2 PAPEKS, ETC. 



not altogether convenient to do so even wlthin the same 

 week. So then, as Brecon was an engagement on my part 

 of older standing, I am reluctantly compelled to absent 

 myself entirely from your proceedings of this year, and to 

 leave my annual contribution to your volume to be laid 

 before you by a very efficient deputy. 



In my two forraer Papers I have said nearly all I 

 have to say about the Perpendicular of Somerset, 

 passing but cursorily over the remalns of the earlier 

 styles. But as Yeovll possesses in its neighbourhood 

 some of the best specimens of the latter class, a Yeovil 

 meeting seemed a good opportunity for attempting a 

 somevvhat raore attentive cousideration of them. But 

 I do not mean to confine rayseif very pedantically to 

 the immediate neighbourhood of the town, though I will 

 promlse not to require you to follow me all the way to 

 Bath at one end or to Minehead at the other. I may here 

 mention that the very best architectural day's work which 

 I ever remember to have done, was one which had Yeovil 

 for its starting point. Montacute, Stoke Hambdon, Mar- 

 tock, Kingsbury, Muchelney and Huish, form a perhaps 

 unparalleled succession of attractive objects, both ecclesi- 

 astical and domestic. Nor was my next day's work of 

 Langport, Long Sutton, Somerton, and Huish again, at 

 all contemptible, although hardly to be compared with the 

 former. Many of the results of those two days I have 

 already laid before the Society ; others I have reserved for 

 the present occasion. With numei'ous examples I have 

 made acquaintance during the present month, under the 

 auspices of Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Fagan, as I did with 

 others two years ago under those of ]Mr. Warre and Mr. 

 Giles. 



The first thinff that strikes the observer in the earlier 



