Somerset eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 291 pages of information about Somerset.

Somerset eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 291 pages of information about Somerset.

Burtle, a parish 1 m.  N. of Edington Station. (S. & D.).  The church is modern.

Butcombe, a village 2 m.  N. of Blagdon, prettily situated in a nook of the Wrington Vale.  Several monastic bodies originally owned property here, but the church does not seem to have benefited largely by their proprietorship.  It is a small Perp. structure, of no great interest.

Butleigh is a pleasant village, 4 m.  S. of Glastonbury.  Of its church the only old portions are the tower (which is central), the nave, the porch, and the chancel, to which N. and S. transepts and a N. aisle have been added in modern times.  Most of the windows of the nave and chancel are Dec., with foliated rear arches.  The large W. window is Perp., and contains some ancient glass.  In the S. transept is a monument to the three brothers Hood, with a long epitaph in blank verse by Southey.  In the N. aisle are preserved figures (Jacobean) of a man and woman, with a kneeling child between them, obviously portions of an old tomb.  The neighbouring mansion is Butleigh Court (R.N.  Grenville).  The tall column which is so conspicuous from the Glastonbury Plain was erected to the memory of Sir Samuel Hood.

Cadbury Camp, near Tickenham.  See Tickenham.  The name is perhaps connected with the Welsh cad (battle).  There is another near Yallon.

Cadbury, North, a village 2-1/2 m.  E. from Sparkford Station (G.W.R.).  It possesses a remarkably fine Perp. church, built by Lady Eliz.  Botreaux (1427) for a college of eight priests.  The tower, of more than ordinarily plain design, is of rather earlier date, and the arcades have probably been preserved from some previous structure.  The interior, though not rich, is imposing, owing to its size and excellent proportions.  The chancel is of great dignity, and some elaborately carved tabernacles, bearing traces of colouring, flank each side of the E. window, and form a fine architectural addition to the E. end.  The roofs and bench ends (1538) should also be observed.  Note (1) altar slab fixed to N. wall of sanctuary, (2) rood-loft stair and turret, (3) three altar-tombs under tower, one (early 15th cent.) bearing effigies of Sir W. and Lady Eliz.  Botreaux, (4) fragments of glass in W. window.  Of this church, Ralph Cudworth, the famous Cambridge philosopher, was once rector.

At the S.E. of the church is Cadbury Court, a fine gabled Elizabethan mansion, with a curiously incongruous modern front on the S.

Cadbury, South (2-1/4 m.  E. of Sparkford), is a village on the N.E. side of Cadbury Camp, with a church dedicated to St Thomas a Becket, who is perhaps intended by the fresco of a bishop which is on the splay of a window in the N. aisle.  The responds of the aisle arches are curiously banded.  There is a good reredos, a piscina, and a hagioscope.

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Somerset from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.