menced in November, 1699. After two successive charges | impeach Somers was carried at a late hour on the night of brought against him had been negatived-the one for his the 14th of April, by a majority of 198 to 188, after he had having improperly, as was alleged, dismissed many persons come down to the House, and been heard in his own defrom the commission of the peace; the other, founded fence. The principal, and indeed at this stage of the proon the affair of Captain Kid, who, after having been sent ceeding, the only crime laid to his charge, was the concern out in the command of an armament to destroy certain he had had in the two treaties for the partition of the pirates in the West Indies, the expense of which had been Spanish monarchy [PARTITION TREATIES] which had been very patriotically contributed by Somers, Shrewsbury, and negociated in 1698 and 1699 by King William, without consome other noblemen, had taken to piracy himself,-a sulting with his ministers, and for which Somers had formotion was made on the 10th of April, 1700, the day before warded, at the king's desire, the necessary powers in blank the king came down to prorogue the parliament, that his under the great seal. We suppose there can be no question, majesty should be addressed to remove Somers from his but that, according to the modern practice of the constitupresence and councils for ever. But this attempt also failed: tion, no minister would be held to be justified in acting as the numbers, according to Lord Hardwicke, in a note to Lord Somers admitted he had done in this case; but miniBurnet, were 106 for the motion, and 167 against it. Im- sterial responsibility was not so well understood or so commediately before this, the bill for resuming the king's Irish pletely established in those early days of the system introgrants had been carried through both Houses, in spite of duced by the Revolution as it now is. The precise charge the most strenuous opposition by the court, and the deter- against Lord Somers too, as stated in the resolution for immination which William was at one time understood to peaching him, was, that he had advised his majesty to the have come to rather to risk everything than give his con- treaties; and that certainly was not and could not be made sent to the measure. While the bill was in suspense,' out, being in truth contrary to the fact. Afterwards fourwrites Lord Dartmouth, in a note upon Burnet, the whole teen distinct articles of impeachment were drawn out and city of London was in an uproar; Westminster was so sent up to the Lords, which charged his lordship distinctly thronged, that it was with great difficulty anybody got into with having presumed to affix the great seal to the blank either House. . All seemed under the greatest distrac- commissions, contrary to the duty of his office, and in violation. I heard the king was come to the Cockpit, and had tion of the great trusts reposed in him, without communisent for the crown, with a resolution to dissolve us imme- cating the same to the rest of the then lords justices of Engdiately, which I communicated to the earl of Shaftesbury, land, or advising in council with his majesty's privy council who ran full speed with it to the House of Commons; upon thereupon.' His conduct in the affair of Captain Kid, which they adjourned in great haste.' It was this appre- which surely was the very reverse of blameable, was also hension, according to Burnet, of the king's resorting to the made the subject of one of the articles; but the most violent measure of a dissolution in order to quash the bill, remarkable of the charges brought against him related to that provoked the second of the above-mentioned attacks various personal grants of land and money which he was of the Commons upon Somers. But the chancellor did not asserted to have begged and obtained from the crown— please either party in this unfortunate business. During many great, unreasonable, and exorbitant grants,' as they the debates about the bill,' says Burnet,' he was ill, and the were styled, of several manors, lands, tenements, rents, worst construction possible was put on that: it was said he hereditaments, and revenues,' besides the annual salary, or advised all the opposition that was made to it in the House pension (as it is called), of 40007., which, through his maof Lords; but that, to keep himself out of it, he feigned jesty's most abundant grace and bounty,' he had received that he was ill; though his great attendance in the Court during all the time he was lord keeper and lord chancellor, of Chancery, the House of Lords, and at the council-table, over and above the fees, profits, and perquisites of or behad so impaired his health, that every year about that time longing to the great seal, established by law as a