Part 10 (1/2)
_Halse_, a pleasant village, 2 m. N.W. of Milverton. It has a small but very interesting church, standing in a beautifully kept churchyard, which commands a fine view of the Quantocks. Its choicest possession is a very fine rood-screen: note the old beam above, and window. Other features deserving attention are (1) gla.s.s in E. window, (2) curious font, probably early Norm., (3) medallions in spandrels of arcade, (4) piscina on window-sill of sanctuary, (5) painted mural device on S.
wall of nave, (6) fragments of carving in porch, (7) squint. The large windows in the porch are somewhat unusual.
_Ham, High_, a village occupying a fine breezy situation on the top of High Ham Hill, 4 m. N. from Langport. The church in its centre is a handsome building, typically and consistently Perp. It contains a fair roof, some panelled bench-ends, and a curious lectern, but its princ.i.p.al ornament is a fine Perp. chancel-screen. Note (1) stoup in porch, (2) the vigorously executed gargoyles, especially the pair over the porch, a mediaeval presentation of Darby and Joan.
_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.
_Haselbury Plucknett_, a village 2-1/2 m. N.E. of Crewkerne. It has a Perp. church with an E.E. N. chapel, which is a.s.sociated with the memory of St Wulfric, who, born at Compton Martin, resided here, and died in 1154. The body of the Church has an old font. A priory of Austin canons, dating from the 12th cent., once existed here.
_Hatch Beauchamp_, 6 m. S.E. from Taunton, is a village (with station) situated in very picturesque surroundings. The church (best reached through the deer park) has a good tower, crowned with numerous pinnacles. Note (1) the foliaged bands round the pillars of the arcade; (2) the excellent bench-ends; (3) the fragments of old gla.s.s in the windows of the N. aisle; (4) the large picture, a ”Descent from the Cross,” by Perriss; (5) the window in the chancel to the memory of Colonel J.R.M. Chard, of Rorke's Drift fame, with a wreath preserved beneath it sent by Queen Victoria. The obelisk near the S. door is said to have once been the churchyard cross.
_Hatch, West_, a village 1-1/2 m. W. of Hatch Beauchamp. The church has been entirely rebuilt (1861).
_Hawkridge_, a parish 5 m. N.W. of Dulverton Station, consisting merely of a cl.u.s.ter of cottages and a tiny church. It is perched on the top of a ridge of high ground separating the Barle from its tributary stream the Danes Brook. The valleys on either side are beautifully wooded, and exhibit some of the most romantic scenery in Somerset. The church has a plain Norm. doorway.
_Heathfield_, a parish 2-1/2 m. E. of Milverton. Its church is small, and the only objects of interest which it contains are (1) a mural monument on the N. of the chancel, with kneeling figures, of the 16th cent.; (2) a carved oak pulpit (said to be reconstructed from ancient materials). There is the shaft of an ancient cross in the graveyard, with a mutilated figure.
_Hemington_, a village lying at the end of a wide vale, 3 m. E.S.E.
from Radstock. The church has a few features in common with the neighbouring church of Buckland Denham, viz., (1) peculiar arrangement of windows in tower, (2) clerestory to nave, though the building possesses only one aisle. The interior shows (_a_) some good Dec. work in windows, some of which have foliated rear arches, with detached shaft; (_b_) plain Norm. chancel arch. Observe also (1) piscina on the respond of the chancel arcade, (2) the central pier of the arcade (it is surrounded by four detached shafts). On the hill above the village, standing by the side of the Trowbridge road, is a square tower of as much beauty as utility, locally known as ”Turner's Folly.” The ”green”
of the neighbouring hamlet of Falkland retains its ancient stocks.
_Henstridge_, a large village 7 m. S. of Wincanton, with a station on the S. & D.J.R. The church has been rebuilt (except the tower and part of the N. and W. walls), but contains some ancient features. There is a 15th-cent. altar-tomb in the chancel under a carved and coloured canopy, with two effigies. These represent William Carent (who inherited the property of two wealthy families, the Carents and the Toomers), and his wife Margaret (_nee_ Stourton). The arms that adorn the tomb are those of Carent and Stourton. The rhyming inscription round the arch of the canopy is, _Sis testis Xte quod non tumulus iacet iste corpus ut ornetur, sed spiritus ut memoretur_. There is also an elaborately carved niche or tabernacle in the N.E. angle of the N. (or Toomer) aisle. Note, too, (1) decorated piscina, (2) remains of figures over the entrance to the N. chapel. The ”Virginia Inn” at the cross-road is said to be the spot where Sir Walter Raleigh's servant emptied a stoup of beer over his master, who was smoking, in the belief that he was on fire. At Yeaston, a hamlet between Henstridge and Templecombe, there once existed a Benedictine priory, attached to an abbey of that Order at Coutances (Normandy). A field is still said to bear the name of the Priory Plot.
