PART 1.] Compendium of County History Somersetshire. 587 # On LANSDOWN Downs the Bath races are held. Here is likewise a monument erected to commemorate the battle in 1645, when Sir Beville Granville fell; it was erected in 1720 by Lord George Lansdown, grandson of Sir B. Granville, and is inscribed "to the memory of his renowned and valiant Cornish friends who conquered dying in the Royal cause." The parish of LYMINGTON was the Rectory of the famous Cardinal Wolsey. There is an anecdote of him, that soon after his preferment to this living, he was put into the stocks by Sir Amias Pawlet, a neighbouring justice of the peace, for getting drunk, and making a riot at a fair;-a kind of discipline which Wolsey did not forget when he arrived at the high station of Lord Chancellor of England; he summoned his corrector up to London, and after a severe reprimand, enjoined him six years close confinement in the Temple. MARTOCK Church formerly contained some excellent paintings on glass. It has a superb altar-piece. In the centre of the town stands the market-place, and near it a handsome fluted column with a dial, being a model of the celebrated pillar of Trajan at Wilton House, the seat of the Earl of Pembroke. MENDIP HILLS were anciently called Moinedrop, having many knotts upon them of steep ascent. On the highest part is a considerable flat containing some swamps, which often prove dangerous to travellers. They are now covered for a vast extent with heath and fern, and large flocks of sheep are kept upon them. In MIDDLEZOy Church is a brass to the memory of "Louis Chevalier de Misiers, a French gentleman, who behaved himself with great courage and gallantry 18 years in the English service; and was unfortunately slaine on the 6th of July, 1685, at the battle of Weston, where he behaved himself with all the courage imaginable against the King's enemies commanded by the rebel Duke of Munmuth.' MINEHEAD is reckoned the safest harbour in the county; for in the great storm in 1703, when the ships were blown on shore, wrecked and lost in every other harbour in the county, they suffered little or no damage in this. In NUNNEY Church are the tombs of the De la Mere family, adorned with escutcheons on the side and end. In PAULTON Church lie the mutilated effigies of Sir John Palton, Knt. who was engaged in the wars of Edw. III. SOUTH PETHERTON Church was the Vicarage of Dr. James Harcourt, a great benefactor. PRIOR-PARK, a magnificent mansion, (which together with the wings, offices, &c. forms a front of above 1000 feet) was formerly the residence of Ralph Allen, Esq. who kept open house for men of known genius, and was particularly fond of Pope. He was also the Allworthy of Fielding's "Tom Jones." It was afterwards possessed by Bishop Warburton in consequence of his marriage with Mr. Allen's niece, and after several changes it got into Chancery, became the seat of Lord Hawarden, and is now possessed by Mr. John Thomas. The mineral spring at QUEEN'S CAMEL is very cold to the touch, and offensive to the smell, being not much unlike burnt gunpowder mixed with water. At the irruption of the SEVERN in 1607, it was observed that creatures of contrary natures, dogs, hares, foxes, conies, cats, and mice, getting up to the tops of some hills, dispensed at that time with their antipathies, remaining peaceably together, without sign of fear or violence one towards another. Fuller. SOMERTON was formerly a considerable town, and gave name to the county.— In the Castle King John of France was kept prisoner, after his removal from Hertford. In the South Isle of STOKE COURCY Church is a large handsome mural monument of various kinds of marble, to the memory of Sir T. Wroth, Bart. of Petherton Park, M.P. for Bridgewater, Wells, and the county. He maintained the antient spirit of English hospitality, and died 1721. IN STOKE GIFFORD Church are several monuments of the family of the "right worthy" Rodneys. In SUCKHAM Church was buried the learned divine and loyalist Dr. Byam, who raised both men and horse for Charles II., and engaged his five sons (four of whom were captains) in the service of his Majesty.' 588 Compendium of County History-Somersetshire. Ixosu: In St. Magdalen Church, TAUNTON, is a handsome monument erected to a benefactor of this town, Robert Gray, Esq. whose effigy thereon represents him in his Sheriff's robes: "Taunton bore him, London bred him; Piety train'd him, virtue led him; Give him the praise, and heaven the glory. He died in the year 1635, aged 65." In TRENT Church is a very curious arch, the bend of which is painted over with laurel branches and leaves, among which are forty armorial shields, representing the alliances of the families of Coker and Gerard. At WARLEY, the seat of Mr. Skrine, was found the capital of a Roman pillar of very curious workmanship. At WEDMORE, in 1670, were found, in sinking a well at the depth of 13 feet, the remains of one of the Cangick giants, a people supposed to have formerly inhabited these parts. The top of the skull was said to be an inch thick, and one of his teeth 3 inches long above the roots, 34 inches round, and after the root was broken off, weighed 34 ounces! At WELLOW, in 1737, were found some tesselated payements. They were in a fallow field called the Hayes