and a large mural monument of the 17th cent.; otherwise it contains
nothing of interest.

_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