Swainswick, a village 3 m. N.N.E. of Bath, reached by a lane from the Cheltenham road. Its name is perhaps connected with the Danish chief Swegen (Sweyn); and it was the birthplace of William Prynne (b. 1600). The church has a gable-topped tower, and retains some ancient features. The S. door is Norm. (note the stoup), whilst the tower arch seems E.E. A window in the S. wall has flowing tracery with an ogee moulding. Note (1) in N. chapel a piscina; (2) in chancel a brass (said to have once been on an altar-tomb) of the date 1439.
Swell, a parish 4 m. S.W. of Langport. It has a small Perp. church (very dilapidated) which retains a Norm. door. Note in the interior (1) piscina and niches; (2) fragments of ancient glass; (3) pulpit and reading-desk of 1634.
Tatworth, a parish 2 m. S. of Chard. The church is modern, but a Baptist place of worship, a plain, thatched building at South Chard, is supposed to have been an ancient chapel. It is locally known as St Margaret's, and over the doorway is an empty niche. For a curious custom of holding a sale by candlelight, see under Chedzoy.
TAUNTON, county town on the Tone (whence its name), 163 m. from London, and 44½ S.W. from Bristol; pop. 21,000. A spacious station on the G.W.R. main line, Bristol to Exeter, forms a junction for the Yeovil, Chard, Minehead, and Barnstaple branches. The town is commodious, and its railway facilities make it an excellent centre. The streets are spacious and well-built, and converge upon a triangular market place which is rather spoilt by an ugly market hall in its centre. Though Taunton wears a prosperous and progressive air, it has behind it a very venerable history which is not without a flavour of stirring times. It finds a place in our national annals on four notable occasions. (1) In 710 King Ina of Wessex pushed the West Welsh beyond the Tone and erected a castle at Taunton as a barrier against their return. The site was subsequently fortified afresh by the Normans. (2) In 1497 Perkin Warbeck, in his dash for the throne, seized the town, but fled in terror at the approach of the Royal forces. (3) During the Civil War it was alternately occupied by the Royalists and Parliamentarians, and in 1643 Blake successfully withstood here attacks from Hopton and Goring; and the town was punished at the Restoration for this robust resistance by the demolition of its fortifications and the loss of its charter. (4) In 1685 the sentiments of the place were again enthusiastically "agin the government," and Monmouth was accorded here a royal ovation and was proclaimed king in the market-place. But this coup de théâtre was only an introductory farce to the grim tragedy which followed. When Monmouth's hopes of sovereignty were rudely shattered by the mêlée at Sedgemoor the town was handed over for pacification to the tender mercies of Kirke and the brutal justice of Jeffreys. The rebels got short shrift from both. Kirke, without preliminary inquiry, swung the culprits from the sign-board of his lodgings, and Jeffreys' law was notorious for its despatch. So numerous were the executions that Bishop Ken complained to the king that "the whole diocese was tainted with death." The name Tangier still attaches to the district where Kirke penned his "lambs," and the old "White Hart" (now a shop) at the corner of Fore Street marks the Colonel's own quarters. Jeffreys' lodgings have been demolished, perhaps under the impression that nothing was needed to keep alive the memory of the "Bloody Assize." The ecclesiastical interests of Taunton were from early days associated with the see of Winchester, and the establishment of a priory here early in the 12th cent. was the see's acknowledgment of its obligations. Nothing of this benefaction now remains but the monastic barn near St James's Church.
