THE ABBEY 
CHARLTON ADAM, SOMERSET 
By Claud Neville 
/ T V HE Abbey, Charlton Adam, Somerset, 
though but a small country house, is 
of considerable historic interest. In general 
appearance it might be styled “Tudor,” but 
some portions of it must be considerably 
older, as it is mentioned in Collinson's “His¬ 
tory of Somerset,” from whose account we 
find that Lord Henry FitzRichard had to 
pay so much a year to the mother church 
so as to be allowed to have mass served in the 
private chapel, tempo Henry III. I he date of 
the oak panelling and chimney piece in the 
principal living-room must be late Elizabethan 
or early Jacobean, and the baluster rails and 
finials would probably be of the same date. 
The illustrations depict the oak panelled 
room, the staircase and a portion of the ex¬ 
terior, showing a beautiful Henry VIE win¬ 
dow. I his fascinating old English home has 
a certain dignity and repose which it would be 
hard to find in so small a house of a more 
modern date. At present it is in the posses¬ 
sion of Mr. and Mrs. Claud Neville, whose 
great pleasure and occupation have been to 
restore the formerly sadly-neglected and 
damaged building to its original beauty. 
THE OAK PANELLED ROOM 
96 
