Whitestaunton, a village 3-1/2 m.  N.W. from Chard.  As the only approach is by a rough country lane, the place is somewhat inaccessible, but it possesses much antiquarian interest.  The church (Perp.) is poor, but contains (1) rood-loft stair and part of a small Perp. screen; (2) early Norm, font; (3) piscina in sill of sanctuary window; (4) some mediaeval tiles near altar, bearing arms of Montacute (according to some, Ferrers) and De Staunton; (5) curious squint, looking towards S. chapel (cp.  Mark); (6) a few old bench ends; (7) pewter communion plate; (8) stone screen dividing small N. chantry from chancel; (9) in N. chapel, two tombs with armorial bearings, and a brass (1582) to the Brett family, former lords of the manor.  Two of the bells are mediaeval.  In the churchyard is the base and shaft of a cross.  Close by the church is a manor house, some portions of which date from the 15th cent., but altered in the 16th cent. by John Brett, whose initials are carved on the wainscoting of the dining-room; and in the grounds are the exposed foundations of a Roman villa, discovered in 1882.  Beneath an archway is a well, near which, when discovered, were traces of a Roman shrine.  Old workings, supposed to be Roman mines, exist in the neighbourhood.

Wick St Lawrence, a parish 2 m.  N. of Worle, on the flats near the coast.  It has a Perp. church (formerly a chapel of Congresbury), a building of no interest, but containing a fine stone pulpit.  Note, too, (1) ancient tub font; (2) carved chairs, with crown and Tudor roses, in sanctuary; (3) remains of inscription at N.E. angle of nave.  The S. porch seems once to have had a gallery.  Near the church, in the roadway, is a fragment of a fine cross, on an exceptionally high pedestal.

WILLITON, a pleasant little town (with station on the Minehead line), once the abode of Reginald Fitzurse, one of the murderers of Becket.  It is rather curious that of the four knights concerned in the murder three were connected with Somerset, viz., Fitzurse, Brito (of Sampford Brett), and Moreville.  The church, which is said to have been a chantry chapel founded by Robert Fitzurse, Reginald’s brother, has been completely rebuilt; its only antiquities are the W. doorway, the font (1666), a piscina, and two brackets on the E. wall.  There are the remains of an old cross in the graveyard, and of a second near the “Egremont Hotel.”  Past the church the road leads to Orchard Wyndham, a fine manor house.

WINCANTON, a trim-looking little market town in the S.E. corner of the county, with a station on the S. & D. line to Bournemouth, and possessing a population of more than 2000.  It consists chiefly of one long street, which descends a steepish declivity into the vale of Blackmoor.  The river Cale, from which the town derives its name (Wynd-Caleton) flows at its foot.  The history of Wincanton is miscellaneous but unromantic.  In 1553 travellers gave the place