25 
of the ornamental garden attached to the new villas erected on 
the heights over the Avon, and so associated the marks of ancient 
warfare with the elegancies of modern civilisation. Surely it is 
necessary that some power should be given to prevent the monu- 
ments of past ages being wantonly destroyed, and we must be 
thankful that the subject has lately been brought under the 
consideration of Parliament. 
A Sketch of the History of Butcombe, with some particulars respecting 
the Church and Parish. By the Rev. W. H. CARTWRIGHT, M.A., 
Rector of the Parish. 
(Read May 13th, 1873.) 
Butcombe is a parish in the Hundred of Hartcliffe and 
Bedminster, in the County of Somerset ; 3 miles from Wrington, 
and 9 from Bristol, in the Axbridge Union, from which place it 
is also about the same distance. It contains 999 acres of land, 
extending W. by N.E., from the River Yeo to Broadfield Down, 
or rather that part of it now called Felton Common. It is long 
and narrow, being about four miles in length, and scarcely any- 
where exceeding half-a-mile in breadth, and has scattered over it 
many detached portions of the Tything of Regilbury, which’ is 
part of the adjoining parish of Blagdon. It is bounded by the 
parishes of Wrington, Blagdon, Nempnett and Winford, and 
contains about 230 inhabitants. 
The Manor,—besides the Manor of Butcombe (proper) there are 
parts of at least two other manors in this parish, viz., those of 
Thrubwell and Aldwick. The chief part of the former of these 
with its Manor House being in the parish of Nempnett, and of 
the latter with its Court House in the parish of Blagdon. 
The Manor of Butcombe (proper) seems to have gone with the 
Advowson of the Rectory up to a comparatively late period ; 
we will therefore for the present take them together, and in 
