170 
Mrs. Bailey, the wife of the tenant, received them and conducted 
them over the house, a perfect specimen of a manor house of the 
14th century ; forming, with the buildings used for stabling, two. 
sides of a quadrangle, the Church and the moat in front forming the 
third and fourth sides. The manor house seems to have succeeded 
to some fortified post previously existing, indeed, some suppose 
that it was once an outpost of the Romans, guarding their com- 
munications with the main road between Bath and Verlucio. 
The principal front faces North, and can hardly be excelled in the 
beauty of its outline, in the richness of the Oriel windows, 
especially the semicircular one which lighted the guest chamber 
at the East end, the elegant chimney shafts, and quaint figures on 
the gables of the banqueting hall, now turned into domestic 
apartments, temp., Henry VI. Passing round to the South of 
the guest chamber, the inner side of the Oriel was well seen, 
with its two elegant pendants, almost perfect, and stone groining. 
Beneath, in recesses, are preserved three of the masks through 
which the Lords of the Manor reconnoitered their guests. 
in the hall from their upstair rooms without being seen. It 
now only remained to visit the Church, through the West door 
with its peculiar pannelled corbel. The interior is divided into. 
nave, chancel, side chapel on South, with a modern addition to 
the East end of the latter. The walls of the body of the Church. 
are considered to be portions of the original chapel, 1308 ; the 
West window, porch and bell turret more modern, temp. Henry 
VIi. In the roof of the Chantry Chapel, the Tropenell arms, 
viz, ‘Gules, a fesse engrailed and powdered with ermine, 
between three griffin’s heads, erased argent,” indicates that this. 
was an after addition by the builder of the manor house adjoining. 
A tablet over the small door in the South wall of the building 
East of the Chantry, with the inscription “R. N., A.D. 1775,” 
shows that this was added by Robert Neale, (vide Pugin’s- 
examples of Gothic Architecture). On the South wall of this chapel 
is a monument to the memory of Richard Warner, the historian, 
with the following inscription : 
