[Illustration:  CHEDDAR VILLAGE]

The village itself is not particularly picturesque.  In its centre is an ancient hexagonal cross (cp.  Shepton) of no great merit, and much doctored.  The cheeses for which Cheddar is also famous are not the exclusive product of the locality but are extensively made throughout Somerset.  The church is worth inspection.  It is a fine Perp. building, with a lofty W. tower of four stages.  It has triple belfry windows, and a spired stair turret, but the shallowness of the buttresses detracts from its impressiveness.  Within there is a good coloured roof, some Perp. screens, a good 15th-cent. stone pulpit (also coloured), some carved benches, and a rich S. chantry chapel of the Fitz-Walters.  In the sanctuary note the fine piscina and the brasses to the De Cheddars—­one to Sir Thomas on a recessed altar-tomb on the N., and a smaller one to his wife on the floor below.  The piers of the arcade stand on some curious bases, probably the foundations of earlier columns.  The general effect of the interior is spoilt by the fantastic modern colouring at the E. end.

Cheddon Fitzpaine, a parish 2 m.  N.E. of Taunton, preserving, like Stoke Courcy, Stoke Gomer, Norton Fitzwarren, the name of its Norman lord.  It has a nice church, which, however, contains little that is noteworthy.  The piers of the S. arcade have figures on the capitals (cp.  Taunton St Mary’s), and there are a few bench ends and two piscinas.

Chedzoy (2-1/2 m. from Bridgwater) is, with its neighbour Weston Zoyland, a village of great historic interest, since between the two is the field of Sedgemoor.  The final _-oy_ is probably identical with the _-ey_ (isle) which occurs in Athelney and Muchelney, whilst chedz- may be the possessive of Cedda, a Saxon personal name.  The church of St Mary well deserves inspection.  The embattled tower has double belfry windows, and is noteworthy for the unusual way in which the buttresses are finished.  From its summit, in 1685, the approach of the royal troops towards Sedgemoor was discovered through a telescope.  Over the S. porch is the date 1579, and the initials R.B. (Richard Bere, Abbot of Glastonbury), R.F. (Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester), and H.P. (unknown).  The interior is remarkable for the difference in the width of the aisles, which are separated from the nave by an E.E. arcade, above which there is a clerestory.  Over the N. aisle there is a curious arch, with some defaced carving (apparently a crucifixion) above it.  The chancel originally had a lateral chapel on the S., of which traces are visible both within and without.  On the W. buttress of the S. transept there are still marks where Monmouth’s rustics sharpened their scythes and axes.  On both the S. and N. walls of the church there are consecration crosses.  One of its most notable features is the excellence of its woodwork:  note in particular (1) the bench ends, one of which has M (Queen Mary), surmounted