Cases of ague in Somerset are said to succumb if a spider is
captured and starved to death! Consumptives also are said to be
cured by carrying them through a flock of sheep in the morning when
the animals are first let out of the fold. It is said to bode good luck if,
when drinking, a fly should drop into one's cup or glass. When this
happens, we have somewhere heard, that a person's nationality may
be discovered; but beer must be the liquid. A Spaniard leaves his
drink and is mute. A Frenchman leaves it also untouched, but uses
strong language. An Englishman pours the beer away and orders
another glass. A German extracts the fly with his finger and finishes
his beer. A Russian drinks the beer, fly and all. And a Chinaman
fishes out the fly, swallows it, and throws away the beer.
But enough of these peculiarities.
[Pg 134]
LYTES CARY MANOR-HOUSE.
In the wooded vale between Shepton Mallet and Wells is a pretty
straggling village of whitewashed houses with Tudor mullioned
windows and, some of them, Tudor fireplaces within. This is
Croscombe, which, like Crowcombe in western Somerset, has its
village cross, but a mutilated one, and a church rich in Jacobean
woodwork. The canopied pulpit, dated 1616, and the chancel screen,
reaching almost to the roof, bearing the Royal arms, are perhaps the
finest examples of the period to be found anywhere. An inn, once a
priory, near the cross has panelled ceilings and other features of the
fifteenth century. Some old cloth mills, with their emerald green mill-
ponds, are one of the peculiarities of Croscombe. Shepton Mallet is
depressing, perhaps because crape is manufactured there. A lonely
old hostelry to the south of the town known as "Cannard's Grave," not
a cheery sign under the most favourable circumstances, but with
padlocked doors and windows boarded up as we saw it, had a
forbidding look, and seemed to warrant the mysterious stories that
are told about it. The cross in the market-place was erected in 1500,
but it has been too scraped and restored to classify it with those at Cheddar or Malmesbury. The church contains a fine oak roof and
some ancient tombs, mainly to the Strodes, an important
Somersetshire family with Republican tendencies, one of whom
harboured the Duke of Monmouth in his house the night after his
defeat at Sedgemoor. The remains of this house, "Downside," stand
about a mile from Shepton Mallet, but it has been altered and
restored from time to time, so that now it has
[Pg 135]
lost much of its ancient appearance. The pistols which the duke left
here remained in the possession of descendants until about eight
years ago, when they were lost. Monmouth's host, Edward Strode,
also owned what is now called "Monmouth House," from the fact that
the duke slept there on June 23rd and 30th, 1685, upon his march
from Bridgwater towards Bristol and back again. Monmouth's room
may yet be seen, and not many years ago possessed its original
furniture.[18]
LYTES CARY MANOR-HOUSE.
At Cannard's Grave we strike into the old Foss way, and if we follow it
through West Lydford towards Ilchester we shall find on the left-hand
side, a quarter of a mile or so from the road, Lytes Cary, one of the
most compact little manor-houses in western England. But the fine
old rooms are bare and almost ruinous. The arms of the Lytes occur
in some shields of arms in the "decorated" chapel (which is now a cider cellar), and upon a projecting bay-window near a fine embattled
and pierced parapet. The hall is entered from the entrance porch
(over which is a graceful oriel), and has its timber roof and rich
cornice intact. On the first floor is a spacious panelled room with
Tudor bay-window (dated 153
[Pg 136]
3) and open fireplace, which if carefully restored would make a
delightful dwelling room; and it seems a thousand pities that this and
other apartments dating from the fourteenth century should be in their
present neglected state. The front of the manor-house reminds one of
Great Chaldfield in Wiltshire, but on a smaller scale and exteriorly
less elaborate in architectural detail.
FIREPLACE, LYTES CARY.
The eastern corner of the western division of Somerset is especially
rich in picturesque old villages and mansions—that is to say, the
country enclosed within or just beyond the four towns Langport,
Somerton, Chard, and Yeovil. Within this area, or a mile or so
beyond, we have the grand seats of Montacute, Brympton D'Eversy,
Hinton St George, and Barrington Court; the smaller but equally
interesting manor-houses of Sandford Orcas, South Petherton, and
Tintinhull, and the quaint old villages and churches of Trent, Martock,
Curry Rivel, etc.