sufficient he used to be brought very low, and disabled from business.' and ample recompense and reward for the faithful discharge Lord Hardwicke tells us, in a note on this passage, that for of that high station.' The grants were alleged to consist of this conduct of Somers, i、 absenting himself from the the manors of Ryegate and Howleigh, granted in 1697, to house, and taking little or no share in the debates about Joseph Jekyl, Esq., in trust for Lord Somers and his heirs-of the bill, it is said the king was angry with him, and made certain fee-farm rents to the value in all of 33,0007., granted easy to part with so wise a servant soon after.' It is certain at various times by pretended contracts, under which there at any rate, that, shortly after this, William resolved to en- was not any sum of money whatsoever really and bonú fide deavour to rid himself of the incessant annoyance and paid as the consideration of the conveyances of the said obstruction he received from the aversion the Commons had rents' from the trustees to whom they were granted for taken up against the chancellor by the dismissal of Somers. Somers's benefit-and of certain other rents to the yearly Tindal, who says that the account was given to Mr. Old- value of nearly 4007. obtained in a similar manner. Somers mixon by a gentleman who had it from Somers's own in his answer stated that the 4000l. a year was the same mouth, tells us that the first time Somers came to court allowance that had been made to several of his predecessors; after his illness, the king stated that it seemed necessary and as to the other grants, he pointed out certain deductions for his service that he should part with the great seal, and from their value to which the Commons had not adexpressed his wish that he would make the delivering of it verted, and denied that there had been anything unlawful up his own act. Somers replied, that he knew this was in the transactions, or that the grants had been obtained what his enemies were striving after; that the seal was his either in deceit of his majesty or in elusion of any acts of pargreatest crime, and that if he quitted that, he should be liament. The affair ended, after many messages and conferfreed from their abuse and persecution; but that he was ences between the two Houses, by the Commons declining resolved, with his majesty's permission, to keep it in defiance to appear to prosecute their impeachment on the day apof their malice; adding, that he did not doubt but, if his pointed by the Lords, under the pretence that the Lords had majesty would be as firm to his friends as they would be to refused them justice in the matter; on which their Lordhim, they should be able to carry whatever points he had in ships pronounced him acquitted, and dismissed the imview for the public welfare in a new parliament.' His ma-peachment. (See Howel's State Trials, xiv. 311.) jesty however shook his head, and said · It must be so.' But Somers persisted in declining to offer the surrender of the seal; so that a few days after, on the 17th of April, the king sent Lord Jersey for it, with a warrant under his hand, on which, of course, it was immediately given up. About a month after it was given to Sir Nathan Wright, with the title of lord keeper. After all, his ejection from office neither saved Somers from the enmity of the Commons, nor lost him the favour and confidence of the king. In the new parliament, which met in February, 1701, the Tories found themselves in a majority in the Lower House; and they had not sat long before they proceeded to direct their power against the chief of the king's friends and ministers, the Duke of Portland, Lord Somers, the Earl of Oxford, and Lord Halifax, all of whom it was resolved to impeach. The resolution to P. C., No. 1386. In October of this same year a negociation was opened by the king with Somers, through Lord Sunderland, for bringing him again into power; but his majesty's death, in March, 1702, put an end to the project after everything had been arranged. The speech with which William opened his last parliament, on the 31st of December, 1701, called by Burnet the best speech that he, or perhaps any other prince, ever made to his people, was written by Somers; Lord Hardwicke mentions that he had seen the original in Somers's handwriting, In 1702 Somers, unoccupied by the cares and toils of office, was elected president of the Royal Society. In 1706 he introduced and carried through parliament a bill for the amendment of the law, and the better advancement of justice,' which, although deprived of some useful clauses by the Commons, corrected various abuses in the courts both VOL. XXII.