FROME-SELWOOD, (Somerset) 9 m, from Bath, 18 from Bristol, 85 cm. 109 mm. from London. 'Tis the chief T. of this part of
the country, which was anciently one great forest, called Selwood-shire; and, no longer ago than the latter end of the
last century, in those called Frome-Woodlands, there was a considerable gang of money-coiners or clippers, of whom many
were taken and executed, and their covert laid open. Its Ch. and the estate bel. to it, was given by Hen. I. to the priory
of Cirencester, and came afterwards to the Thynnes of Longleaf, ancestors of the Ld. Visc. Weymouth. Tho' the T. is bigger
than some cities, yet it has only one Ch. a large handsome one indeed; but here are 6 or 7 meeting-houses of Protestant
Dissenters, two of which, viz. one of the Presbyterians, and one of the Baptists, both built of white free-stone, are as
handsome perhaps as any in England, and there are few more spacious. Here is an almsh. or rather work-house, and a chapel
to it, and a fr. sc. but the streets are very irregular and uneven. The inh. are reckoned about 13000, whose chief mf. is
broad-cloath, in which it employed so many hands about the beginning of this century, that 7 waggons used to be sent hence
weekly with cloth, for Blackwell-Hall, London, &c. Indeed all of it was not made here; for the clothiers of Whatley,
Mells, and other neighbouring villages, brought their goods hither for carriage to London, and each of these waggons used
to hold 140 pieces, which being valued at 14 l. a cloth, one with another, made the value of the whose amount to above
700,000 l. a year; and, 30 years ago, more wire cards for carding the wool for the spinners were made here, than in all
England besides, which was for most part supplied with them from hence; for here were no less than 20 master cardmakers,
one of whom (Mr. Glover) employed 400 men, women and children in that mf. at one time; so that even children of 7 or 8
years of age could earn half a crown a week. The cloths made here for most part, are medleys of 7 or 8 s. a yard. The r.
here, which abounds with trout, eels, &c. rises in the woodlands, and runs under its stone-bridge towards Bath, on the E.
side of which it falls into the Avon. This T. has been a long time of special note for its rare fine beer, which they keep
to a great age, and is generally preferred by the gentry to the wines of France and Portugal. It was governed formerly by
a bailiff, and now by 2 constables of the H. of Frome, chose at the court-leet of the Ld. of the manor, who was lately Mr.
Seaman. The inh. of this T. who had shewn their zeal for the glorious Revol. endeavoured in the R. of K. Will. to obtain a
charter of incorp. but in vain, because they were opposed in it by a neighbouring Ld. Here were formerly 3 chanteries. The
Mts. here are W. and S. and the Fairs on St.Matthias's-day and St. Catherine's.