The little town of South Petherton, midway between Ilminster and
Ilchester, is full of old nooks and c
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orners, from its ancient cruciform church to the old hostelry in the
High Street. From a very early date it was a place of great
importance; but since the days of the Saxon monarch who resided
there, the Daubeneys have stamped their identity upon King Ina's
palace, of which there are picturesque Tudor remains incorporated in
a modern dwelling, which to our mind has robbed it of the poetry it
possessed when in a ruinous condition. The villages of Martock
above and Hinton St George below are also full of interest; and both
possess their ancient market-crosses, but now curtailed and
converted into sundials with stone-step massive bases. But the glory
of Martock is its grand old church (where Fairfax and Cromwell
offered up a prayer for the capture of Bridgwater in 1645), whose
carved black oak roof is one of the finest in the west of England.[20]
The ancient seat of the Pouletts is an extensive but by no means
beautiful house. It has a squat appearance, being only two storeys
high, with battlemented towers at the angles and Georgian and
Victorian Gothic sash-windows; but on the southern side, a pierced
parapet and classic windows give it a less barrack-like appearance.
Sir Amias Poulett (or Paulet, as it was formerly spelled), the grandson
of the builder of the house, who won his spurs at the battle of
Newark-on-Trent, is principally famous from the
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fact that he put Wolsey in the stocks when that great person held the
living of Lymington, and upon one occasion took more than was good
for him. But the cardinal afterwards had his revenge, and put fine
upon Sir Amias to build the gate of the Middle Temple, which formerly
bore the prelate's arms elaborately carved, as a peace-offering from
Sir Amias. Lymington in Hampshire is often associated with the
stocks' episode, but Lymington near Ilchester, and some ten miles
from Hinton, was the place. Sir Amias had the custody of Mary
Queen of Scots during the latter part of her long imprisonment, and to
him the "Good Queen" (?) more than hinted that it would be a kindness to hasten her victim's end by private assassination. Paulet,
however, had a conscience, so Elizabeth had to take upon herself the
responsibility of Mary's execution.
The historic stocks of Lymington are now no more, but beneath a big
elm tree on the village green at Tintinhull, close by, they still are flourishing. Tintinhull, like Trent and other neighbouring villages, is full
of picturesque old houses, sturdy stone Jacobean and Tudor
cottages, with garden borderings of slabs of stone set up edgeways,
and slabs of stone running along the footway in a delightfully primitive
fashion. Tintinhull Court is a stately old pile dating from the reign of Henry VIII. Its oldest side faces the garden, but the main front is a good type of the seventeenth century. We will not repeat here the
particulars of Charles II.'s concealment at the old seat of the
Wyndhams after the battle of Worcester;[21] but on the spot, and though the greater part of the house has been rebuilt, one may
realise the incidents in that romantic episode, for the village of Trent
to-day is much the same as the village of 1651.
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SANDFORD ORCAS MANOR-HOUSE.
The manor-house of Sandford Orcas, to the north-east of Trent
(which by the way now belongs to Dorset), is quite a gem of early-
Elizabethan architecture, with crests upon the gable ends, and the
Tudor and Knoyle arms and graceful panels upon the warm-coloured
walls of Ham Hill stone. Though a small house, it has its great hall with carved oak screen; and most of the rooms are panelled, and
have their original fireplaces. The wide arched Tudor gateway
spanning the road bears the arms of the Knoyles, a monument to
whom may be seen in the south aisle of the church close by, the
tower of which rises picturesquely above the gabled roof of the
manor-house. The village, the little there is of it, is buried in orchards,
between which the mill-stream winds, the haunt of a colony of
quacking ducks whose noisy gossip makes up for the paucity of
inhabitants.
Some eight miles away, on the other side of Yeovil, there is a manor-
house, which for picturesqueness must take the palm of even
Sandford Orcas. This is Brympton D'Eversy, a remarkable mixture of
the domestic architecture of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth
centuries. One would think that the various styles would not
harmonise, but they do in a remarkable degree. Add to these the
styles of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which are
conspicuous in portions of the adjacent church, and there is
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indeed a field from which to study. The northern front of the mansion,
with its embattled Gothic bays and rows of latticed windows, is
flanked by the quaint little turreted church, and together they form a most striking group not only in outline, but attractive in colour, for grey-green lichens and the peculiar rusty tint of stone blend in perfect
sympathy. Picture this house and church in crude white stone,
unmellowed and toned by time, and half its charm would be gone.
Does not this open up a question worth consideration? A modern
house is built with conscientious exactitude in imitation of some
beautiful existing example of Gothic or Renaissance architecture.
Every detail is perfect, but the result is harsh and new. One must wait
almost a lifetime before it makes a picture really pleasing to the eye.
Therefore why not take some measures to tone down the staring
stone or obtrusive red-brick before the masonry is constructed? True,
there are a few exceptions where additions have been made to
ancient houses, which cannot be detected; but in the case of an
entirely new house, does it often occur to the builder how much more
pleasing would be the result if the exterior of his house were more in
harmony with the old oak fittings and ancient furniture with which it is
his ambition to fill it? Would that all such houses were built of Ham Hill stone, for it has the peculiarity of imparting a
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ge much more rapidly than any other.