On the cold day when we went up into the Mendip district, there were only faint hints of green in the trees, so that views that were soon to be blocked out by masses of foliage were still open. You could look across the brook that runs through Nunney, and see a view of the castle's great round towers framed between slender overhanging branches. In 1373, the sheriff of Somerset received licence "to fortify and crenellate his manse at Nunney", and his building down in an undefended valley seems to have had more of a picturesque than a strategic purpose. From an old quarry site to the north of the village we found a view of the castle from above when we peered over the stone wall of the manor farmhouse's garden. There were the towers, below us now, seen through the apple trees, and looking very vulnerable to attack.
The chief goal of our journey had been the riverside walk near the village of Mells, in modern times a haven for artists and scholars, but we went further on, north-west, in the direction of the old coalfields around Radstock, and came upon a majestic avenue of leafless beeches, ranks of tall columns like Shakespeare's "bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang". And they led us to another remarkable view. This was Babington, site of a medieval village of which there is now no trace. In its place is the elegant, symmetrical facade of a manor house built around 1700, with a handsome stable block set back on the left and, on the right, a gentle slope down to a tree-fringed lake. To complete this beautifully contrived, man-made prospect, a perfectly proportioned little church is set upon the lawn. It was built in 1750, with a cupola on top of its tower, and an inscription carrying the warning: "Prepare to follow, for be sure thou must, / One day, as well as I, be changed to dust."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/22/country-diary-somerset-mendip
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