Horace B. Woodward — A Ramble Across the Mendips. 491 



The moors in the neighbourhood of Grlastonbury, at Ashcot and 

 Shapwick, are largely dug for peat. 



We fcan hardly stay to go up Creech Hill, nor to visit Bruton 

 with its fine church tower. Castle Cary itself is scarcely worth a 

 visit, buried in the spurs of the Oolitic escarpment, with its church, 

 one of the few in Somerset with a spire, though modern. When we 

 get into this country, we find the eminences, as a rule, sheep-walks ; 

 the hill-slopes, orchards ; and the vales, pasture land. Cadbury 

 Camp, which lies to the east, on the road to Yeovil, is an outlier of 

 Inferior Oolite, and one of the great strongholds in early British 

 times. Cadbury is mentioned in old records as Camelot, and is said 

 to have been, in the days of Good King Arthur, the Head Quarters 

 of the Knights of the Round Table. 



Queen Camel, which has some legend connected with King 

 Arthur to account for its unusual name, is devoid of much interest. 

 It possesses a sulphur spring, due, probably, to a decomposition of 

 iron pyrites in the Ehsetic shales whence it issues. It also has some 

 good quarries in the Lias limestones, which are here brought to the 

 surface by a fault, otherwise I do not recommend it as a dwelling- 

 place, though I stayed there several weeks. There is no living on 

 the fat of the land : beef I was told was " killed " twice a year, 

 while mutton is to be had when the butcher from a neighbouring 

 village has not sold all his stock on his previous rounds. One may, 

 however, linger on by drawing supplies of soup and meat from 

 Australia, and of fish from Labrador, obtained by a journey to Yeovil. 



Yeovil is a busy market town, noted for its gloves. It has a fine 

 Perpendicular church, and many pretty walks and sections of Inferior 

 Oolite and sands to reoommend it. 



To the north and north-west we find an uninteresting tract of flat 

 country'-, chiefly meadow land, and very wet and marshy in winter 

 time. In the midst of this is the decayed town of Ilchester, formerly 

 on-e of the most famous stations possessed by the Romans, and even 

 till the coaches left the road, a place of some importance, Somerton 

 is another decayed town ; once the chief town of Somerset, it now 

 j)resents a poor appearance. Its church, v/ith the octagonal tower, 

 not uncommon in the neighbourhood, is in the Perpendicular 

 style. The well-wooded valley which lies to the east is very 

 picturesque, as it winds away amongst the hills of Lias limestone, 

 which are quarried largely at Kineton and the Charltons. Here and 

 there at Hurcot we trace the Red Marl, which becomes very con- 

 spicuous in the escarpment which stretches away to the north by Sir 

 Alexander Hood's monument ; the line between the Eed Marl and 

 the overlying grey marls of the RhEetic series is well marked. 

 These beds yield Alabaster, which has been worked in several 

 places, particularly at Hurcot. 



In the Red Marl in this neighbourhood, also in the vale of 

 Wrington, and other parts of Somerset, the Teazel {Bipsacus 

 fullonum) is much cultivated. Its dried head, which bristles with 

 hard stiff spiny bracts, is used by fullers in dressing cloth, no 

 machinery having as yet been found so well adapted for this purpose. 



