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Somerset County Herald and Taunton Courier. Saturday 21 Jun 1958
Page 4 Column 4 and 5
SOMERSET NOTES AND QUERIES
A TAUNTON LITERARY SOCIETY
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“Conversazione” Magazine
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BEFORE PARADE WAS CONSTRUCTED
“THE Conversazione” was the name of a magazine which flourished in Taunton in the early 1830s. It owed its existence to a Taunton literary society which bore the same name ad which had commenced as the result of a suggestion by two prominent townsmen, Messrs. Henry ALFORD and H. C. TRENCHARD.
The society met in the homes of the various members once a week and the member in whose house the meeting was held acted as president for the evening.
There were no formal speeches, each member, as they sat, spoke in turn on some subject which had been selected previously. The president usually summed up and, perhaps, the member who had suggested the subject, read a paper on it.
Tea, Coffee and Chess
The only refreshments allowed were tea or coffee, and after the discussion ended chess was permitted for those who wished to play while the rest talked on general subjects among themselves. The meetings usually broke up about 10 o'clock.
“The Conversazione” was formed in 1832 and the principal members, besides the two gentlemen already mentioned, were Mr. Andrew CROSS, of Fyne Court, the experimenter in electricity; Mr. Newton LEE, of The Crescent, once Parliamentary candidate for the borough; Mr. (later Serjeant) E. W. COX, then a solicitor in Taunton; the Rev. W. E. TRENCHARD; Mr. HARRIS, of Plais-street; Mr. Henry CHRISTMAS; Mr. W. BALL; Mr. BEARD, an architect; Mr. Robert LEIGH and Mr. Eales WHITE.
A Valued Member
Andrew CROSS, who lived at Broomfield, walked to and from these evening meetings and was one of the most regular and constant attenders. His never-failing fund of wit and humour and his vast scientific and literary knowledge making him one of the society's most valued members. Since the members were no able to hold any of their ordinary meetings at his residence, owing to distance, he invited them to an annual dinner at Fyne Court.
When the club had been in existence for about a year a suggestion was made by, it is believed, Mr. E. W. COX, that a monthly magazine be published containing a selection of papers read at the meetings of the society, and that it be given the same name as the society, namely, The Conversazione.
Objects of Society
The magazine was started in 1833 and the objects of the society were set out in the first paragraph of the preface to the publication as follows:
“A society of gentlemen meet weekly for the purpose of mutual information, and for the discussion of difficult and doubtful questions in philosophy, science and politics. The object we have in view is not to plead, but to judge; not to make converts, but to be ourselves convinced; not to try logical triumphs, but to elicit truth. To attain this end we no not debate, but converse; each hears and is heard in turn; each suggests a new view of the subject, and is instructed by the novel views of others. The meetings are characterised by good temper and earnestness; no prejudices, no party spirit interrupt their harmony, for all pursue but one object – truth.”
The Conversazione was published by William BRAGG, of Cheapside and Paul-street, and some of the articles which appeared bore the titles such as: “Scenes in the Life of a Lawyer,” “The Field of Leipsic,” “Utilitarian Philosophy,” “The Economy of Nature,” &c.
Decline and Fall
The society flourished until the end of 1834, when some of the members leaving the town and the irregular attendance of others caused the society to gradually come to an end.
Henry ALFORD, writing many years later, gave as the cause of the decay of the society the publishing of their papers in the monthly magazine, which was the chief cause of dissension. “We were too ambitious,” he wrote, “and we should have been content with the pleasure and profit which we might have long continued to receive from our private, social and literary intercourse. I now look back with pleasurable, but somewhat sad, associations to our many agreeable and profitable meetings.”
SIMON
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QUERIES
Danger's Ope
[4834]
Can your readers tell me anything about a street or lane in Bridgwater known as Danger's Ope?
S.T.G.
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Wadeford Temple
[4835]
In reading Arthur MEE's “Somerset” I noticed a paragraph saying that at the top of a hill near Wadeford there is a curious little temple in which William PITT may have sat, for it came from the garden of Burton Pynsent.
Is anything known about this temple and why it came to be erected at Wadeford?
VISITOR
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Somerset Quakers
[4836]
The article by Mr. H. J. CHANNON on the FOX family was most interesting. Can any of your readers give further stories of Quakers and their connections with Somerset, and especially Taunton?
S. E. WILLMENT
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Taunton Parade Trees
[4837]
Looking through some prints of old Taunton recently I noticed that Taunton's Parade, round about the 1850s, had no trees upon it, but that by the end of the century their foliage is much in evidence.
Can your readers tell me when the trees were planted and other details regarding this open space.
