This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1908. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Saint (c)lave. An ancient arched doorway in the Fore Street has written upon it, "St. Olave's Church." But what a mass of discussion and controversy has arisen from those simple words From the dedications of this church and St. Edmund's Mr. Kerslake has deduced the theory of a Danish colony settling in Exeter, and building two churches on waste lands, one near the British settlement, and the other close to the river. St. Edmund's, dedicated in expiation of a crime, and St. Olave's--because S. Olaf was a Norwegian Naturally one wants to ask a little more about this. Dr. Oliver conjectured that the church of St. Olave was founded during the reign of Canute, if so it must have been very much at the end of that reign; Canute came to the throne in 1016, Olaf, King of Norway, was killed in battle about the year 1028, or 1030; Canute died in 1039, when King Olafs recognition as a saint was something very new, and scarcely likely to be as yet recognized by the Danes, his particular foes. He was killed while fighting against them, and in the political aspect of the matter Canute, it is said, had a considerable part in contriving his death. Yet again it is evident that St Olave's church was built soon after the Norse King's martyrdom, for in 1053 Gytha, the mother of Harold endowed it with property at Sherford, near Kingsbridge. Older histories of Exeter declare that the church was founded by Gytha, a fact contradicted by later authorities. But it does not seem so very impossible after all, and it is evident that she took such an interest in the church as induced her to give it property that had been Godwins, that prayers might be offered there for the souls of her husband and elder sons. The Rev. S. Baring-Gould writes: --"It is hard to see how any Danish lady should.