45 
Mr. Poole then rose, and said :— 
"The top of this hill is. I believe, an ancient British fortress or 
the central keep *of one. It was certainly occupied by the Romans, as 
Roman remains have been found here, but it is not of Roman construction,, 
In the times prior to the Roman invasion, and before the marsh lands of 
Somerset were reclaimed from the sea, it must have been impregnable. From 
the summit of the Knoll you look over (wholly or partially) the three great 
alluvial basins of Somerset. The one to the north of the Mendip Hills is 
drained by the River Yeo, and is called the North Marsh. The second lies 
between the Mendip Hills on the north and the line of Polden Hills on the 
south, and is drained by the Rivers Axe and Brue. The third is the Bridgwater 
level, and comprises the vast tract of marsh and peat lands, drained by the 
River Parrett, which lie south of the Polden Hills. The Brue and Parrett 
fall into Bridgwater Bay very near to each other. There is no record, that 
I am aware of, when these vast plains (all under the level of high 
water mark) were reclaimed from the sea. It must have been done 
at one and the same time, and the work was of too great magni- 
tude for any of the ancient British chieftains to have accomplished — 
the embankments on the two sides of the River Parrett being forty miles in 
length, those on the Axe more than twenty, and the mouth of the Brue being 
dammed up by a clyze ; sea walls also must have been erected at Huntspill, 
Burnham, and Brean. The Romans are known to have erected similar works 
on the north-eastern shores of Britain, for the purpose of dislodging the 
Britons from the shelter which the swamps afforded them, and I have no 
doubt that they were the engineers who planned and executed the reclamation 
of the marsh lands of Somerset. Prior to that the whole of those lands must 
have been vast swamps, covered with gigantic reeds, and a fortress like Brent 
Knoll situate in the middle of such a swamp must have been almost 
unassailable, for no army could encamp in the swamp, nor could a military 
road be made across it to any purpose, so long as every high tide covered it. 
As a Roman road, and Roman coins and other remains have been found in the 
district, the reclamation of these tracts from the sea must have been as old 
as the Roman occupation, and I can scarcely conceive that any other people 
can have affected so great a work. Here, however, the history of the district 
does not stop, for various discoveries have been made in different parts of it, 
tending to shew that in recent times (geologically speaking) several changes 
in the relative levels of land and sea have taken place. The Ordnance Map 
shews that on the coast opposite to Burnham, at two places, viz. — Stolford 
and Porlock — there are submarine forests, the stumps of the trees being found 
erect as when they grew, and the roots buried in the mud. The wood of 
these trees is of the colour of ebony. Miles away from this forest, and as far 
inland as the upper parts of King's Sedgmoor, the borders of the sand banks 
