Charlton Mackrell, 3 m.  E. of Somerton, has a cruciform church with a central tower, in the piers of which are large foliated squints.  The church contains little of interest; but note (1) the roof of the chancel, with the angels above the corbels, (2) the piscina, (3) the carved seat-ends (especially the figure of a satyr).  The churchyard cross has figures carved on it, perhaps the symbols of the four Evangelists.  Within the parish but nearer the village of Kingsdon is Lytes Cary House, situated a little distance from the Glastonbury and Ilchester road.  It is an interesting example of domestic architecture, the chapel dating from 1340, the rest of the building from the 15th cent.  The E. front has two oriels, whilst the S. front, crowned with a parapet, bears the arms of Lyte (a chevron between 3 swans) and Horsey (3 horses’ heads), and the initials I, E (John Lyte and Edith Horsey).  The chapel has a Dec. window and ruined piscina and stoup.  The hall, now divided by a wall, has a fine roof and cornice.  An upper room retains a good moulded ceiling, decorated with heraldic blazons.

Charlton Musgrove, a small village 1 m.  N. of Wincanton.  The church is early Perp. and has a fair W. tower.  Note (1) panelled chancel arch, (2) square blocked squint, (3) odd-looking font.  One of the bells is pre-Reformation, and has the inscription Regina coeli, laetare.

Charterhouse on Mendip, a lonely hamlet at the W. end of the Mendips, 3 m.  N.W. of Priddy.  Here the Carthusians of Witham had a cell (hence the name), but all traces of the building have now disappeared.  The locality is, however, still of interest as the scene of the Roman mining industry.  Here lead was unearthed and transported across the hills for shipment at Uphill.  The settlement seems to have been a sort of Roman “Roaring Camp,” where the miners relaxed the tedium of their exile by the excitements of the gaming-table.  The surrounding heaps of slag have been rich in revelations.  Discarded trinkets, spoons, forks, beads, and dice bear eloquent testimony to their habits, whilst on a shoulder of the neighbouring upland is an amphitheatre. (Take Blagdon road and turn up a grassy lane on L.:  the amphitheatre is in a field near the top).  The workings have now been abandoned, but many attempts have been made since Roman times to re-start them.  A Roman road is distinctly traceable in the fields beyond the mines.  It ran in a straight line from Uphill to Old Sarum.  The rounded upland on the N.W., a mile or so farther on, is Blackdown (1067 ft.), the highest point of the Mendips.