CHEWTON-MENDIP, a parish in the hundred of CHEWTON, county of SOMERSET, 5 miles (N.E. by N.) from Wells, containing, with the tything of Widcombe, 1327 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, with the perpetual curacies of Emborrow,' Paulton, and Stone-Easton annexed, in the archdeaconry of Wells, and diocese of Bath and Wejls, rated in the king's books at £29.11. 8., and in the patronage of J. Kingsmill, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, is in the decorated style of English architecture, with some Norman remains, having a fine tower one hundred and twenty-six feet high, surmounted by lofty pinnacles. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. Here is an endowed school, supported by the income arising from a portion of land on.Chew down, enclosed and appropriated to this purpose about ninety years since: the annual rent is about £20, which is paid to the master who is allowed to take other scholars; he is expected to teach as many boys gratuitously as he receives pounds, they are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. The school-house was repaired a few years since, to defray the expense of which a small portion of the income arising from the land was reserved by the trustees. A school for girls was established agreeably to the will of John Dory, who bequeathed the sum of & 100, which was subsequently laid out in the purchase of lands at Comb Hill, comprising about sixteen acres, now let for £7 per annum, which, with the interest of £ 69, an accumulation of the rent of former years, is paid to the mistress for instructing fourteen girls. The village is situated amidst the Mendip hills, where there are extensive mines of lead-ore and lapis calaminaris; the former are not now worked, and the trade in the latter is much reduced. There is a fair for toys, &c. on Holy Thursday: the petty sessions for the division are held here. In the reign of Henry VIII., a dispute arose between the prior of Greenoar cell upon Mendip and the tenants within this manor, relative to some infringement on his rights by the miners, to settle which, the Lord Chief Justice came expressly into .the county, and laid the basis of the laws by which the miners are now governed; any miner considering himself aggrieved, complains to the ledreeve, who summons a jury of. twenty-four miners, from whose decision there is no appeal: various modes of punishment are applied^ the highest being expulsion from the hills. Chewton gives the title of viscount to Earl Waldegrave.