-2 F of Chancery and of Common Law. He also took a leading part in the discussion and arrangement of the great measure of the Union with Scotland, which was now at last brought to a conclusion, after having been again and again unsuccessfully attempted during more than a century. [SCOTLAND, UNION WITH.] It may also be mentioned, that the learned and able statement of the famous Aylesbury Election Case, ordered to be printed by the House of Lords in 1703, was, according to Mr. Speaker Onslow, drawn up by Lord Somers. He too, it is stated by Lord Hardwicke, was the author of 'he act passed in 1705, for the security of the Protestant Succession. [GEORGE I., vol. xi., p. 157.] On the return of his party to power in 1708, Somers was made president of the council; and he held that office till the recovery of the cabinet by Harley and the Tories in 1710. He succeeded in making himself very acceptable to Queen Anne, notwithstanding her original prejudice against him. It is affirmed by Lord Dartmouth that he impressed her with a deep and grateful sense of his fidelity and integrity by his acquainting her with and putting her on her guard against a scheme entertained by the Duke of Marlborough to get himself made captain general, or commander of the forces, for life, which, without having so much as mentioned it to her majesty, his grace tried in 1709 to get proposed in the House of Commons, and expected the Whigs should all come into, in return for the great services he had lately done them. The following year, on occasion of the proposals for peace made by the French at Gertruydenberg, Somers strongly recommended the continuance of the war. He had of course gone along, apparently, with his colleagues in the prosecution of Sacheverell, in 1709; but Swift, in his History of the Four Last Years of Queen Anne,' tells us that he had heard from Lord Somers himself that he was against engaging in that foolish business, as foreseeing that it was likely to end in the ruin of the Whig party. There is a curious note to Burnet's History of his own Time,' by Mr. Speaker Onslow, in which he relates some negociations that were carried on with Harley by Somers, Halifax, and Cowper, a short time before the change of ministers in 1710, on the basis of an overture made by Harley for keeping them in place, if they would consent to the substitution of himself and some of his friends for the lord treasurer (Godolphin) and his dependants. Onslow says that he had his information from Sir Joseph Jekyl, who,' he adds, had it very likely, and I think he said so too, from the Lord Somers, to whom he was brother-in-law.' The negociation was broken off in consequence of the opposition of Lord Wharton, who expressed his detestation of having anything to do with Harley. Somers continued to take part occasionally in the debates of the House of Lords after his second dismissal from office; but the infirm state of his health is said by this time to have somewhat affected his intellect. In 1713 we find him joining in support of the factious motion brought forward by a section of the opposition, for leave to bring in a bill to dissolve the Union. 'I had it,' writes Onslow, from good authority (the late Sir Robert Monroe, then of the House of Commons), that at a meeting upon it at my lord Somers's house, where Monroe was, nobody pressed this motion more than that lord!" He resumed his place at the council-board after the accession of George I.; but his faculties were now almost gone. It is related, however, that he took an interest in the progress of the Septennial Bill, which he declared he thought would be the greatest support possible to the liberty of the country. At last a stroke of apoplexy occasioned his death, on the 26th of April, 1716. Lord Somers was never married, though it is stated by the author of the Memoirs of his Life, that when he was solicitor-general he paid his addresses to a daughter of Sir John Bawdon, a London alderman, and that he went so far in the matter as to deliver in a rental of his estate, after several meetings with the lady's friends; but,' concludes the story, the treaty broke off on account of a difference about the marriage-portion and settlement, to the great regret of the lady, when she found him made lord keeper of the great seal in two years' time.' His estates descended to the family of his sister, who was married to Charles Cocks, Esq., M. P., whose grandson, the father of the present Earl Somers, was created Baron Somers in 1784. The character of Lord Somers has been elaborately drawn by Addison in one of the numbers of the Freeholder' (pubushed 14th May, 1714), but with considerable wordiness, 6 and something perhaps of the air of insincerity which commonly attaches to a formal panegyric. He had been an early and zealous patron of Addison, who had obtained his notice by inscribing to him his early poem on the campaigns of King William, and who afterwards