ST. AUDRIES 
By Fanny Acland Hood 
CT. AUDRIES is beautifully situated 
^ about 150 feet above the sea, on the 
north coast of Somerset, at the foot of the 
Quantock Hills, where they dip into the Bris¬ 
tol Channel. The house, of red sandstone, 
toned down in the older part to a warm grey 
and covered with ivy and Virginia creeper, 
stands in a valley, backed up with woods of 
oak, sycamore, chestnut and Scotch hr. The 
Park rises behind the house to a height of 800 
feet above the sea and commands lovely views 
of the Bristol Channel and Welsh coast to the 
north, of the Mendip Hills to the east, and of 
Dunkery Beacon and the borders of Exmoor 
to the west; while the foreground of gorse, 
heather and fern is enlivened by groups of 
fallow deer and any number of rabbits, white 
and brown. Wandering through the wild 
part of the Park one may come suddenly on a 
small herd of red deer, and when the stag- 
hounds are out, the wild, hunted deer from 
the Ouantock coverts often try to baffle their 
pursuers by jumping the Park fence and run¬ 
ning through the Park herd. 
“St. Audries” is the abbreviation of St. 
Etheldreda, to whom the church is dedicated. 
It is said that the word “tawdry’’ has its 
origin in the little knickknacks made for sale 
by the nuns of St. Etheldreda’s. The present 
house stands on the site of an old 1 udor man¬ 
sion, to the remains of which it has been 
added. The old Hall which formerly existed 
in the centre of the house had been turned 
into an entrance hall and library with bed¬ 
rooms above, and in the attics were found 
traces of a beautiful decorated oak roof. The 
ST. AUDRIES HOUSE 
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