Ham, Low, a village 2 m.  N. of Langport.  The church, which stands in the middle of a field, is something of a curiosity (call for keys at farm opposite).  It is an excellent example of 17th-cent. imitative Gothic.  Its builder was Sir R. Hext, whose political sentiments may be inferred from the motto with which he has adorned the chancel-screen, “My son, fear the Lord, and meddle not with them that are given to change.”  At the end of the N. aisle are effigies of the founder and his wife, and at the corresponding end of the S. aisle is a marble tablet to the memory of Lord Stawell, who has, however, left his own memorial outside.  The perplexing series of terraces overlooking the church are all that remains of a fantastic scheme of his to build a mansion which, like his wife and horse, should be the most beautiful thing of its kind in the world.  But L’homme propose...; Lord Stawell never got any further than these embankments.

Hambridge, a village equidistant from Langport and Ilminster (5 m.).  The church is modern.

Hamdon Hill.  See Stoke, East.

Hardington, a hamlet 5 m.  N.W. of Frome.  The church is a small building with a W. tower.  In the neighbourhood is Hardington Park.

Hardington-Mandeville, a village 4-1/2 m.  S.W. of Yeovil.  The church was rebuilt in 1864, but retains some ancient features, including a good Norm. arch and font, and a Jacobean pulpit.

Harptree, East, a village on a spur of the Mendips, 6 m.  N. from Wells.  It possesses the attractions of a castle, a cavern, and a combe.  The last is a thickly wooded glen near the top end of the village.  On an inaccessible tongue of land at the far end of the gorge are the remains of Richmont Castle, one of those lawless strongholds which in the days of Stephen were a terror to the country side.  In 1138 it was strongly garrisoned by its owner, William de Harptree, on behalf of the Empress Matilda, but was taken by Stephen by the ruse of a feigned repulse.  Now, only a fragment of the keep overlooks the glen.  Half a mile beyond is a remarkable cavern, the Lamb’s Lair, entered by a vertical shaft of some 70 fathoms.  The chamber is of very considerable dimensions, and is said by those who have seen it to be quite the finest cave in the Mendips.  The church is not particularly noteworthy except for the odd device of avoiding a squint by an extension of the arcading.  The walls, font, and S. doorway are Norm.  The S. porch is of unusual size and contains a monument which must be a standing reproach to a declining birthrate.  Under a large Elizabethan canopy is an effigy of Sir J. Newton (1568), attended by twenty children.  At the other end of the village are two mansions, Harptree Court and Eastwood.

Harptree, West, about 1 m.  N. of East Harptree.  The church has a Norman tower with an ugly slated spire.  The rest of the building has been reconstructed, but contains a Norman chancel arch, a large Norman font, and a good piscina.  In the churchyard are seven large conical yew trees.  Opposite the church is Gournay Manor, a fine Jacobean house, and near it is Tilley Manor, a 17th-cent. building, deprived of its top storey.  They are now farmhouses.