wülker, Leipzig, 1897, with a bibliography), J. Schipper in
Pfeiffer’s Germania, vol. xix. pp. 327-339, and Israel Gollancz,
The Exeter Book, pt. i. (1895), with English translation, for the
Early English Text Society.
A detailed account, with bibliographies of the separate poems, is given by R. Wülker, in Grundriss . . . der A.S. Literatur, pp. 218-236 (Leipzig, 1885); see also the introduction to The Crist of Cynewulf . . ., edited by Prof. A. S. Cook, with introduction, notes and a glossary (Boston, U.S.A., 1900). For the poems contained in the MS. see also Cynewulf and Riddles.
EXHIBITION, a term, meaning in general a public display,[2]
which has a special modern sense as applied to public shows of goods for the promotion of trade (Fr. exposition). The first
exhibition in this sense of which there is any account, in either
sacred or profane history, was that held by King Ahasuerus,
who, according to the Book of Esther, showed in the third year
of his reign “the riches of his glorious kingdom, and the honour
of his excellent majesty, many days, even a hundred and fourscore
days.” The locale of this function was Shushan, the
palace and the exhibits consisted of “white, green and blue
hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver
rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver,
upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white and black marble.
And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, the vessels being
diverse one from another.” The first exhibition since the
Christian era was at Venice during the dogeship of Lorenzo
Tiepolo, in 1268. On that occasion there was a grand display,
consisting of a water fête, a procession of the trades and an
industrial exhibition. The various gilds of the Queen City of the
Seas marched through the narrow streets to the great square of
St Mark, and their leaders asked the dogaressa to inspect the
products of their industry. Other medieval exhibitions were
the fairs held at Leipzig and Nizhni Novgorod in Europe, at
Tanta in Egypt, and in 1689 that by the Dutch at Leiden.
The first modern exhibition was held at London in 1756 by
the Society of Arts, which offered prizes for improvements in
the manufacture of tapestry, carpets and porcelain, the exhibits
being placed side by side. Five years afterwards, in 1761, the
same society gave an exhibition of agricultural machinery.
In 1797 a collective display of the art factories of France, including
those of Sèvres, the Gobelins and the Savonnerie, was made
in the palace of St Cloud, and the exhibition was repeated during
the following year in the rue de Varennes, Paris. This experiment
was so successful that in the last three days of the same year an
exhibition under official auspices, at which private exhibitors
were allowed to compete, was held in the Champ de Mars. Four
years later, in 1801, there was a second official exhibition in
the grand court of the Louvre. Upon that occasion juries of
practical men examined the objects shown, and the winners of a
gold medal were invited to dine with Napoleon, who was at
that time First Consul. In the report of the jury the following
remarkable sentence appeared:—“There is not an artist or
inventor who, once obtaining thus a public recognition of
his ability, has not found his reputation and his business
largely increased.” The third Paris Exhibition, held in 1802,
was the first to publish an official catalogue. There were 540
exhibitors, including J. E. Montgolfier, the first aëronaut, and
J. M. Jacquard, the inventor of the loom which bears his name.
The fourth exhibition was held in 1806 in the esplanade in front
of the Hôtel des Invalides, and attracted 1422 exhibitors. There
were no more exhibitions till after the fall of the empire, but in
1819 the fifth was held during the reign of Louis XVIII., with
1622 exhibitors. Others were held at Paris at various intervals, that in 1849 having 4500 exhibitors.
Other exhibitions, though on a smaller scale, were held in Dublin, London, and in various parts of Germany and Austria during the first half of the 19th century—that in 1844, held at Berlin, having 3040 exhibitors. Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Italy, Spain and Portugal all held exhibitions, and there was a Free Trade Bazaar of British Manufactures at Covent Garden theatre in 1845, which at the time created a great deal of interest. But all these exhibitions were confined to the products of the country in which they took place, and the first great International Exhibition was held in London in 1851 by the Society of Arts, under the presidency of the prince consort. All nations were invited to compete; a site was obtained in Hyde Park, and a building 20 acres in extent was erected, after the design of Sir Joseph Paxton, at a cost of £193,168. The exhibition was open for five months and fifteen days. The receipts amounted to £506,100, and the surplus was £186,000. The number of visitors was 6,039,195, and the money taken at the doors was £423,792. The total, number of exhibitors was 13,937, of which Great Britain contributed 6861, the British colonies 520 and foreign countries 6556. The International Exhibition of 1851 was followed by those of New York and Dublin in 1853, Melbourne and Munich in 1854, and Paris in 1855—this latter was held in the Palais d’Industrie, which remained in existence until pulled down to make room for the two Palais des Beaux Arts, which formed one of the attractions of the 1900 exhibition. The exhibitors numbered 20,839 and the visitors 5,162,330. There were national exhibitions during the following years in several European countries, but the next great world’s fair was held at London in 1862. The total space roofed in amounted to 988,000 sq. ft., 22.65 acres, the number of visitors was 6,211,103, and the amount received at the doors £408,530. The death of the prince consort had a depressing effect upon the enterprise. In 1865 an exhibition was held at Dublin, the greater proportion of the funds being supplied by Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness. The number of attendances during six months was 900,000, and the exhibition was opened at night. An Italian exhibition was held at Rome in 1862.
The Paris Exhibition of 1867 was upon a far larger scale than that of 1855. It was held, like those that preceded and succeeded it, at the Champ de Mars, and covered 41 acres. The building resembled an exaggerated gasometer. The external ring was
- ↑ For Leofric, see F. E. Warren, The Leofric Missal (1883).
- ↑ An “exhibition,” in the sense of a minor scholarship, or annual payment to a student from the funds of a school or college, is a modern survival from the obsolete meaning of “maintenance” or “endowment” (cf. Late Lat. exhibitio et tegumentum, i.e. food and raiment).
