Ixxxii. 



FOURTH SUMMER MEETING. 

 MONTACUTE, BRYMPTON, AND PRESTON. 



THE FOURTH SUMMER MEETING was held on Tuesday, 

 September i5th. The party, numbering about 120, met at 

 Yeovil, and drove first to Preston Plucknett and viewed the 

 Manor House, of Perpendicular date, and the 1 5th century barn. 

 Though the house is known as "The Abbey," the buildings are 

 probably not monastic. 



MONTACUTE HOUSE. 



On arriving at Montacute, the Members were welcomed by the 

 owner, Mr. W. R. Phelips ; and the following paper on the 

 house was read in the hall by Mr. EDWARD PHELIPS : 



Though there have been Phelipses at Montacute since the year 1480, it is 

 impossible to say when the site of this house first came into the family. We find 

 towards the end of the 16th Century that Thomas Phelips, escheator for 

 Somerset and Dorset, was a large landowner in both counties. He died in 1598, 

 and was buried with his wife in the church at Montacute. Of his four sons, the 

 youngest, Edward, seems, from his letters, to have been his favourite. He was sent 

 to the Bar, and rose high in the favour of Queen Elizabeth and James I. Even at 

 the time of his father's death he found himself rich enough to buy Montacute from 

 his eldest brother John, who preferred to live on the Dorset estates at Corfe 

 Mullen. Subsequently we find him Master of the Bolls, Speaker of the House of 

 Commons, and Chancellor to Henry, Prince of Wales. His picture hangs in the 

 dining-room. He it was who built this house. Tradition would have us believe 

 that the architect was John of Padua ; but of this there is no proof, and it 

 seems more likely that, as at Longleat Sir John Thynne was his own architect, so 

 here Sir Edward did his own designing. However that may be, we are able more 

 or less to date the house. You will notice in the dining-room the date 1599 over 

 the mantelpiece. Sir Edward died in 1614. Neither Sir Edward's son, Sir 

 Robert, nor his grandson, Colonel Edward, could have had the time or the money 

 to do any building. The former, although at first in favour at Court he 

 attended Buckingham and Prince Charles in Spain soon fell into disfavour by 

 his outspokenness in Parliament and his attacks on Buckingham, and he was 

 finally confined in the Tower. In his portrait by Vandyke, which is in the 

 dining-room, he is shown holding notes for the attack on Lord Bacon which he 



