[ 182 ] 



acres, the wade land included. To the above add 

 the low lands watered by the Tone, Parret, Ivel, 

 Bru, Brent, A.x, and the Congre, all which rivers 

 difcharge themfelves into the Briftol Channel, and 

 we (hall have 1 28,000 acres more at the lead, A 

 confiderable part of thefe lands are included in 

 King YJr.^lmr's* grant to tlie abbey at Glaftonbury, 

 dated 21 May, 542, in addition to that Vv^hich King 

 Arviragus had given it before. Ina, eleventh king 

 of the Weft Saxons, anno 704, built the firft church 

 at Wells, where the cathedral now ftands, and from 

 his grant in Bugdale's Monafticon^ dated 725, it 

 appears that he gave great poireffions to the church 

 of Glafton; and Kenulfhus the fourth king after 

 him granted, anno 766, a trad of land containing 



* King Arthur, fon of Uter Pendragon, who was the brother of 

 Aurelius Ambrofius, having fought a great number of battles, and 

 performed a variety of noble acfls, was himfelf flain at Camelford, in 

 Cornwall, by Mordred, fon of Gouran, King of the Scots, whom he 

 had by Anna, one of the aunts of Arthur. [See Ninius and Marianus 

 Scotuj.] His body, in the 36th of Henry II, anno 1189, was found 

 buried at Grlaftonbury, with Gunever his queen. Giraldus Cambrenfis, 

 the hiftorian, was an eye-witnefs to the finding thtfe remains. The 

 lead cover was prefer ved in the treafury of Glaftonbury till the fup- 

 preflion of its abbey by Henry VIII. on which was a Latin infcrip- 

 tion in rude letters, thus englifticd, " Here lieth King Arthur, buried 

 in the ifle of Avalonia." See Stoiv^s Jfmals. 



I do not recolledl whetier the term Brent be in King Arthur's 

 grant ; but If lb, it contradi<51s the received opinion that Brent marfh 

 took its name from I>e Sire de Breant, a famous Knight Archer, who 

 came into England at the Conqueil. See Ho/Iingshcd* 



tWQ 



