TAUNTON CASTLE. 19 



Island, this energetic and intellectual, thougli, undoubtedly, 

 fierce and sensual race, had not neglected the improvements 

 of domestic civilization or the science of civil government. 

 But tliough thus povverful and increasing, the kingdom of 

 Wessex, particularly on its western side, was anything but 

 secure. On the heights of Quantock, Bleadon, and Brendon, 

 as well as in the fastnesses of Exmoor, the Bretwallas, or 

 British Welsh, as they are called by the Saxon historians, 

 still held their own ; while the whole of Devon and Com- 

 wall was still inhabited by the descendants of those 

 Danmonii, who had resisted the invasion of the men of 

 Galedin, generally known as the Belgse, and now im- 

 proved by an admixture of Roman blood, and i'endered 

 formidable by the remains of Roman discipline, maintained 

 an almost unceasing warfare against the usurping Saxons, 

 under the command of their daring leader, Geraint, prince 

 or regulus of Cornwall ; and it was for the purpose of 

 checking their inroads, and strengthening his western 

 frontier, that Ina, in the year 702, determined to build a 

 fortress on the site of the present Castle of Taunton. 



In order fuUy to appreciate the advantages of this Situa- 

 tion, it is necessary to consider the changes which a period 

 of more than eleven hundred years has worked on the face of 

 the country. To a person looking towards the south from 

 Plais-street, the name of which implies that a road existed 

 there in Roman times, the view presents a tract of highly 

 cultivated and richly wooded land, extending in undulating 

 beauty to the base of the Blackdown hüls, which, with the 

 bold height of Neroche, form on this side the outline of the 

 picture, sinking with a gradual and easy slope from the 

 high ground at Wilton, on the right, to the level piain, 

 which extends towards Bridgwater, on the left ; in the 

 fore ground Stands the town of Taunton, conspicuous for 



