The main road soon forks, the right-hand branch winding over a two-mile stretch of tableland and then dropping to Stalbridge.  The main route goes directly over Henstridge Down and descends the hill to the large village of Henstridge on a main cross-country road and with a station on the Somerset and Dorset Railway, making it a convenient point from which to take two interesting side excursions—­northwards to the hill-country beyond Wincanton and south to the upper valley of the Stour.  The old Virginia Inn at the cross roads claims to be the actual scene of the “quenching” of Sir Walter Raleigh.  Henstridge church is much restored, or rather, rebuilt, but still contains the fine canopied altar tomb of William Carent and his wife.

Proceeding northwards first we may take the road by Templecombe that was once a preceptory of the Knights Templars and now has a station on the main line of the South Western Railway, to Wincanton, a small market town on the Cale ("Wyndcaleton”) at the head of the Vale of Blackmore.  Though of high antiquity it does not seem to have had much place in history, apart from its relation to Sherborne in the Civil War, when it became a base for operations against the Royalist garrison there.  An old house in South Street is pointed out as the lodging of the Prince of Orange on his journey towards London.  A sharp fight took place between his followers and a small body of Stuart cavalry, resulting in the utter rout of the latter.  A poor and uninteresting old church has been altered out of all likeness to the original (much to the advantage of the building) and there is very little of antiquity in the town.

The station next to Wincanton is Cole, within easy reach of the old towns of Castle Cary and Bruton.  A public conveyance meets the trains for the latter, a little over a mile away.  The situation of Bruton, in the picturesque valley of the Brue between Creech and Redlynch Hills, is extremely pleasant.  A goodly number of ancient houses survive and the church, at one time a minster, is of much beauty and interest.  Its west tower is of great splendour and its nave of the stateliest Perpendicular.  The contrast of the chancel to the rest of the building is more peculiar than pleasing.  At the Dissolution the monks’ choir seems to have been allowed to fall into ruin, and the present restoration was made in 1743 in a debased classic style.  Effigies of Sir Maurice Berkeley, Constable of the Tower (1585), and his wives are in a recess.  He became the owner of the abbey after the Dissolution.  A portion of a medieval cope is shown in the nave and two chained books (Erasmus and Jewel).  The ancient tomb at the west door is that of Gilbert, first Abbot after the status of the Priory was raised (1510).  The small north tower, an uncommon feature, is a relic of the older portion of the Priory, originally founded by William de Mohun in 1142.  All that remains of the conventual buildings are a columbarium or stone dove-cote on a hillock just outside the town and the Abbey Court-house on the south side of High Street.  On the front will be seen the arms of de Mohun and the initials of Prior Henton.