CHARD, a market town of 4437 inhabitants, at the S. extremity of the county, served by both the G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R. Chard is a pleasant variant upon the usual cramped type of Somerset county town. It spreads itself out up the side of a hill with a magnificent disregard for ground values in one broad and breezy street a mile long. Its situation is remarkable for the impartiality of its maritime predilections, for the runnels at the side of the thoroughfare are said to discharge their contents, the one into the Bristol, the other into the English Channel. Its early name, Cerde (for Cerdic), implies its Saxon origin, but it was a benefaction of Bishop Joceline, who gave half his manor for its extension, which really made the town. Chard has figured a little in history. Charles I. and Fairfax both made some stay in it. Penruddock suffered a severe reverse in the neighbourhood in 1655, and Monmouth, in 1685, marched through Chard en route, as he thought, for the throne, a circumstance which Jeffreys did not allow the town to forget. "Hangcross tree," which once stood near the L. & S.W. station, was long locally reputed to be the gibbet on which some of the Duke's sympathisers expiated their treason. The town is nowadays chiefly dependent upon a large lace works and some collar factories. The church, which stands in the "old town" (turn down Axminster Road), is said to have been erected about 1400, and is a spacious Perp. building without a clerestory. It has a squat W. tower, some good porches (cp. N. porch with Ilminster), and some bold gargoyles. Within note (1) squints, (2) rood-loft stair with external turret, (3) indistinct traces of mural paintings in N. transept, (4) Brewer monument (early 17th cent.) in N. transeptal chapel. The main street contains some notable examples of domestic architecture—(1) gabled hostelry, "The Choughs" (opposite street leading to church), (2) fine old house opposite Town Hall, date about 1580, supposed to have been the court house of the manor (containing an exceptionally fine room, with two mullioned windows of 20 lights, and a moulded plaster ceiling), (3) grammar school, at foot of the town opposite a fountain. A leaden pipe carries the date 1583, though the present school was not founded till 1671.
Charlcombe is a parish 2 m. N. of Bath, with a very small church, which has a Norm. S. door. Note (1) the font (probably Norm.), (2) the massive stone pulpit, (3) the reredos. There is a fine yew tree near the porch.
Charlinch, a parish 5 m. W. of Bridgwater. The second syllable (recurring in Moorlinch, Redlynch) means a level terrace on the side of a hill; the first is probably a personal name. Its church illustrates many periods of architecture, for it has a Norm. font and S. door (with depressed arch), a Trans. chancel arch (pointed), a Dec. E. window, and Perp. tower, chapel (or transept), and nave windows. The altar-piece, in memory of Lady Taunton, is a modern copy of the 15th-cent. painter Francia. There are two interesting epitaphs, one on the S. wall of the chancel, the other on a brass on the floor. There are also some fragments of ancient glass; and a stone, with a consecration cross, is built into the porch.
E. of the church, on the road to Wembdon, is [ Gothelney Hall], an old manor house, with a good front, and walls of great thickness. The banqueting-hall (now divided into rooms) was on the first floor and had a minstrel gallery, whilst the chapel was probably at the top of the tower. There is an interesting collection of portraits of (it is believed) former owners of the house.
Charlton Adam, a village 3 m. E. of Somerton, has a church which contains a few features of interest. The chancel has two foliated lancets; in the S. chapel there is the canopied tomb of Thomas Baker (d. 1592); and in both chancel and chapel are some curious old seats. Note also (1) the piscina, (2) Norm. font, (3) a Jacobean pulpit, (4) rudely carved figures in S. porch. There seems to have been here a chantry of the Holy Spirit from 1348 to 1547.
Charlton Horethorne is a pleasant village 1½ m. N.W. of Milborne Port Station. The church has a well-proportioned Perp. tower with bold buttresses; the rest of the building appears to be earlier. Note (1) the recesses and niches in the N. and S. walls, (2) piscina, (3) heavy cylindrical font. The church porch is old. In the parish are some barrows which have been opened and found to contain remains.
