pile without entirely doing away with its ancient character.  A good deal of alteration was carried out by Inigo Jones who destroyed some of the older work and inserted certain incongruities more interesting than pleasing.  The imposing appearance of the south front amply atones for any disappointment the visitor may experience at his first sight of the buildings from the Chard road.  Over the entrance tower is the inscription: 

  ANO’ D’NI MILLESIMO QUINQUESIMO VIC’MO OCTA’O
  A D’NO FACTUM EST THOMA CHARD ABB.

The beautiful cloisters are much admired and the magnificent porch is one of the finest entrances in England.  In the “state” apartments the grandeur of the ceiling in the Banqueting Hall is almost unique.  The great Staircase was designed by Inigo Jones; this leads to the Grand Saloon in which are five Raphael tapestries, the finest in England; unsurpassed for the beauty of their colouring.  The original cartoons are in South Kensington Museum.  The visitor is conducted through the Monks’ Dormitory to the Transitional Chapel, the resting place of Adeliza, Viscountess of Devon, who founded the Abbey for some homeless monks, wayfarers from Waverley in Surrey, who had unsuccessfully colonized at distant Brightley and were tramping home.  This was in 1140.  In 1148 the church was completed.  The carved screen is elaborately beautiful and there are several interesting memorials of the families who have held this splendid pile of buildings, now the property of the Ropers.  The traveller by the Exeter express has a charming glimpse of the picturesque “back” of the abbey, should he make his journey in the winter.  In summer the jealous greenery hides all but a stone or two of the battlements.

Chard is surrounded by a number of small and secluded villages.  Most of them are delightfully situated on the sides of wooded heights or between the encircling arms of the hills.  The most charming is perhaps Cricket St. Thomas on the south of the Crewkerne road.  On the other side of this highway, on the headwaters of the River Isle, is another beautifully situated hamlet called Dowlish Wake, after the ancient Somerset family of that name who flourished here in the fourteenth century.  A short distance north is Ilminster, an ancient market town with a beautiful Perpendicular church crowned with a poem in stone that is of surpassing loveliness even in this county of lovely towers.  White Staunton, four miles away to the west towards the Blackdown country, has a church remarkable for the number of interesting details it contains, though the fabric itself is rather commonplace.  Its treasures include a very early Norman font, curious pewter communion vessels, a squint having an almost unique axis, some ancient bench ends and medieval tiles in the chancel.  St. Agnes’ Well, a spring near the church, is said to be tepid, and to have healing qualities.  Near by is an old manor house dating from the fifteenth century.  In its grounds are the foundations of a Roman Villa discovered about forty years ago.