near the village. WELLS Abbey is a spacious Gothic structure in the form of a cross, being 380 feet long, and 130 wide. The entire West front is a pile of statues of most excellent carved stone work; and one of the principal windows contains some beautiful paintings on glass. In this Abbey is a curious clock, the work of a monk of Glastonbury. It has an astronomical dial, surmounted by a barrier of small figures on horseback, representing knights at tilts and tournaments, which, by a movement of the machinery, are ludicrously hurried round in rapid circumvolutions. The Episcopal Palace is reckoned the handsomest in the kingdom, yet small; and the moat gate of the Palace still remains. The pious Bishop Ken and his lady were killed here in their bed, by the Palace falling in during the great storm in 1703.-The name of this city is said to be taken from a remarkable spring called St. Andrew's well, which rises near the Palace, and, emitting a copious stream, surrounds that structure, thence flowing through the South-west part of the town.-Near the scite of the market cross, stands the public conduit (an engraving of which is in vol. LXXXIII. i. p. 624.) In 1613 Anne, consort of King James I. visited Wells. The entrance to WOOKEY HOLE is very narrow after a length of 15 feet it expands into a cavern resembling the body of a church, the parts of which are very craggy, and abound with pendent rocks, from which there is a continual dripping of water; the bottom is extremely rough and slippery, with irregular basins of water. From this cavern there is a passage leading into another of similar dimensions and appearance; from which another long and low passage leads to a third vault covered with an arched roof: on one side of this is a sandy bottom about 20 feet broad, and on the other side à stream of water very clear and cold, about 10 feet wide, and 2 or 3 deep. After passing through the rock, the stream decends 40 or 50 feet to a level with the ground, driving a mill near the foot of the mountain, and forming the first source of the river Axe.-Wookey was the Vicarage of that "great refiner of the English language," Alexander de Berkley. In YATTON Church are several ancient monuments, with the effigies of the persons interred beneath, one of which is intended to represent Judge Newton and his lady, with the arms of Newton and Sherborne. S. T.. Mr. PART 1.] Cruelty to Animals.→→ New Entrance to the House of Lords. 589 " hardly be expected to carry the most benign and heavenly temper; and if I have little of this benevolent spirit to controul me, I have the more excuse for the indignation which in every day finds some new cause to fill my heart and flush my cheek with just anger and resentment against the brutal and savage practice of " riding the willing horse to death." Matches against time, and the boyish sport of steeple-hunting, are become very serious and very scan-. dalous sources of great mischief. If a man for a few pounds of gold or silver in his pocket is willing to sweat as many of flesh from off his own bones, and without one ounce or grain of common sense, to perform more than a Mecca Pilgrimage, and in the character of a pedestrian to walk so many miles direct on end, or to run so many in a circle, his folly does not fall I grant within the protecting provisions of the Statute; and he may wind-gall, spavin, and break down, for his own amusement if he will. But it is not so, Mr. Urban, with him, who, being the greater brute of the two, rides his poor horse against the shortest possible time in which the distance required may be done, or as it has sometimes proved, against a time in which it is impossible the poor over-driven beast can fulfil his master's brutal pleasure, or satisfy his worse than brutal avarice-an avarice only to be satiated by the bitter sufferings of a fellow creature; I say fellow creature, because such a horseman is not only, as Shakspeare expresses it, incorporated with the brave beast, but he becomes identical in nature with it, and levels all distinctions between them, if he does not absolutely degrade human reason below the standard of mere animal instinct. But there is a remedy for the evil, and it should be applied. The Legislature makes no distinctions, has no preferences; and the ticketed brute in Smithfield is no more punishable by the Statute than is his rival barbarian at Newmarket or in St. James's-street. I am myself a magistrate for more counties than one in which such cruelties may be practised, and I am resolved, whenever a poor distressed animal is broken down, or from hard driving is compelled to give in, just in time perhaps to save its life, to put the law as it stands in force, with the utmost rigour, and to inflict the heaviest penalty incurred on every of fender; and if every administrator of equal justice, and such every Magistrate should be, will come to the sa me resolution, and act upon it indiscriminately and impartially, the evil will soon be corrected, and the very beasts share that mercy to which by the divine will they are entitled; and which every good man will most cheerfully shew to them. HUMANITAS. Lords, with the adjoining venerable structure, cannot help observing a complete failure. Judging from the new entrance to the House of