The parish church of St Mary Magdalene, though far the finest church in Taunton, was originally only a subordinate chapel-of-ease to the monastery. It is a spacious building, noteworthy for its imposing tower and quadruple aisles. Its probable designer was Sir R. Bray, Henry VII.'s architect, and the king is supposed to have contributed to its erection. The present tower is claimed to be a conscientious reproduction of the original fabric, removed in 1858 as dangerous. It is a lofty and ornate structure of four storeys, decorated with a triple tier of double windows, and divided at the stages by bands of quatrefoils. A crown of elaborate tabernacle work—a perfect medley of battlements and pinnacles—forms the cresting. The general design, though highly artificial, is well balanced. Note (1) the stoups on either side of the W. doorway; (2) the carvings (part of the original fabric) in the spandrels above. The S. porch—a very successful and noteworthy feature of the church—is dated 1508, The rest of the building must be nearly contemporaneous. The interior is rich, but somewhat devoid of interest. Note (1) the four aisles—an unusual arrangement, occurring also at Manchester Cathedral and St Michael's, Coventry; (2) the E.E. piers to N. aisle; (3) the fine oak roof of nave; (4) canopied figure (modern) of St Mary Magdalene on one of the nave piers; (5) monument of Robert Gray, with a laudatory and rhyming epitaph in N. wall; (6) figures of apostles between clerestory lights (cp. Bruton). St James's Church has a good tower with turret and spirelet—likewise rebuilt. The interior is well proportioned and gains an air of great spaciousness from an unusually lofty chancel. The most noteworthy feature of the church is its splendid font, richly adorned with figures of apostles and ecclesiastics. The pulpit is dated 1633. Hard by, and in close proximity to the county cricket ground, is the Priory Barn, the only remnant of Taunton's once considerable and wealthy priory: note the windows—perhaps insertions from other fragments of the monastic buildings. The Castle, after centuries of complete neglect, underwent a well-intentioned but unfortunate restoration by Sir B. Hammet, but is now in the appropriate possession of the Somerset Archaeological Society, who have transformed it into a museum. The buildings, as they now stand, include (1) an outer gateway—the Castle Bow—now incorporated with Clarke's Hotel (note the portcullis groove); (2) a rectangular block consisting of Edwardian additions to an original Norm. keep and a great hall (fee for entrance, 2d.). Note (1) the arms of Bishop Langton, of Winchester, and Henry VII. over central gateway; (2) the drum tower (now the committee-room and library) at S.W. corner; (3) the immense thickness of the walls of the keep with its Norm. buttresses, and the lighter superstructure, with its Dec. windows, above; (4) the Great Hall, the scene of the Bloody Assize—a remarkably spacious chamber built by Bishop Horne, 1577. The shelves of the museum are stocked with a large collection of antiquities add natural-history specimens: the case containing the relics from Sedgemoor is of special interest. The exhibition as a whole would gain in point by being confined to objects connected with the county.
Other things worthy of attention in Taunton are (1) the old Grammar School in Corporation Street, now incorporated with the Municipal Buildings, (2) the two fine old houses opposite the Market Hall, (3) Gray's and Pope's alms-houses in East Street, (4) the old thatched alms-houses (originally a lepers' hospital) at the E. extremity of the town, in East Reach, bearing on the wall Abbot Bere's monogram and arms. A visit should be paid to Vivary Park at the end of High Street, a tastefully laid-out public recreation ground on the site of the old monastic fishponds. The Shire Hall, in Shuttern, a somewhat pretentious modern building, contains a number of busts of Somerset worthies. A rough lane striking off to the R. from the Trull road leads to an old Roman causeway crossing a narrow, one-arched bridge locally known as Ramshorn Bridge.
Taunton from the River
Tellisford, a small village 1 m. S. of Farleigh Hungerford. Its church has a passing likeness to that at Farleigh; it preserves within the porch a stoup and a fair Trans. doorway.
Templecombe (or Abbas Combe), an inconsiderable village at the S.E. extremity of the county, with an important station on the S. & D. and L. & S.W. lines. The church is ancient but uninteresting, and seems to have been considerably altered. It contains a curious E.E. font. The tower is somewhat peculiar, and forms the S. porch. On the rising ground at the S. of the village are the remains of a preceptory of the Knights Templars, founded in the 12th cent. by Serlo Fitz-Odo. From this foundation the place takes its name. A long building, which was perhaps once the refectory, but which is now used as a barn, will be noticed abutting on a farm-house along the road to Milborne Port. In an orchard at the back of the farm are the ruins of a small chapel.