dedicated to him his Travels in Italy,' and the first volume of the Spectator.' There is much more force in the more shaded picture of him which Swift has given in his History of the Four Last Years of Queen Anne;' nor perhaps, taken with the proper allowance, does it convey a less correct notion of the man. The collection commonly called the Somers Tracts," which has been twice printed, first in 1748, in 16 volumes, 4to., secondly, in 1809-15, in 13 volumes, 4to., under the superintendence of the late Sir Walter Scott, consists of searce pamphlets selected, as the title intimates, principally from the library of Lord Somers. A valuable collection of original letters and other papers left by his lordship was unfortunately consumed in a fire which happened in the chambers of the Honourable Charles Yorke, then solicitorgeneral, in Lincoln's Inn Square, on the morning of Saturday, the 29th of January, 1752. Mr. Yorke's father, the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, married Lord Somers's niece, Miss Margaret Cocks. SOMERSET, EARL OF. [JAMES I.] SOMERSET, EDWARD SEYMOUR. [EDWARD VI] SOMERSETSHIRE, an English county, situated on the shore of the Bristol Channel, by which it is bounded on the north and north-west sides. On the north-east it is bounded by Gloucestershire, from which it is in part separated by the river Avon; on the east by Wiltshire; on the south-east and south by Dorsetshire, and a small detached part of Devonshire; and on the south-west and west by Devonshire. Its form is irregular; the greatest length is from east by north to west by south, from the neighbourhood of Bath to Exmoor on the Devonshire border, 70 or 71 miles; the greatest breadth at right-angles to the length is from the coast at the mouth of the Avon to the Dorsetshire border between Milborne Port and Stalbridge, 40 miles. A small detached portion of the county is entirely surrounded by Dorsetshire: it lies between Sherborne and Blandford. The total area of Somersetshire is 1645 square miles: it is the seventh English county in respect of size, ranking next below Lancashire, and next above Hants. The population by the different enumerations of the present century was as follows: The last enumeration gives 246 inhabitants to a square mile. In amount of population it is the eighth English county, being below Staffordshire, but above Norfolk; and in density of population the eleventh, its place being being between Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. Taunton, which has the best claim to be regarded as the county town, is 133 or 134 miles in a direct line west by south of the General Post-office, London; or 141 miles by the road through Basingstoke, Andover, Amesbury, Bruton, CastleCary, Somerton, and Langport. Surface, Coast-line, and Geology.-Somersetshire is a hilly county; but the ranges of hills are separated by low marshy flats; so that, hilly as it is, it yet exceeds most counties in the extent of its fens. The north-eastern part is occupied by the eminences round Bristol and Bath, through which the Avon makes its way. These eminences are irregularly grouped, and extend along the north-eastern border, from Pill on the Avon below Bristol into Wiltshire: many of the valleys or combes' which separate the hills are drained by small streams which flow into the Avon. The principal heights in this part of the county are, Falkland Knoll near Norton St. Philip, between Bath and Frome; Lansdown (813 feet high), and Claverton, Combe, and Odd downs, near Bath; Dundry hill (790 feet high); Mays knoll, Cadbury, Sims, and North hills, which are summits of Broadfield down, south of Bristol; and Leigh down, west of that city. The summits of the hills in the immediate neighbourhood of Bath are of the oolitic formations. The great oolite, the most important of these, which furnishes the fine-grained freestone commonly known as Bath stone, has a thickness probably of 130 to 150 feet. Masses of this rock are found scattered on the slopes of the hills which it crowns, covering the subjacent clays and fullers'-earth, which, with the inferior oolite and calcareous sand, constitute the lowest members of the oolitic group, and form a terrace projecting into the subjacent valleys, beyond the great volite and connected rocks which crown the summits of the hills. Sometimes these lower oolitic beds form outlying eminences, such as Stantonbury hill, Dundry hill, and Mays knoll. The inferior oolite is extensively quarried in Dundry hill, where it yields a good freestone. The general inclination of the strata of all these formations is to the south-east, but with a very small angle. Some remarkable derangements and dislocations are observable. The oolites rest on a platform of the lias formations, which appear on the lowest part of the slope of the