Lords, lately tacked on the great monument of Mr. Wyatt's fame, it does not appear that we are likely to have any thing better from his successors. This " elegant specimen" of the Arts would perhaps have been passed over in silence had it not been drawn into notice by Mr. Britton (p. 210). This new work is designed (as we are told) by Mr. Soane, and is likely to reflect as much credit upon his architectural abilities as many other of his works. The iron work of the gates displays his favourite honeysuckle taste, admirably applied in a "Gothic" design; however appropriate it may be in any newly-invented nondescript order. I shall content myself with remarking that this architectural deformity is a collection of large flat arches, destitute of mouldings or ornament, slender buttresses, ill-formed tracery, yellow glass and skylights, and "a cloister" formed of a segment of a circle. The large porch, designed for the royal carriage to draw beneath, communinicates through one of its arches with a second porch of a square form, with a skylight in its centre, such as are very useful in counting-houses and offices, but are never found in any genuine " Gothic structure." To the back of this porch is attached a small semicircular projection, also furnished with a skylight, designed no doubt for some useful purpose or other, but what is rather questionable. The ceiling of the largest porch and cloister are vaulted and groined according to the 590% Entrance to the House of Lords.Edmonton Fair. [xeni the earlier style of Pointed architecture; at least two lines crossing each other are drawn upon the plaster ceiling, from paltry corbel heads at the sides. The second porch, including the sky light, is vaulted in a different style, being a coarse imitation of Henry the Eighth's time:-excellently judged is the combination, and as admirably is it executed. An immense ill-proportioned pointed arch at the juncture of the new and old works is worthy of notice, as a specimen of what never existed in any ancient English structure, or indeed in any other. An arch so exceedingly wide in proportion to its height as the present is, plainly exposes the false appearances which its materials are intended to convey. What the remainder of the improvements in this quarter are to be, I am not informed; one is, I believe, to complete the Palladian Structure," to set off to advantage by a close comparison of two dissimilar styles the new front which the improvers have thought fit to give to Westminster Hall. If they are to be in the style of the entrance, may it be long ere they are completed. It is with great pleasure that I observe the Fine Arts possess so municent a patron in his Majesty. Genius will some time or other force itself into notice, and while such patronage is as liberally afforded as at the present time, I have as little doubt that the period will soon arrive when the public taste will no longer be wounded by such buildings as that under consideration. Yours, &c. E. I. C. Mr. URBAN, June 6. HE Magistrates, with the Act of Parliament in their hands, and it is to be presumed with the desire of doing good in their hearts, have boldly taken John Bull by the horns at Edmonton Fair, and it may be they will change places, and in the end become the bailed in their turn. They have, however, after a full hearing, resolved that this Fair is illegally held, and directed that it shall be held no more. An appeal from this their judgment will be heard before the proper tribunal, and the matter be set at rest by the superior powers. The Magistrates no doubt are pleased with the prospect of this issue, because it takes from them every onus but that which is imposed upon all who step forward to serve the publick, and do their duty at the cost of calumny, and the vindictive malice of those who perhaps have a very im proper interest to serve. I am in a condition to prove, that whatever may be the right, the present appellant can shew on his part he has less reason than either of the other parties to complain of privileges attacked or property injured; but this is not the time for arguing the question, nor would I on any account prejudge or attempt to influence the verdict which must be had in the Courts above. At the same time some observations necessarily occur to one well acquainted with local circumstances, and as they connect themselves with a subject to be touchedupon hereafter, they will obtrude and call for notice. Time alone will not give the force of a chartered right, nor will even an original charter itself give privileges to a greater extent than was originally in the mind of the donor, or in the apprehension of the party benefited. It cannot be that because some parti cular village is by prescription or otherwise entitled to hold a fair, that therefore booths may be erected, and scenes of riot, intoxication, blasphemy, and all manner of wickedness be exhibited in every part of such village, extended as it may be in different directions, to the distance of many miles. In the parish wherein I myself reside, an unchartered, and according to the Act of Parliament, an illegal Fair is held by custom annually, in a point locally central, and I have hitherto withheld all interference, because no great evil has hitherto derived from it. But the diagonal line of the parish is not of less extent in most directions than five miles; and if at each extremity of such lines it should be attempted, though on the same day, to hold distinct Fairs, upon the principle that the parish being entitled to such privilege, it may be legally exercised wheresoever conveniency may promise individual advantage, so that it be not carried beyond the parochial boundary line, I should instantly take such measures as would effectually check and lop off the branches of a growing evil, if I did not endeavour entirely to put down the original nuisance, for such I consider all country Fairs to be. Times are not as they were; mutantur et nos mutamur. This however is the inatter PART 1.] Mischief of Fairs.