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Clergymen are allowed within the pale though
by no means as certainly as used to be the case; and, indeed, in
these days of literates, clergymen have to pass harder examinations
than those ever imposed upon them by bishops' chaplains, before
they are admitted ad eundem among the chosen ones of the city of
Exeter. The wives and daughters of the old prebendaries see well to
that. And, as has been said, special merit may prevail. Sir Peter
Mancrudy, the great Exeter physician, has won his way in, not
at all by being Sir Peter, which has stood in his way rather than
otherwise, but by the acknowledged excellence of his book about
saltzes. Sir Peter Mancrudy is supposed to have quite a metropolitan,
almost a European reputation and therefore is acknowledged to belong
to the county set, although he never dines out at any house beyond
the limits of the city. Now, let it be known that no inhabitant of
Exeter ever achieved a clearer right to be regarded as 'county,'
in opposition to 'town,' than had Miss Jemima Stanbury.


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