small hamlet of mean appearance, 2 m. E. of
Wincanton. It has a modern church (1841).

_Ston Easton_, a small wayside village, 2-1/2 m. S. of Hallatrow
station. The church is an unpretentious little Perp. building, with a
rather fine Norm. chancel arch, and has been well restored. _Ston
Easton House_ stands in a well-wooded park, and possesses an old carved
oak ceiling and an ancient staircase.

_Stowell_, a very small parish 1 m. W. of Templecombe, which probably
gets its name from the spring seen near the church. The church itself
was originally built in the 15th cent., but only the tower arch belongs
to this date. The nave is quite modern (1834), but it preserves a Norm.
font.

_Stowey_, a parish 2 m. W. of Clutton. It has a small church,
noteworthy for the irregularity of its windows (the small one in the S.
wall was originally the S. door). It has a 14th cent. font (note the
cockle-shell); and an interesting bit of sculpture is built into the
exterior N. wall of the chancel. Near it is an incised pair of shears
(a woolstaplers' mark). Not far from the church is an old manor house,
half of which has been destroyed. Within the parish is _Sutton Court_
(Sir E. Strachey), a house which has historical associations, for here
Bishop Hooper found an asylum during the Marian persecution. The
mansion is of considerable antiquity, parts of it dating from the reign
of Edward II., and others from Tudor times.

_Stowey, Nether_, a village 9 m. W. from Bridgwater (from which place
there is a motor service). It owes its interest to having been the
residence of S.T. Coleridge from 1796 to 1798: his cottage, marked by a
tablet, is at the end of the village on the Minehead road. Both
"Christabel" and "The Ancient Mariner," as well as several of his
shorter poems, are said to have been partly written in this
neighbourhood. Here he must have entertained Wordsworth, Charles Lamb,
William Hazlitt, and many others of his literary friends. A movement
has been recently started to purchase the cottage for the nation. The
church contains nothing of note except a mural tablet in memory of
Thomas Poole, described as the friend of "Wordsworth and Davy (i.e. Sir
Humphrey), Southey, and Coleridge": his tomb is on the W. side of the
S. door. The two painted mitres beneath the roof-beams commemorate two
vicars who became bishops (Majendie of Chester and Fisher of Exeter).

[Illustration: NETHER STOWEY]

Near the church is _Stowey Court_, a 1