-Character of Buonaparte. : matter I am anxious to discuss, because out of it arises a question of some noment in times when the prerogative of the mob has so greatly increased, is still increasing, and ought to be dimished. What, in a legal construction of the term, constitutes a Fair? and to what measures of interference do the powers of a Magistrate extend where an attempt is made to establish an annual assembling of the lower orders for purposes of riot and profligacy, under some 591 The putting down of established custom, unless under the provisions of an Act of Parliament, is so difficult a matter, that of itself it is a sufficient argument against the admission of institutions which may, and from the nature of things must and will, become injurious to the morals of the people, and consequently sooner or later subversive of their best interests. X. Mr. URBAN, Devon, April 16. other name, or under no name at all, posterity in your permanent work, guarded as these assemblies are from those exhibitions and practices which by the letter of the statute are necessary to constitute an act of vagrancy. An old proverb quaintly says, an old woman and a goose make a markettwo old women and two geese make a fair; but what shall we say if in a populous village, by the interested invitations of some artful publican, or the mischievous influence of some less worthy person, hundreds of the poorest of the poor are collected together on a stated day, to waste the time of their employers, and their own hard and scanty earnings, in revelry, riot, blasphemy, and drunkenness. All shewmen and booth-holders, mountebanks and stage-players, fiddlers, bear-leaders, and jugglers, are expressly within the spirit and letter of the statute vagrants and vagabonds, and liable to commitBut what are we to conclude of pony and donkey racing, a soaped pig, tumbling in sacks and running for shifts, grinning through collars, breaking heads for love and fun, and eating ment. T fire for mere amusement? These are indisputably ingredients, which when mixed up and exhibited together, to all intents and purposes constitute a Fair; and though in themselves simply pills to purge melancholy, they do infinite injury to the constitution of Church and State. Now, are these dramatis person within the precincts of vagrancy, or without the line? Does the Statute apply to their exhibitions of mummery and skill, or are they exempt from penalties, and authorized in their excitement to riot and intemperance? I would ask how far such assemblies may be considered as taking upon them the characters of a Fair, and so becoming illegal; or if they are to be looked upon only as the inoffensive meetings of neighbours, with which, excepting in their excesses, the jurisdiction of the Magistrate has nothing to do? future history will find materials for its compilation; and a misrepresentation of character and motives, however artful may be the gloss and affected candour thrown over them, will be detected and rectified, by impartial enquiry and fair investigation contained in your faithful pages. I have before me the book entitled "A Voice from St. Helena," which has attracted the attention of those who admired or detested the character and conduct of that child and champion of Jacobinism, Napoleon Buonaparte, who stands pre-eminent and unrivalled as the most distinguished destroyer of the human race, and the author of more multiplied miseries inflicted on mankind in every shape of cruelty, spoliation, and injustice, than has been hitherto recorded in the annals of guilt. Anxious to do away as much as possible the impression of his crimes on the public mind, he studiously endeavours either to avert them from himself, or to divert them to others. He calls on the world implicitly to give credence to every sentiment and opinion applied to him in the present work; and though this is drawing deeply on belief, we shall suppose all to have been said which is said in the "Voice from St. Helena;" and shall cursorily animadvert to the leading facts mentioned, leaving it to the intelligent reader to draw his own conclusions. Having premised this much, let us at once go into the subject. Napoleon says of Ney that "he was a madman," and that the proclamation against the Bourbons was by Ney himself, totally unauthorized by him, Buonaparte. Now, during the whole course of his usurpation, this very man was always deemed a calculating, able, and steady military leader, unless it may be termed madness that he plundered and de stroyed |