The ancient county town of Somerton having been left severely alone by
the railway, remains in a very dormant state, and, of course, is
picturesque in proportion, as will be seen by its octagonal canopied
market-cross and the group of buildings adjacent Langport lies low, and
is uninviting, with marshy pools around, with to the north-west
Bridgwater way the villages of Chedzoy, Middlezoy, and Weston Zoyland,
full of memories of the fight at Sedgemoor. The church of Curry Rivel,
to the west of Langport, has many ancient carvings, and retains its
beautiful oak screen and bench-ends of the fifteenth century. Within its
ancient ornamented ironwork railing is a curious Jacobean tomb,
representing the recumbent effigies of two troopers, Marmaduke and
Robert Jennings. It seems selfish that they should thus lie in state
while their wives are kneeling below by two little cribs containing
their children tucked up in orderly rows like mummified bambinoes. On
the summit of a circular arch above, five painted cherubs are reclining
at their ease, and chained to one of the iron railings is a little
coffer which gives a touch of mystery to the whole. What does this
little sealed coffer contain?--for it must have been in its present
position since the monument was erected. Are the warriors' hearts
therein, or the bones of the five bambinoes? There is another Jacobean
tomb, just like a cumbrous cabinet of the period. It is hideous enough
for anything, and obscures one of three interesting fourteenth-century
mural monuments.
In the old farmhouse of Burrow, near Curry Rivel, some swords and
jack-boots of the time of Charles II. were preserved. They are now in
the museum at Taunton, where we regret to say the buckle worn by the
Duke of Monmouth, and Lord Feversham's dish are now no longer[19] with
the other interesting relics of the fight at Sedgemoor.
[Illustration: BARRINGTON COURT.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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