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in the materia medica, or for the acrid inflammatory power 

 which fome (probably mifled by its botanic affinity with 

 multard, and fome other acrid vegetables) have afcribed to 

 it. Lewis's Mat. Med, 



Shepherd's Staff, or Shepherd's Rod. See Teazle. 



SHEPHERDSTOWN, in Geegraphy, a pott-town of 

 America, in the Hate of Virginia, and county of Jefferfon, 

 on the S. fide of Patowmack river. Its fituation is agree- 

 able and healtliy, and the neighbouring country fertile and 

 well cultivated. It is faid to contain 1033 inhabitants, 

 chiefly of German extraftion. 



SHEPHERDSVILLE, a poft-town in Bullet county, 

 Kentucky; 640 miles from Wafliington. 



SHEPPECK, in ylgriculture, the provincial name of a 

 prong or fort of hay-fork, employed in fome places. 



SHEPPEY, in Geography. See Shepey. 



SHEPREVE, John, in Biography, an Englilh poet, 

 was born in Berkfliire, and educated at Corpus Chrift;i 

 college, Oxford, where he took his degrees in arts, and be- 

 came Hebrew profeflbr about the year 1538. He had a 

 moft furprifing memory, and was one of the moft learned 

 men in his time. He died in the year 1542. His works 

 are " Summa et Synopfis Novi Teft." &c. ; " Hippolytus 

 Ovidianae Phsdras rcfpondens," &c. Wood. 



SHEPTON MALLET, in Geography, imar'^t'i-X.owam 

 the hundred of Whiteflone and county of Somerfet, Eng- 

 land, is fituated about five miles E. from the city of Wells, 

 and 115 W. by S. from London. This town has been 

 long celebrated for its manufafture of woollen cloths and 

 knit ftockings, which aff^ords employment to upwards of 

 2000 perfons refident in the town or its vicinity. Ed- 

 ward II. granted a charter for a market to be held here on 

 Monday, weekly ; but it is now kept on Friday ; befides 

 which there is an annual fair, called Silver-ftreet fair, which 

 takes place on the 8th of Auguft. The market-place is 

 remarkable for a very curious ftone crofs, which appears, 

 from an infcription upon it, to have been erefted in the 

 year 1500, by " Walter Bucklond and Agnes his wyff." 

 It confifts of five arches, fupported by pentagonal pillars, 

 with an hexagonal column in the centre. From the roof, 

 which is perfeftly flat, rifes a lofty pyramidal fpire, adorned 

 with Gothic niches, and crowned with an oblong entabla- 

 ture, on which are reprefented figures of our Saviour on 

 the crofs between the two malefaftors ; alfo thofe of feveral 

 faints. Lands of confiderable value are appropriated for 

 the repair of this fingular ftruAure. The church here 

 is a large and handfome edifice in the pointed ftyle of archi- 

 tefture, and compofed of a nave, chancel, north and fouth 

 fide aifles, and tranlept, with a tower at the weft end, orna- 

 mented with effigies in niches of the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, 

 and St. Paul. The pulpit and font are each cut out of 

 one folid ftone, and from the rudenefs of their workman- 

 ftiip would feem to be of very great antiquity. In two of 

 the windows are fome remains of painted glafs, difplaying 

 the mutilated effigies of knights Templars, faid to repre- 

 fent the two WiUiams Mallet, who had commands in an 

 expedition to the Holy Land during the reign of king 

 Henry II. The monuments in this church are numerous, 

 but none of them are particularly remarkable, either for 

 their ftyle of execution, or for the charafter of the perfons 

 they commemorate. 



Shepton Mallet, in ancient times, formed part of the 

 manor of Pilton, which king Ina gave to the abbey of 

 Glaftonbury, A.D. 70J. At the time of the Conqueft it 

 was held from the abbot by Roger de Curcelle ; but foon 

 afterwards pafled into the pofieffion of the barons Mallet, 

 from whom it derived the latter part of its name. After a 



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variety of changes, this manor was divided into two moie- 

 ties, one of which came to the crown, and was annexed to 

 the duchy of Cornwall, to which it ftill belongs. The 

 other moiety became the property of the family of Sherfton. 