oolite hills, or form detached hills to the south-west of them. The valley of the Avon, and the other valleys which separate these hills, and are drained by streams flowing into the Avon, are occupied by the formations of the red marl or new red sandstone group. In some places the newer magnesian or conglomerate limestone, which underlies the new red sandstone, rises to the surface: it occasionally crowns the summit of the hills, but more usually is found in horizontal strata resting against the elevated beds of the coalmeasures or of the mountain limestone, which latter, with the old red sandstone, forms the constituent mass of Leigh down and Broadfield down near Bristol. These two masses of mountain limestone are surrounded by the magnesian limestone conglomerate. The mountain limestone of Leigh down is prolonged across the Avon, and forms the wellknown precipices of St. Vincent's rocks, Clifton, between which that river flows. kerne; and the lias is much used for building cottages in the neighbourhood of Ilchester. The Mendip hills are a distinct range stretching from west by north to east by south, and separated from the hills about Bath and Bristol by the narrow valley of the Yeo or Yow, a small stream which flows into the Bristol Channel near Weston. They extend at their western end to the coast, and unite at their eastern extremity with the hills near Frome. The length of the Mendips may be estimated at 25 miles, their breadth between Stoke Rodney and West Harptree at 6 or 7. This chain consists of a central axis of old red sandstone, flanked on its opposite declivities by parallel bands of mountain limestone, dipping from it in opposite directions in angles varying from 30° to 70°. This central axis is not however visible throughout its whole course, being occasionally overarched and concealed by the calcareous strata; but it appears in four ridges, forming the most ele vated points of the chain, and disposed at nearly equal dis tances through its length. The cavern of Wokey hole, and the defile of Cheddar cliffs, with its long line of stupendous mural precipices, certainly among the most magnificent objects of this kind in Britain, are the well-known features of this chain.' (Conybeare and Phillips.) The cavern at Wokey, or Wookey, is not in the mountain limestone, but in the calcareo-magnesian formation which abuts against it, near the foot of the chain, on every side; of English caverns it yields in extent only to those of the Peak in Derbyshire. It is described in Dr. Maton's 'Observations on the Western Counties,' vol ii., p. 136, &c. The mineral treasures of the Mendips are important; zine and calamine are obtained abundantly in the central and western part of the range. Lead was formerly procured; but the works, from the exBroadfield down has two precipi-haustion of the ore, or the difficulty of procuring it, have been given up. There are numerous coal-pits in the villages which lie north-west of Frome. The argillaceous beds of this coal-formation have been remarkably contorted, apparently by the force which elevated the adjacent harder rocks (mountain limestone and old red sandstone) in mass. The coal-seams are all thin, hardly any exceed three feet; nor could they be profitably worked, but for the highly im proved state of the machinery. The Mendips rise in some parts to more than 1000 feet. Their principal summits are -Worle hill, near Weston-super-Mare; Banwell hill, Sandford hill, Dolberry warren, and Burrington Ham, between Worle and Blagdon, overhanging the valley of the Yeo, north of the chain; Bleadon hill, Wavering down, and Shutshelve hill, overhanging the valley of the Ax, below Cheddar; Black down (old red sandstone), in the axis of the range, north of Cheddar; West hill, North hill, and Egar hill (all in the old red sandstone), between Cheddar and Chewton Mendip; Pen hill (old red sandstone) and Milton hill, north of Wells; and Masberry castle and Beacon hill (both old red sandstone), north of Shepton Mallet. tous combes or valleys, Cleve and Brockley, less magnificent than the defile of Cheddar, but possessing, from the abundance of wood, more beauty. The coal-measures, mountain limestone, and old red sandstone belong to the carboniferous group of the Somersetshire and South Gloucestershire coal-field, and occupy the northern part of the county extending to the Mendip hills, though covered in most places by more recent formations. In this field are numerous coal-pits: the chief of them are in those parts (Bedminster, Nailsea, and the valley of the Chew above Keynsham) where the coal-measures have been denuded; but several are in the valley of the Midford brook, which extends from Combe Monkton near Bath to High Littleton, and in the adjacent valley, which extends from Combe Monkton to Radstock, where