_Shepton Beauchamp_, a village 4 m. N.E. of Ilminster, and about the same distance S.W. of Martock. The church has a fair tower, which (like that of Hinton St George) is lighted by a single large window, common to the belfry stage and the stage below. The W. face has in a niche the figure of a bishop or a mitred abbot; the S. side has St Michael. The tower arch is panelled and the vault groined. The arcade has pointed, chamfered arches, supported on octagonal pillars, and there is a small clerestory. The massive character of one of the piers of the arcade suggests that the church originally had a central tower. The chancel has a Dec. E. window (restored), a piscina, and triple sedilia, E.E. There is also a piscina in the N. chapel. The font is ancient. There is an old Perp. house opposite the church, now used as an institute. SHEPTON MALLET, a market town of 5238 inhabitants, on the S.E. slope of the Mendips, 5 m. E. from Wells. It has two railway stations, one (S. & D.) putting it in touch with Bath and Templecombe, the other (G.W.R.) with Wells and Frome. The ancient Fosse Way skirts the town on the E. It is a place of some antiquity, deriving its name from its former connection with the Mallets of Curry Mallet, and has had a career of respectable commercial mediocrity. Cloth, crape, and knitted stockings once formed its staple trade; but its present prosperity rests chiefly on beer, a gigantic brewery being now its principal business institution. The town has few attractions for the casual visitor, for the streets are narrow and inconvenient without being venerable. It possesses, however, a remarkably fine late 15th-cent. hexagonal market-cross, crowned with a very graceful spirelet: note brass on one of the piers to Walter Buckland and Agnes, his wife. The church has a good W. Perp. tower (spoilt by the stump of a spire), which has served probably as the model for some of its neighbours (e.g., Cranmore). The interior, originally E.E., was never handsome, and has been ruined artistically by the erection of some huge aisles, with galleries, which have absorbed the transepts. The wooden roof to the nave is, however, the most splendid in the county. It contains 350 panels, each displaying a different device. Note (1) E.E. chancel and transeptal arches, and arcade of nave; (2) fine 15th-cent. stone pulpit, (3) double pillar piscinas, E.E.; (4) effigies of knights in armour, supposed to be Mallets, stowed away on the window sills; (5) organ chamber, once a double-floored vestry; (6) old font and good brass to Wm. and Joan Strode of Barrington, beneath tower. The proximity of the town to the Fosse Way has led to the unearthing of several Roman remains, which may be inspected in the museum near the church. The foundations of a Roman brick-kiln were discovered on the site of the brewery. A few old houses--the relics of the old cloth-working days--may be found amongst the crowd of cottages on the banks of the stream.