Shepton Mallet is noted as the birth-place of three men 

 of diftinguifhed talents and learning ; viz. Hugh Inge, 

 D.D. archbiftiop of Dublin, and chancellor of Ireland, 

 who died in 1J28 : Dr. Walter Charleton, an eminent 

 phyfician, and author of Chorea Gigantum, or an account 

 of Stonehenge, who died in 1707 ; and Simon Browne, 

 a learned didenting minifter, celebrated for his controverfial 

 writings againft Woolfton and Tindal, who died in 1732. 



The parifh of Shepton Mallet is of fmall extent, but 

 populous, containing, according to the parliamentary re- 

 turns of 181 1, 1 129 houfes, and 4638 inhabitants. Within 

 its bounds are fituated the county Bridewell, and a large 

 parifh workhoufe. The Hillory and Antiquities of the 

 County of Somerfet ; by the Rev. J. CoUinfon, F.S.A. 

 4to. vol. iii. Bath, 1791. 



SHERARD, William, in Biography, a very learned 

 and munificent botanift, on whom the titles of prince and 

 Maecenas of botany have been, more juftly than ufual, be- 

 ftowed, was the fon of George Sherwood, (for fo it feems the 

 name was written by the father,) of Buihby, in Leicefterthire. 

 He was born in 1659 ; educated firit at Merchant Taylors' 

 fchool, and then at St. John's college, Oxford, where he 

 entered in 1677. He fubfequently became a fellow of this 

 college, and took the degree of Bachelor of Law, Decern- 

 ber II, 1683. Being appointed travelling tutor, fuc- 

 ceffively, to Charles, afterwards the fecond vifcount Town- 

 ffiend, and to Wriothefley lord Howland, fon of the mur- 

 dered lord Ruflel, who in 1700 became the fecond duke of 

 Bedford, Sherard made two fucceffive tours through Hol- 

 land, France, Italy, &c. returning from the laft, as we 

 prefume, not much before the year 1700, when his laft- 

 mentioned pupil was twenty years old. Dr. Pulteney fup- 

 pofes him to have come back in 1693, led perhaps by the 

 date of Ray's Sylloge Stirpium Europaarum, printed in 1 694, 

 to which Sherard communicated a catalogue of plants 

 gathered on mount Jura, Saleve, and the neighbourhood 

 of Geneva. Thefe were probably collefted in his firll 

 journey ; for it fhould feem by Collins's Peerage, that the 

 lord Howland, fo created on account of his union with the 

 heirefs of the Howland family, was married to her in May 

 1695, when he was little more than fourteen years of age. 

 He was made a peer June 13, 1695 ; " after which," fays 

 Collins, " he travelled into France and Italy." So youth- 

 ful a bridegroom was, doubtlefs, beft in the hands of his 

 tutor, in a diftant country from his, ftill more youthful, 

 fpoufe. The fubjeft of our memoir is faid to have fulfilled 

 his truft to the fatisfaclion of both the noble families who 

 confided in him. His vifit to his friend fir Arthur Rawdon, 

 at Moira, in Ireland, was apparently made in the interval 

 of thefe two foreign journies. Long before either of them, 

 he had travelled over various parts of England, and pro- 

 ceeded to Jerfey, for the purpofe of botanical inveftigation ; 

 and the fruits of his difcoveries enriched the publications 

 of the illuftrious Ray ; fee that article. 



Botany was ever the prominent purfuit of Sherard in 

 all his journies. He cultivated the friendftiip and corre- 

 fpondence of the moft able men on the continent, fuch as 

 Bocrhaave, Hermann, Tournefort, Vaillant, Micheli, &c. 

 He is univerfally believed to have been the author of a 

 i2mo. volume, entitled Schela Botanica, publiflied at Am- 

 fterdam in 1689, and reprinted in 1691 and 1699. This 

 is a fyftematic catalogue of the Paris garden. Its preface, 

 dated London, Nov. 1688, is Cgned S.W.A., which the 



French 