they are sunk through the superincumbent strata of the red marl, the lias, and even the lower oolite: this last is the case in a pit near Paulton, which is probably unequalled in the number of formations through which it passes before it reaches the coal: it penetrates through strata which in other parts would probably have an aggregate thickness of 2000 feet, but are here reduced, in consequence of the thinning out of many of the beds, to less than 500 feet. The long low ridge of Pawlet or Polden hill and the connected hills is an offset from the eastern hills between Castle Cary and Ilchester. It extends about 20 miles in a direction parallel to the Mendips, from which it is separated by a wide intervening fenny flat, drained by the Brue, and comprehending East Sedgemoor and the adjacent moors. Among the higher points of this range, which consists of lias resting on the new red marl or red sandstone, are Kingweston down, Butleigh hill, Dundon beacon (360 feet), Moorlynch (330 feet), Cock hill, and Ball hill. Some detached knolls of lias, and a tract of new red marl crowned with some lias, or oolitic eminences, rise out of the fens between the Polden and the Mendip hills; such as Brent knoll, near the sea, and Glastonbury Tor, or Chalice hill, near Glastonbury. Gypsum occurs abundantly in the red marl on the south side of Polden hill near Somerton. The eastern side of the county, extending from Bath by Frome, Bruton, and Castle Cary to Yeovil, and the southern side, from Yeovil by Ilminster to Wellington, are occupied by hills of similar geological character to those around Bath, and uniting with them in the neighbourhood of that city. The lower slopes, with some outlying eminences or ranges projecting to the west or north-west, consist of lias, upon which rest the lower oolitic formations, and upon these again the great oolite, with its connected beds. Rocks of the middle system of the oolitic formations and of the green-sand formation, and even chalk, are found in several places along the border of the county. This range is divided into detached parts by the transverse valleys of the Brue, the Yeo or Ivel, the Parret, and the Isle; and that portion which lies west of Ilminster In the western part of the county, running north-west overlooks to the north the vale of Taunton, which is occupied from the neighbourhood of Taunton to Bridgewater bay in by the new red sandstone, and is watered by the Tone. Among the Bristol Channel, bounding the valley of the Parret after the eminences of this range are Barrow hill, north-west of the junction of the Tone, are the Quantock or Quantox Frome; Roddenbury hill, near Longleat park; Long Knoll hills. They consist of an elevated mass of a coarse grit. (chalk); and the site of Alfred's tower, south of Frome in stone (with some portions of killas), and belong to the slate Selwood; May's down, near Shepton Mallet; Lamyat bea- formation which overspreads the north of Devonshire, sepa con, near Bruton; Ash beacon, near Milborne port; Ham-rated however from the principal slate district by an interden hill and St. Michael's hill, between Ilchester and vening tract of new red sandstone, which formation nearly Crewkerne; Shave Lane hill, near Crewkerne; and Buck-surrounds the foot of the range. At the northern foot of land down, Staple hill, and the Black Down hills (green sand and chalk marl), south of Taunton. Good freestone is quarried in the inferior oolite, near Shepton Mallet, and at Norton-under-Hamden, between Ilchester and Crew the hills lias occurs, covering both the red sandstone and the slates. The principal summits of the Quantock range are-Thorncombe barrow, Hurley beacon, Doucebury or Danesborough (1022 feet), Fire beacon, Bagborough station or Will's-neck (1270 feet), Cothelston lodge (1060 feet), and Buncombe hill. The length of the Quantock hills is about 14 miles. Their greatest breadth is about 5 or 6 miles, or, including the hills which are thrown off from the principal range toward the bank of the Parret, about 9 or 10 miles. Limestone is procured in the hills, and gypsum in the new red marl formation of the adjacent coast, near Watchet. Some veins of copper have been found and worked, but with little advantage. The greater part of the county west from the narrow tract of new red sandstone which separates the Quantock hills from the principal district of the slate rocks, is occupied by an irregular hilly district, forming part of the wild moorlands of Exmoor forest, extending into the two counties of Devon and Somerset. This hilly district is bounded on the south by the valley of the Tone, and on the north by the Bristol Channel. It is occupied by the slate rocks of the Devonian range; but in some of the valleys near the coast these are covered by the rocks of the new red sandstone