ALBERT MEMORIAL MUSEUM,

SCHOOLS OF SCIEMCE AND ART, AND FREE LIBRARY, occupying a handsome building in the gothic style of architecture as a memorial to his late Royal Highness, the Prince Consort. The corner-stone was laid on the 30th October, 1865, by the late R. S. Gard, Esq., who gave the principal frontage of the site, value £2,000, and he also gave £100 towards the building fund. The building was opened in 1868, just in time for the meeting of the British Association, which was held in Exeter shortly after. The exterior facing of the walls is composed of Red Felspathic Trap, from Pocomb, near Exeter, relieved with bands of Chudleigh Limestone. The principal entrance is through an arcade, supported on columns of polished Aberdeen granite. The grand staircase is the principal architectural feature of the interior: at the top of the first flight, in a niche, is a full-length statue of the late Prince Consort […]. The total cost of the structure […] was nearly £11,000, which was raised by subscription. The building, together with its contents, was handed over by the subscribers to the city of Exeter on the 21st of April, 1870, and was then opened as a Free Library and Museum under the Free Libraries' Act of 1855. It is now supported by a rate levied on the city. The library contains over 15,000 volumes. The Museum is still in its infancy, although it contains the nucleus of important collections, and there are several objects of great archæological interest among them. […]

POST OFFICE AND TELEGRAPH OFFICE.

A neat stone building, built in 1864, and enlarged in 1871 to accommodate the Postal and Telegraph business. The Telegraph offices are over the Postal department.

[Text may be taken from a different source or edition than that listed as the source by Somers Cocks.]