Cheddar Cliffs. 129 



works of nature; Camden makes merely a passing 

 reference to the village. 



The earliest mention of the name is probably in 

 Domesday. 'The King,' says the old Norman 

 Survey, ' holds Cedre. King Edward held it. It has 

 never paid tax, nor is it known how many hides there 

 are in it.' 



The whole district was a favourite royal hunting- 

 ground both before and after the Conquest. The 

 bare brown uplands, which fringe the summits of the 

 cliffs and reach far over the sterile hills, were densely 

 covered then with noble forests, the haunt of those 

 tall red deer which the Norman King loved as if he 

 were their father. 



One of the Saxon Kings nearly lost his life there. 

 Following a stag through the woods, and carried by 

 the heat of the chase close to the perilous verge, he 

 saw both the deer and the hounds, unable to pause in 

 their career, hurled over the edge of the precipice, and 

 himself narrowly escaped their terrible fate. 



The dwellers in the white hamlets scattered along 

 the bases of the hills must have been long familiar 

 with the howl of wolves among the wild ravines ; and 

 the curfew — still rung in some of these ancient villages 

 — may well have been the signal to the fierce marauders 

 to descend on the defenceless farms. 



The face of the country has seen much change since 

 then. The far-reaching moor, that from the mouth of 

 the gorge stretches away until its shadowy rim fades 



9 



