COTHELSTON HILL. "1 
Petherton, Wedmore, and Taunton, before the latter 
manor was granted to the Church of Winchester, were all 
royal residencees. The family of Earl Godwin was 
possessed of large manors on the coast of the Severn ; 
and here, on the Steep Holmes, Githa, the mother of 
Harold, took refuge after the defeat and death of her son 
at Hastings. On that coast too, near the eastern boundary 
of the view, the two sons of Harold landed with a body of 
Saxon fugitives, and raised the retainers of their father in 
a desperate attempt to restore the fallen fortunes of their 
family ; and from that point sallied forth Drogo de Monta- 
cute, at the head of his Norman chivalry, met them 
between Congresbury and Worle, scattered their forces to 
the four winds of heaven, and drove them back foiled and 
defeated to their ships. There is in the Museum at 
Taunton an arrow-head of about that date, found near 
Worle, which may probably have been shot during their 
disastrous flight. 
“On this side Minehead lies Dunster, where the Nor- 
man Moion had his castle, which in the reign of Edward 
III. passed into the possession of the Luttrells, who still 
inhabit its majestic towers; and nearer to us again is 
Williton, the residence of Reginald Fitzurse, who, with 
Brito, Moreville, and Tracey, at a hasty word of Henry 
II., sacrilegiously murdered, before the altar of his own 
cathedral, the Archbishop A’Beckett, afterwards canonized 
as St. Thomas of Canterbury ; and a little beyond that 
hill stands Woodspring Priory, founded by William de 
Courteney, in expiation of the murder committed by his 
ancestor Tracey, where no doubt was originally deposited 
that very curious Reliquary now in our Museum, which 
was found a few years since, built into the north wall of 
Kewstoke Church, containing an oaken cup, in which may 
