OL<D <I(IVER TO^T 169 



dismantled by an order of Parliament, and in our time 

 no trace of it remains but the massive masonry of the 

 water-gate, faint outlines of portions of the moat, and 

 some subterranean chambers by the river. 



The town was roughly handled in that siege, and 

 suffered dire extremities at the hands of friend and foe. 

 In the register in the church of St. Mary are memorials 

 of some of the garrison who were buried under fire. 

 The records are but brief. It is now miles bombarda 

 occisus a soldier killed by a musket-ball; and now 

 again we gather that dua milites incogniti nominis two 

 soldiers of unknown name were laid together in a 

 common grave. But a far heavier penalty was exacted 

 from Bridgwater forty years later for the sympathy and 

 service it had rendered to the cause of Monmouth. 



The old market cross, where the Duke was hailed as 

 King amid the acclamations of the populace, has been 

 gone nearly a century; but the church tower from 

 which, on the eve of Sedgemoor, he looked across the 

 moorland to the tents of Feversham, still keeps watch 

 over the town. 



Inside the building there hangs over the altar a 

 singularly striking picture, a " Descent from the Cross," 

 whose noble treatment and soft and beautiful colouring 

 prove it to be the work of no mean hand, though the 

 name of the master is unknown. There is a tradition 

 that this painting was part of the plunder taken from a 

 Spanish privateer, and that it was presented to the 

 Corporation of Bridgwater early in last century. So 

 great a favourite was it of Sir Joshua Reynolds that it 