HIGHBRIDGE, a growing little town on the Brue, 1-1/2 m. S.E. from Burnham. It has two stations, one on the G.W.R. main line to Taunton, the other on the S. & D. Burnham branch. It possesses a town-hall, a cattle market, and other evidences of prosperity. Brick and tile making are carried on in the locality, and a large bacon factory and a timber-yard are amongst its more important commercial undertakings. As the river is navigable up to this point for small craft it also encourages a coasting trade. Of antiquarian interest it has none. The church is as modern as the town.
_Hill Farrance_, 3-1/2 m. N.E. of Wellington, is a village on the Tone.
Its church (ded. to the Holy Cross) has a ma.s.sive-looking tower, with an open-work parapet, bearing the initials I.P. It contains sedilia and a piscina, and some carved bench ends. On the S. of the building is a mortuary chapel (14th cent.) of one of the De Vernais (once lords of the manor), which at the restoration of the church in 1857 was given to the parish.
_Hinton Blewitt_, a small and secluded village, 4 m. S.W. from Clutton.
The church is Perp., with a fair W. tower. It possesses a stoup and a rather poor piscina. The village, which is on the slope of a hill, commands a pleasant view of the Mendips.
_Hinton Charterhouse_, a small village 6 m. S. of Bath, on the more easterly of the alternative roads from the city to Frome. Its sole attraction consists in a few fragments of a once considerable Carthusian priory. About 1/2 m. N. of the village, in the corner of a field near the main road, is what looks like a low gabled church tower, with a small E.E. chancel and some other out-buildings. These remnants are all that survive of a house founded here in 1232 by the widow of William Longsword, for the accommodation of a settlement of Carthusians; and it is worth noticing that of the Carthusian houses in England, which never numbered more than nine, Somerset had two. The ruins, which are very meagre, consist of two groups of buildings. (1) One is a three-storeyed structure, containing on bas.e.m.e.nt a vaulted, chapel-like chamber, lighted by side lancets and a terminal triplet, and possessing a large piscina and an aumbry. This is generally but quite erroneously described as the ”chapter-house.” It may have been the fratry. On the first floor is another vaulted chamber, supposed to have been the library. It communicated at the end with a pigeon-cote, and is reached by a good stone staircase, which also gives access to a loft above. On the L. of the pa.s.sage leading to the library will also be noticed a small room lighted by a square-headed window. (2) The second, in the stable-yard of the adjoining manor house, is the refectory, a good, vaulted apartment, with a row of octagonal columns down the centre. At the W. end it opens into the kitchen, in which will be discovered a fireplace. Of the priory church, which ab.u.t.ted on the N. wall of the so-called ”chapter house,” nothing is left but a single trefoiled piscina and one of the vaulting shafts. The buildings have evidently been freely used as a quarry for the erection of the neighbouring manor house. In a dingle in the adjoining field is a stone-faced, pointed archway, tunnelling the road. The parish church is an unattractive, ivy-clad building near the village. _Hinton House_ (J.C. Foxcroft) is a modern mansion, with a fine open green in front of it.
_Hinton St George_, a clean and attractive village equidistant (4 m.) from Crewkerne and Ilminster. It possesses a very fine cross, having on one face a representation of St John Baptist, which was originally flanked by smaller figures. The shaft has been barbarously crowned with a sundial and large ball. The church has a dignified tower with numerous pinnacles, and a pierced, embattled parapet. The W. front has a single large window which breaks the string course (cp. Shepton Beauchamp and Norton-sub-Hamdon). The S. porch has a ribbed and panelled roof and numerous niches. The interior of the church is not very interesting, apart from the tombs and monuments of the Pouletts, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Most are in a large N. chapel, but there is one between the chapel and the chancel, and another in front of the family pew. The font is carved with s.h.i.+elds bearing alternately a cross and the Poulett arms. There is a piscina in the chancel. _Hinton House_, the mansion of Countess Poulett, in the neighbouring park, has portions dating from the time of the first Sir Amyas Poulett (d. 1537), but the rest is later. It has a fine collection of pictures.
_Holcombe_, a colliery village 3-1/2 m. S. of Radstock. It has a small modern church; but an old church, now disused, lies in a dingle in some fields a mile away from the village. This possesses a good Norm. S.
doorway, with a curious inverted inscription scratched on one of the capitals. The careless rebuilding of the columns shows that it is not in its original position.