ADOPTED
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Pride's Purge
[4838]
“On 7th December, 1648, Col. PRIDE appeared in Westminster Hall, which he filled with his regiment of foot, he had in his hand a list of members of the Long Parliament who were considered 'unfaithful to the public interests.' As each member came up, Lord Grey gave a sign whether he was to pass in or not. Those who were stopped were handed to the soldiers, about a hundred being excluded. This clearing out of members who took the king's side was called Pride's Purge.”
PRIDE is said to have been a Somerset man, can your readers tell me anything about him?
STUDENT
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REPLIES TO QUERIES
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Taunton's Parade
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Formerly “The Island”
[REPLY TO QUERY 4837]
Trees were first planted on The Parade, Taunton, on Lord Mayor's-day, 1880, amid many expressions of disapproval and objections.
“The soil will not permit the growth of trees; they will inconvenience tradesmen and market people by raindrops falling on the stall-holders, leaves blowing in nearby shops, and cause accidents through the wet leaves lying on pavements and in the roads,” &c., &c. So said objectors.
But the trees grew and prospered, sheltering Saturday traders from hot sun and occasional shower. They outlasted the objectors, being removed only after Saturday market traders had shifted to fresh pastures and the Parade Improvement Scheme was carried out in the 1930s. But it was not many years before trees again made their appearance on the modified layout of Taunton's centre.
“The Island”
The Parade, as we know it, has been in existence for less than 200 years. Here, from mediæval times, had previously been the “Island” and the “Cornhill.” Its boundary was that of Fore-street, as now, but within these confines were 11 public houses, by name: Golden Ball, Plough, Bull, Rose and Crown, Salutation, Butchers' Arms, Wheat Sheaf, Sugar Loaf, Antelope, Unicorn and the Lamb Coffee-house.
There were, also, on this site the ancient guildhall, an assembly room and corn, vegetable, fowl, fish, butchers, broom, crockery and other markets. At the south-west corner, at the junction of Fore-street and High-street, was the fine old market cross.
The Cornhill, as its name implies, was where corn was bought and sold and occupied most of an area where the controlled street crossing between Messrs. Burton's and Smith & Son's shops now exists. On one side of this space was once a bull-ring and on the other two “mountebank stages.”
Market Trust Purchases
In 1763 a Market House Society was formed with the object of improving the market and centre of the town. A scheme was evolved and with the assistance of Mr. Benjamin HAMMET, one of the members for Taunton, who was later to be knighted, a bill was introduced into Parliament.
The Act was passed in 1768 and a Market Trust was formed. Under arbitration they purchased the public-house property standing on the “Island.” These buildings were acquired for £1, 681 13s 6d. the highest price being paid for the Antelope at £258 11s, and the lowest for the Unicorn at £69 13s 8d.
The Guildhall
The guildhall, 72ft. by 28ft., had been built in or about 1466 “on a parcel of land lying in the middle of the market place, where the ancient water course was wont to run.” The site had been conveyed to the vicar of St. Mary's, Nicholas DIXON, by the Bishop of Winchester, in trust for the profit of the burgesses of the borough, and the ground rent had been one red rose annually. Stairs to the building were on the outside on the north and led to the hall, being the “Council Chamber” to the south, wherein the Court Leet and Corporation held their meetings. Two small cells were contained beneath the guildhall and their filthy condition earned them the sobriquets of Cow House and Little Ease.
The “Bred-Cage”
Surrounding the guildhall, which flanked the western side of what is now the Parade, where fixed flesh-shambles, leased for lives by the Portreeves, while to the east stood some shambles belonging to Saunders' Charity. These latter shambles, which consisted of standings for 12 butchers, had been erected where “the High Hall and formerly the Bred-cage stood, in the middle markets,” and was bounded to the east by a passageway known as Shambles-lane, which extended from the Cornhill to the south side of Fore-street. These shambles covered an area 30ft. 6in. by 30ft. Other passages were Mercery-lane and Cow-street.
The “Bred-cage” was the “bird-cage” where prisoners - “gaol-birds” - were exposed to public gaze. Exactly what the “High Hall” was does not appear to be known, but it may have been a fore-runner of the assembly-room, which stood to the south of the “Island.”
“An Elegant Building”
The old assembly-room was in private hands at the time of purchase by the Market Trust and was where the elite of the town met. The present Parade Assembly Rooms were built on the site of the former building and the description in SAVAGE's History of Taunton says it “is an elegant building” and the house in the centre “is laid out into different apartments for the purposes of justice, amusement and pleasure: as the guildhall, a reading room, assembly room, card room and billiard room.
“Two large wings, called arcades, accommodate the farmers and tradesmen who attend the markets, whilst the butchery or flesh-market is formed of moveable standings placed in rows on the area before the market-house.
“This area, which is open and spacious, is inclosed [sic] with posts and chains, and in the middle of it runs to the north a large pavement of broad flag-stone, two hundred and sixteen feet in length, and eighteen feet in width, called The Parade.”
SIMON
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