group. The principal eminences are- -Oare hill, Porlock hill, North hill (824 feet), Grabbist hill (906 feet), Croydon hill, and Old Cleeve hill, near the coast; and Ox-Head hill, Dure down, Ashcombe hill, Span head, Shear down, Black Barrow down, Lucott hill, Dunkerry beacon (1668 feet), Winsford hill, Exton hill, Lype hill, and Brendon hill (1210 feet) more inland. Slate is quarried in these hills near Wiveliscombe. The measurements of heights given above are from the Ordnance Survey, except Doucebury, North hill, and Grab bist hill, which are given by Mr. Leonard Horner, and Brendon hill, which is given by Mr. S. Woods. The latter gentleman has estimated North Hill at 1000 feet, and Dunkerry Beacon at 1784 feet. There are mineral springs at Bath, Glastonbury, Alford, near Castle Cary, and Queen Camel, near Ilchester. Most, if not all of these, are found in a stratum of marl between the lower oolite and the lias formations. Others are enume rated by Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire. The coast from the mouth of the Avon (which separates Gloucestershire from Somersetshire) runs about 15 or 16 miles south-west to Sand Point. For about 2 miles from the mouth of the Avon, it is low and marshy, but at Portishead point, near the village of Portsihead, the coast rises, and low cliffs skirt the shore, with one or two slight intervals, for 7 miles to the quiet watering-place of Clevedon. Between Portishead and Clevedon is a continuous range of hills, formed by an outlying mass of mountain limestone and old red-sandstone, separated from Leigh down by a low marshy valley; the cliffs are formed on the side of these hills. For nearly 5 miles beyond Clevedon the shore is lined with the marshes through which the Yow or Yeo and some other small streams flow into the sea; but between St. Thomas's head and Sand point is a range of cliffs of about a mile in length, worn in the face of a mountainlimestone hill. From Sand point the coast runs southward to Brean down, a hill of mountain limestone, precipitous on every side, and surrounded by the sea except just at its eastern end, where a marshy flat connects it with the mainland. Between Sand point and Brean down, which are distant nearly 5 miles in a straight line, the coast forms two bays, Sand bay and Uphill bay, separated by the intervening cliffs of Anchor head. This headland is the extremity of Worle hill, one of the Mendips, composed of mountain-limestone, on the sides of which the magnesian or conglomerate limestone rests, and upon this the lias. The two bays are filled with sand, dry at low-water; on Uphill bay, just at the foot of Anchor head, is the little watering-place of Weston-super-Mare, Between Brean down and Little Stoke point, which is distant from Brean down 10 miles in a direct line south-west, is the bay usually called Bridgewater bay, although the town of Bridgewater lies some miles up the Parret inland. The coast from Brean down runs about 7 miles almost in a direct line due south to the estuary of the Parret, forming one side of the bay, and then gradually turning westward runs about 7 or 8 miles in an irregular line to Little Stoke point. The greater part of the shore of the bay is formed by sand hills, bounding the marshes which extend between the Mendip hills and the lower offsets of the Quantock range. Polden hills and the detached knolls which rise out of this flat do not, any of them, reach the shore. This flat district appears to have been once covered by the sea, but not within the period of authentic history. Toward the western extremity of the bay, between Catsford and Little Stoke point, the coast is higher, and is lined for the last 3 miles of its extent by lias cliffs; where the lower Quantock hills abut on the sea, at Little Stoke point, the cliffs are interrupted by a very narrow interval of marsh land, through which a small stream flows into the sea. From the extremity of Bridgewater bay the coast runs westward 25 miles to the boundary of the county. For the first 9 miles, to the little watering-place of Blue Anchor, it continues to be lined by the lias cliffs of the Quantock range, with one or two trifling interruptions. These cliffs sometimes rise to the height of 100 feet (Conybeare and Phillips) or even 200 feet. (Collinson, Hist. of Somerset.) From Blue Anchor to Minehead, about miles, the coast, which forms a shallow bay, is lined with marshes; at the back of which, about a mile inland, Grabbist hill rises. From Minehead to Bossington point, 5 miles, are lofty cliffs, formed in the face of the slate rocks of North hill, At Bossington point the cliffs cease, and the eastern side of the shallow bay of Porlock, which is 5 miles between its extremities, is formed by a low shore: but the cliffs reappear on the western side of the bay, and