r the confluence of the Frome and Avon (with
a station), 5 m. S.E. of Bath. The church is Perp., with a W. tower.
_Freshford Manor House_ once belonged to the priory of Hinton
Charterhouse.

[Illustration: MARKET PLACE, FROME]

FROME, a thriving market town of some 11,000 inhabitants, on the E.
side of the county, with a station on the G.W.R. line to Weymouth.
Though its surroundings are pretty, the town itself is an ill-arranged
collection of steep and narrow streets, one of which--Cheap
Street--deserves notice for its quaintness. The spaciousness of the
market-place redeems the narrowness of the streets. With the exception
of a little faint-hearted sympathy shown to Monmouth, Frome has never
helped to make history. Nowadays it does a brisk trade in woollen
cloth, and possesses some large printing-works, breweries, and
art-metal works. The visitor would do well to make his way at once to
the church, which is practically the only thing in Frome worth seeing.
It is a building of much greater dignity within than the exterior
suggests, and has been restored on a very elaborate scale by a former
incumbent, the Rev. W.J. Bennett (1852-66), a figure of note in the
early Ritualistic controversies. The tower, crowned with a spire, is
somewhat eccentricly placed at the E. end of the S. aisle. The interior
is remarkable for its heterogeneous mixture of styles and its multitude
of side chapels, of which St Nicholas's, the Lady Chapel, and St John
Baptist's are on the N., and St Andrew's on the S. A Saxon church was
built on the site by St Aldhelm, and possibly a couple of carved stones
built into the interior of the tower may have belonged to it. This was
succeeded in the 12th cent. by a Norm. church, of which a doorway
remains, leading from St Nicholas's Chapel to the Lady Chapel, and
perhaps a piscina opposite the latter; in the 13th cent. the chancel
arch, the lower part of the tower, and the eastern half of the arcade
were erected The rest of the arcade was added in the 15th cent. The
abrupt change in the mouldings is very noticeable. The Lady Chapel,
originally Norm. (see above), was rebuilt at this time, as well as St
John's Chapel (now the organ-chamber). The chapel of St Nicholas (the
baptistery) dates from the 16th cent.; the old glass in it bears the
rebus of Cable, the founder of it (K and a bell). St Andrew's Chapel is
said to have been founded in 1412 (though it looks like Dec. work).
Interesting features are (1) pi