cent. it fell to the Sydenhams, changing hands again in the 18th cent.
The church is a very interesting structure of the Dec. period. It is
cruciform in plan, with a N. chapel of Perp. date, and has on its W.
gable a large bell-cot (cp. Chilthorne Domer). Within, note (1) stone
screen (Perp.), remarkable for the seat along its W. front, (2)
piscinas in chancel, transepts, and chapel, (3) font (Dec.), (4) pulpit
(Jacobean), (5) chandeliers (said to be Dutch), (6) squints. There are
several effigies, which are not in their original positions, but are
conjectured to have belonged to a chapel now destroyed. They are, (1)
in the N. transept an abbot and a nun beneath recesses carved with
modern reliefs; (2) in the chapel a knight in armour and a lady.
Between the chapel and chancel is the large coloured tomb of Sir John
Sydenham, 1626 (the curious epitaph is worth reading). In the chapel is
some ancient glass, and in the churchyard there is the base of an old
cross and two early fonts.

N. of the church is a building of two storeys, variously described as a
_chantry house_ (a chantry was founded here by Sir Peter d'Evercy,
1307) or a _manor house_, with an external octagon turret containing a
staircase. _Brympton House_ (the residence of Sir S.C.B. Ponsonby-Fane)
has a good W. front of Tudor date (note arms of Henry VIII.), with a
porch added in 1722, and a S. front built in the 18th cent., though
from designs by Inigo Jones (died 1697), with terrace leading to the
garden.

_Buckland Denham_, a village prominently perched on a hillside 3 m.
N.W. from Frome. It was once a busy little town with a flourishing
cloth trade. The church has a W. tower with an unusual arrangement of
windows (cp. Hemington). The Norm. S. doorway and the device by which
the upper part of the porch has been converted into a parvise should be
noticed. Three chapels are attached to the church. The one at the N.,
originally the chantry of Sir J. Denham, has on the floor the figures
of a knight and his lady in relief. In two of the chapels are piscinas,
and there is a large one in the chancel. Some ancient glass, with
emblems of the Evangelists, will be found in one of the chapels. The
Norm. font, with different mouldings on opposite sides, deserves
attention.

_Buckland St Mary_, a parish 5 m. N.W. of Chard, has a modern church
(1853-63), very richly decorated, which it owes to the munificence of
the rector, though to some its ornateness will seem a