490 Horace B. Woodward — A Ramble Across the Mendips. 



the west front, and a portion of St. Joseph's chapel, in connexion 

 with it, were constructed in the Early English style. 



For nearly eleven centuries the devotees of all nations, to quote 

 Mr. 0. T. Hill, flocked in crowds to its fane, to worship at its altars, 

 to adore its relics, to drink in health at its sacred well, and to gaze 

 in wrapt wonder at its" holy thorn. In the early part of the 16th 

 century the Abbey was in the plenitude of its magnificence and 

 power. In a few years more the last Abbot Whiting died — hanged 

 and quartered in the reign of Henry VIII., November 14th, 1539. 

 Its lands found their way principally into the possession of the 

 Duke of Somerset, the buildings fell into ruin, and the magnificent 

 library was scattered. So great has been the neglect of the place 

 that until the present owner, James Austen, Esq., purchased the 

 Abbey estate, it was left entirelj'- to nature, except when blocks of 

 fallen stone were taken away as material for mending roads. We 

 may be thankful that the ruins are well taken care of now, though 

 we may smile when we reflect that where was once all the splendour 

 of England's greatest Abbey, now there is a croquet-lawn ! 



Before leaving, let us look at the Abbey kitchen, which contains 

 four large fire-hearths, each sufficient to roast an ox in. 



It is a good pull up the Tor, and we wonder how the people 

 went to church on a hot summer's day ; however, there is not much 

 inducement to do so now, for though they have been there, they 

 cannot go more, as the body of the church was overthrown by an 

 earthquake in 1275. The most remarkable circumstance, however, 

 was that the tower survived the shock, and there it still remains, as 

 a monument of a people with rather elevated ideas. 



The Tor may be looked ujDon as an island in the geological sense, 

 it is an outlier of the Sands which occur between the Lias and 

 Inferior Oolite ; there is no hard capping to protect it, and so it is a 

 remarkable instance of isolated denudation. Brent Knoll is another. 

 However, while we are at the Tor, we may collect many Ammonites 

 rom the clay and rubbly limestone beds (Upper Lias) below the 

 and, and also Ammonites, Belemnites, and the large Pecten 

 squivalvis from the Middle Lias or Marlstone underneath. Then, 

 having descended the hill, we may plunge into a bath in the Chaly- 

 beate waters which issue from its foot after percolating through the 

 ferruginous sands of which it is formed. The water strikes vath icy 

 coldness, so that one cannot remain in long. 



Pennard Hill, which stretches away a few miles to the east, is in 

 the centre of a district noted for its cider, a beverage largely drunk 

 in Somersetshire, and which the farmers are proud to offer to any 

 chance visitor. 



To the north of the Mendips, in the vale of Wrington, there are 

 many orchards, and good cider is made ; the favourite apple is the 

 " Court of Wick Pippin." ^ 



^ The apple seems to have been originally imported into Britain by the first colonies 

 from Gaul, and in particular by the Jbiritish Hasdui, a Celtic tribe, who settled in the 

 northern and eastern parts of the county of Somerset. Hence we find the site of the 

 present Glastonbury to have been distinguished, before the Eoman advent, by the dis- 

 criminating title oi Avallonia, or "The Apple Orchard." — History of Carhampton. 



