ON TliE PERPENDICULAR OF SOMERSET. 33 
On the Perpendienlar Style, as erhibiteh 
in the Churches of Sumerzet. 
BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN, M.A. 
N appearing before a local body, at the request of its 
own executive, to illustrate any portion of the antiquities 
of the distriet which forms the sphere of that body, while I 
am sensible that such a request, preferred to a stranger, is a 
compliment ofa very refined nature, I cannot but feel an 
unusual difidence in treating the subject in the presence of 
so many who must be so much better acquainted with 
many branches of it than myself. I feel, of course, no 
greater difhieulty than elsewhere in describing and com- 
menting on those individual buildings which I have myself 
examined ; the danger is that of generalizing from insufhi- 
cient premises, and passing by typical instances with which 
greater local experience might have made me familiar. 
And I therefore feel the more grateful to those members 
and officers of the society, who have so kindly acted as my 
guides to many of the most important churches in the 
county, with which I might otherwise have remained un- 
acquainted. As it was at their invitation that I undertook 
1851, PART 1. E 
