333 
and from this it is inferred that the Mendip range, of which these 
quarries form the easternmest end cannot have been elevated by a 
voleanic upheaval, in which case the fissures, being caused by 
internal explosion, would have been wider at the top than the 
bottom, but have rather their origin in the internal contraction of 
the earth’s crust. 
The Members of the Field Club when appealed to by their 
Vice-President to state their views on this difficult controversy, 
prudently left the matter to be settled by the further expansion 
of geological knowledge, and re-mounted the brakes for Nunney 
Castle, which was reached in a brief half hour. 
Crossing the Nunney brook and the moat by foot bridges and 
passing round the Castle the entrance is reached on the centre of 
the Western side. What remains of the Castle is a parallelogram 
61 feet in length by 26 in width, the four corners having round 
towers. The interior is gutted but formerly had four floors. This 
Castle is said to have been built by Sir John De-la-Mare in 
1373 by spoils he had taken in France when fighting under the 
Black Prince. King Edward III. granted him a license to 
“ kernellate ” the manse in 1374, 
In the Somerset Archeological Society’s Proceedings vol. xxii, 
1876, a very full account of the history of this Castle appears, 
written by a Member of the Field Club, Mr. Emanuel Green, 
who gives all the information obtainable from ancient records, 
wills and deeds of the De-la-Mare family, the owners of this 
‘Castle from the reign of Henry III., 1262, to the death of the last 
male of the race in 1396. This John De-la-Mare’s sister and 
heiress, Constantia, carried the property into the family of Poulet 
by wedding John Poulet, Kt., and for four generations this family 
held the Castle, the last being created Lord St. John, 1539, and 
dying Marquis of Winchester in 1572, and Treasurer of England 
under Queen Elizabeth. The property was sold by this latter to 
Richard Prater, of Water Eaton, co. Berks, and on his death in 
1578 his son, George Prater, succeeded, and dying in 1622 Col. 
