Another grand old house has just been saved by the National Trust and the bounty of an anonymous benefactor.  This is Barrington Court, and is one of the finest houses in Somerset.  It is situated a few miles east of Ilminster, in the hundred of South Petherton.  Its exact age is uncertain, but it seems probable that it was built by Henry, Lord Daubeney, created Earl of Bridgewater in 1539, whose ancestors had owned the place since early Plantagenet times.  At any rate, it appears to date from about the middle of the sixteenth century, and it is a very perfect example of the domestic architecture of that period.  From the Daubeneys it passed successively to the Duke of Suffolk, the Crown, the Cliftons, the Phelips’s, the Strodes; and one of this last family entertained the Duke of Monmouth there during his tour in the west in 1680.  The house, which is E-shaped, with central porch and wings at each end, is built of the beautiful Ham Hill stone which abounds in the district; the colour of this stone greatly enhances the appearance of the house and adds to its venerable aspect.  It has little ornamental detail, but what there is is very good, while the loftiness and general proportions of the building—­its extent and solidity of masonry, and the taste and care with which every part has been designed and carried out, give it an air of dignity and importance.

“The angle buttresses to the wings and the porch rising to twisted terminals are a feature surviving from mediaeval times, which disappeared entirely in the buildings of Stuart times.  These twisted terminals with cupola-like tops are also upon the gables, and with the chimneys, also twisted, give a most pleasing and attractive character to the structure.  We may go far, indeed, before we find another house of stone so lightly and gracefully adorned, and the detail of the mullioned windows with their arched heads, in every light, and their water-tables above, is admirable.  The porch also has a fine Tudor arch, which might form the entrance to some college quadrangle, and there are rooms above and gables on either hand.  The whole structure breathes the spirit of the Tudor age, before the classic spirit had exercised any marked influence upon our national architecture, while the details of the carving are almost as rich as is the moulded and sculptured work in the brick houses of East Anglia.  The features in other parts of the exterior are all equally good, and we may certainly say of Barrington Court that it occupies a most notable place in the domestic architecture of England.  It is also worthy of remark that such houses as this are far rarer than those of Jacobean times."[38]

  [38] Country Life, September 17th, 1904.