turned to England, and was welcomely received, and appointed to a command in the army. Some years after, he retired from public business. He died at Windsor Lodge in 1722, aged 73; and was interred in Westminster Abbey with the highest pomp, and all the solemnity due to a person who had deserved well of his country. "His character will be best appreciated by his actions. If he had foibles, they were those inseparable from human nature. His country he raised to be the first of nations, as during the time in which he lived he was the first of men; and as long as our historics remain, or, indeed, the Histories of Europe, his memory will live, and be the boast of Britain."

SHUTE HOUSE, the principal seat of Sir William Templar de la Pole, Bart. is about three miles south-west of Axminster. The old Manor-House is falling fast to decay. Risdon terms it an "ancient dwelling of personages of good worth, and some Knights surnamed thereof; as Lucas de Sheete; Sir William and Sir Robert Sheete, Knights, in the days of Henry the Third, from whom it came to Sir Thomas Pyne, Knight." It afterwards continued in the Bonville family for some time, and came to the Crown upon the attainder of Henry, Duke of Suffolk. Queen Mary granted it to Sir William Petre, her principal Secretary; from whose family it was purchased by Sir John William Pole, Bart. in 1787, when a new house was began upon a large · scale, at the distance of a quarter of a mile. This has never been finished; as the worthy Baronet died during its progress, and left a minor heir. The plan of the new building is a square body, with two uniform wings, connected by corridors.

KILMINGTON, near Shute," is said to be a corruption from Kil-maen-ton, the town at the stony burial-place, bearing the memory of a great slaughter made in Kingsfield."+ The Manor anciently

The annexed Print represents the ancient gate-way, which led to the House. Attached to the cornices of this gate-way are several grosesque figures, and stone shields, bearing the family arms, &c. Over the embattled wall is seen a bell turret, belonging to the Mansion.

+ Polwhele, Vol. II. p. 293.

ciently belonged to the Barons of Torrington, the last of whom, Matthew de Toriton, left five daughters, among whom his estates were divided; and, by the respective marriages of the heiresses, passed into different families.

AXMINSTER,

CALLED Arminstre in the Domesday Book, and in old writings, Axmyster, was so denominated from the river Axe, which runs through it, and a Minster reported to have been erected by King Athelstan, for seven Priests, whom he appointed to pray for the souls of seven Earls, "slain at Calesdown in a battle which raged to Colecroft by Axminster."* Previous to the Norman Invasion, the Manor belonged to the Crown. King John gave it to William Lord Briwere, from whom it descended to Lord Reginald de Mohun, who founded an Abbey of the Cistercian order at Newenham, and bestowed upon it the Hundred and Manor of Axminster. At the Dissolution, it came to the Norfolk family; but is now the property of Lord Petre, to whose ancestor, Sir William Petre, it was granted by James the First.†

Axminster is a large irregularly built town; the streets are in general open, but the houses are of various architecture, and not remarkable for elegance: their number, as returned under the late act, was 431 that of inhabitants, 2154. The laboring classes of the latter are chiefly engaged in the manufacture of carpets, leather breeches, gloves, &c. The Carpet manufactory was established here about the year 1755, and is now in a very flourishing state; the number of hands employed being upwards of one hundred. The process of weaving differs materially from that pursued in most other places. The carpets are woven in one entire piece, several hands being employed in conjunction at the same loom, working the patterns with needles. The Turkey and Persian carpets are here imitated with great success; but the usual patterns are flowers, roses, &c. and it is not unusual, in many large pieces, to copy Roman tesselated pavements, which have an uncommon richness and variety. One loom measures in breadth no + Chapple's MSS.

* Pole's Collections, p. 115.

less

less than twenty-seven feet, and the piece woven in it may be extended to any length.

The Church is a large, venerable building, dedicated to St. Mary it exhibits specimens of several kinds of architecture; but it seems doubtful if any part is so ancient as the time of its reputed founder. The interior has a heavy, cumbrous appearance, particularly where the bulky tower, rising awkwardly in the middle of the structure, intercepts the view, and gives a disagreeable heaviness to the whole. This Church is said by Leland to have been "famose by the sepultures of many noble Danes slain in King Æthelstane's time, at a batel on Branesdowne thirby, and by the sepultures likewise of sum Saxon Lordes slain in same feld." Some few parts of the building have the appearance of great antiquity, particularly a Saxon door-way, that has been removed from the south side to the eastern end of the aisle. The windows of the School-House, close by the Church, are also rounded in the Saxon style. In this town is a Roman Catholic Chapel, a Mecting-House for Independents, and another for Methodists.

The most eastern part of this county is the parish of Thorncombe, (a tract of land surrounded by Dorsetshire,) within whose boundaries is FORD ABBEY,* the seat of John Francis Gwynn, Esq. This is a large pile of building, consisting partly of the old Abbey walls, with various heterogeneous additions. Parts of the ancient building bear evident marks of elegant architecture, and particularly the remnant of the cloister. This beautiful fragment consists of eight windows facing the south, with light buttresses between them, and joins a round Chapel on the east; and on the western side connects with the great hall, or refectory. This is a noble room, fifty-five feet by twenty-eight, lighted with four large windows on one side, charged with mullions and tracery: five similar windows on the opposite side are blocked up. The south front

In the Print is represented part of the Chapel to the right. The modern additions project from the centre, and are connected to a fine square tower entrance. This unites with the great Hall, which is joined to other modern apartments. The water in the fore-ground is part of one of the Abbey fishponds.