VOL. XVI. (3) EXCURSION—SHEPTON MALLET, FROME 227 
Frome Church was founded by Aldhelm about 705 A.D. Aldhelm 
died at Doulting in 702 and was taken to Malmesbury—which he had 
also founded—for burial, crosses being set up at the various places 
where his body rested on the way. Remains of these Saxon crosses 
are to be seen at Frome (interior wall of church-tower), Bradford, 
Bath (Museum), Colerne and Littleton. 
Llanthony Priory, at Gloucester, was given by Milo, the Con- 
stable who did so much for it, to the Church of Frome, in addition 
to that of Prestbury. Later, however, it became the property of the 
Augustinian Canons at Cirencester. 
The Saxon Church at Frome was still standing in the rath 
century, for William of Malmesbury, who wrote at that time, alludes 
to it. Whether the Church was almost wholly rebuilt in Stephen’s 
time, as some assert—notably Mr Bennett, the Vicar, who made the 
building what it is now—is doubtful. 
Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, was committed to the Tower by 
James II., in 1688, for refusing to read the Declaration of Indulgence, 
and in 1689 was deprived, as one of the Non-Jurors, for refusing to 
take the oath of allegiance to William III. He died at Longleat on 
March 13th, 1711, and was buried, according to his wish, ‘‘in the 
churchyard of the nearest Parish within his Diocese under the east 
window of the Chancel, just at sunrising.”” He bequeathed to the 
use of sick persons who desire the Holy Sacrament his little Patin 
and Challice, in the inscription upon which the word ‘‘ Frome” is 
spelt with two ‘‘o’s”—‘‘ Froome.” 
Nunney Castle was built in the reign of Edward III. by Sir John 
Delamere, and finished by his nephew in Richard II.’s reign. Leland 
in his itinerary, which was written in the time of Henry VIII., stated 
that it was a ‘‘ pratty castle,” but the interior somewhat dark. It 
has been described briefly by the late Mr Parker as a strongly fortified 
' manor-house of the period of transition from Decorated to Perpen- 
dicular. \ It is an oblong, measuring, inside the walls, 61 feet by 
25 feet, and has a very bold cylindrical tower at each corner, with a 
_ very perfect example of a domestic chapel in the south-east tower. 
All the flooring and partitions must have been of wood, as there is 
no evidence of vaulting or partition-walls. Apparently there was a 
house there before, for there is in existence the original document 
giving permission to embattle and fortify it, or to ‘‘ keruelate ” it, as 
the phrase ran. In the Great Rebellion it was taken in Fairfax’s 
campaign, September, 1645, Col. Prater—belonging to the last family 
to occupy it—handing it over after a siege of one day. It was then 
reduced to much the same condition as it appears to-day. 
On Wednesday, the hotel was left at 9.30 a.m., and the drive 
commenced for Nunney Castle (Plate XXIV.) After an inspection of 
this once substantial stronghold and of the numerous Sarsen Stones 
near the footbridge over the brook, the drive was continued over 
Nunney Common, through Whatley and Little Elm, to the neighbour- 
hood of Tadhill House on the Mendip Hills. 
S 