Charlton Mackrell, 3 m. E. of Somerton, has a cruciform church with a central tower, in the piers of which are large foliated squints. The church contains little of interest; but note (1) the roof of the chancel, with the angels above the corbels, (2) the piscina, (3) the carved seat-ends (especially the figure of a satyr). The churchyard cross has figures carved on it, perhaps the symbols of the four Evangelists. Within the parish but nearer the village of Kingsdon is [ Lytes Cary House], situated a little distance from the Glastonbury and Ilchester road. It is an interesting example of domestic architecture, the chapel dating from 1340, the rest of the building from the 15th cent. The E. front has two oriels, whilst the S. front, crowned with a parapet, bears the arms of Lyte (a chevron between 3 swans) and Horsey (3 horses' heads), and the initials I, E (John Lyte and Edith Horsey). The chapel has a Dec. window and ruined piscina and stoup. The hall, now divided by a wall, has a fine roof and cornice. An upper room retains a good moulded ceiling, decorated with heraldic blazons.
Charlton Musgrove, a small village 1 m. N. of Wincanton. The church is early Perp. and has a fair W. tower. Note (1) panelled chancel arch, (2) square blocked squint, (3) odd-looking font. One of the bells is pre-Reformation, and has the inscription Regina coeli, laetare.
Charterhouse on Mendip, a lonely hamlet at the W. end of the Mendips, 3 m. N.W. of Priddy. Here the Carthusians of Witham had a cell (hence the name), but all traces of the building have now disappeared. The locality is, however, still of interest as the scene of the Roman mining industry. Here lead was unearthed and transported across the hills for shipment at Uphill. The settlement seems to have been a sort of Roman "Roaring Camp," where the miners relaxed the tedium of their exile by the excitements of the gaming-table. The surrounding heaps of slag have been rich in revelations. Discarded trinkets, spoons, forks, beads, and dice bear eloquent testimony to their habits, whilst on a shoulder of the neighbouring upland is an amphitheatre. (Take Blagdon road and turn up a grassy lane on L.: the amphitheatre is in a field near the top). The workings have now been abandoned, but many attempts have been made since Roman times to re-start them. A Roman road is distinctly traceable in the fields beyond the mines. It ran in a straight line from Uphill to Old Sarum. The rounded upland on the N.W., a mile or so farther on, is Blackdown (1067 ft.), the highest point of the Mendips.
Cheddar, a large village 2½ m. S.E. of Axbridge and 12 S.E. from Weston-super-Mare. The G.W.R. line from Yatton to Wells has a station here. There are few to whom Cheddar is not known by name as possessing one of the most remarkable bits of scenery in the British Isles. The gorge, the sides of which form the famous cliffs, cleaves the edge of the Mendips very abruptly, and at its mouth lies the village. The most impressive introduction to the sight is to approach Cheddar by road from Priddy and to descend the ravine from the top of the hills, as the cliffs increase in grandeur in the course of the descent, and the best is thus kept till last. To the majority of sightseers who arrive by train this is, of course, a counsel of perfection, but it is as well that those who ascend from the village should be warned that the top of the pass emerges upon open tableland, and that nothing remarkable awaits them at the end of their climb. The grand cañon is only a quarter of a mile or so from the mouth of the gorge. Here the road winds in and out like a double S at the foot of the cliffs, which, gracefully festooned with creepers, tower above the spectator like the bastions of some gigantic castle. Possibly there are higher walls of rock elsewhere, but there are none which, for their height, have the same perpendicularity. In some cases they rise sheer from the roadway with a vertical face of 450 ft. Unfortunately an energetically worked quarry has wrecked one side of the ravine, and the clatter of the machinery detracts considerably from the repose of the scene. Near the entrance of the pass a detached mass of rock roughly resembling a crouching lion guards it like a sentinel. At its feet is spread a pretty little sheet of water fed by subterranean streams. In these hidden rivulets we have no doubt the instrument which nature has used to fashion the cliffs. Geologists assert that the gorge is but the ruins of a collapsed tunnel which once carried the water of some primeval river. A series of caverns at the entrance of the valley are vigorously exploited by their owners as "side shows" to this exhibition of natural marvels. Of these caves Cox's, the one nearest the village, was discovered as early as 1832, and has long been known to excursionists as one of the sights of Cheddar (entrance fee 1s.). The stalactites within are highly fantastic in shape and peculiarly rich in colour. There is, however, more to be seen for the money at Gough's, a little higher up, where a similar charge is made. A long natural gallery, rendered in places more accessible by excavation, runs for a quarter of a mile into the heart of the rock and opens up a series of vast chambers elaborately hung with stalactites. When the electric light is thrown on these pendants an almost pantomimic effect is produced. The scientific interest of the cavern consists in the abundant remains of extinct animals that from time to time have been discovered here. Amongst other specimens on show at the entrance are the bones of a pre-historic man unearthed in 1903. At a point along the gallery will be heard the rumble of a hidden river.