continue nearly to the boundary of the county: these last cliffs are formed in the slate-rocks of Oare and Porlock hills. The coast is lined, with very little interruption, by sands, but, excepting in Sand bay, Uphill bay, and Bridgewater bay, they have little breadth. These three bays are filled up with sand, dry at low-water, except in the channel of the Parret: the sands in Bridgewater Bay have in one part a breadth of three miles. The only islands are Stert island and Fenning's island, in the marshes at the mouth of the Parret; and Flat Holm (magnesian or conglomerate limestone) and Steep Holm (mountain limestone) in the midst of the Bristol Channel. These two islands are both girt with cliffs: there is a lighthouse on Flat Holm opposite Brean down. The only harbours of any importance are formed by the rivers Avon and Parret. The roadstead of King's Road is at the mouth of the Avon. Some shipping trade is carried on from the towns of Porlock, Minehead, and Watchet. Hydrography, Communications, &c.-The general direction of the rivers is to the north-west: the only material exception is in the case of the Tone and the upper part of the Bristol Avon. The larger rivers (except the Tone) rise in the adjacent counties, and pass through the depressions which break the continuity of the border hills. The Avon, distinguished from the Warwickshire river so called, by the title of the Lower Avon, rises in Gloucestershire, on the eastern slope of the Cotswold hills, and flows through Wiltshire by Malmsbury, Chippenham, Melksham, and Bradford; below which it reaches Somersetshire, and has a farther course, on or within the border of the county, of 31 miles into the Bristol Channel or estuary of the Severn at King's Road. Its course to the border of the county is for the most part southward; but after that it flows northwest by Bath, having a winding course between the oolite and mountain limestone hills of the north-eastern border. It is navigable up to Bath (where the Kennet and Avon canal locks into it) for barges, and to Bristol for sea-borne vessels, the largest class of which, owing to the great rise of the tide, reach the quays of the town without any difficulty, though it is 8 miles, following the winding of the channel, above its mouth. At the mouth of the Avon the spring tides usually rise 40 feet, and have been known to rise 50 feet. The Avon receives the Frome, the Midford brook, above Bath, and the Chew at Keynsham. The Frome rises not far from Bruton, flows northward past the town of Frome, and joins the Avon between Bradford and Bath: X's course (of about 20 miles) is within or upon the border of Somersetshire. The Avon is connected with the Thames by the Kennet and Avon canal, of which a portion is in this county; it enters by the Dundas aqueduct over the Avon, and then follows the valley of that river to Bath. The Somersetshire coal canal is cut from the coal-works near Paulton into the Kennet and Avon canal on the border of the county: it is 94 miles long. Connected with this canal is a railway from the adjacent coal-works at Radstock. Acts were obtained some years since for a canal to connect the Dorsetshire Stour at Blandford Forum with the Avon: it was to follow the valley of the Frome, but was never executed. The Yow or Yeo rises at Compton Martin on the northern 221 slope of the Mendip Hills, and flows north-west 13 miles between them and Broadfield Down into the Bristol Channel. The Axe rises in Wookey Hole or Cavern, on the southern side of the same hills, near Wells, and flows northwest 21 miles through the flats at their foot; it is navigable to the village of Lower Weare, near Axbridge, about 11 miles above its mouth, following the natural channel of the river; but this distance has been shortened to 9 miles by one or two cuts. The Brue rises on the slope of the chalk marl and green-sand hills, on the border of Somerset and Dorsetshire, and flows westward by Bruton and Glastonbury, 35 miles through the marshy flat between the Mendip and the Polden Hills into the estuary of the Parret. It is not navigable; but the lower part of its course is included in the Glastonbury navigation, for which an act was obtained A.D. 1827. The navigation from Glastonbury to the Brue is by a canal running nearly parallel to the river. The Parret, antiently the Pedred, the principal river in the county, rises in the chalk downs at South Perrot, near Beaminster in Dorsetshire. It reaches the border of Somersetshire about a mile from its source, and flowing northward for 15 miles, traverses the oolitic border hills by a depression near Crewkerne and passes by South Petherton to Langport, receiving the Isle or Ile on its left bank, and the Yeo or Ivel on the right. north-west 12 miles, through a marshy flat to BridgeFrom Langport the Parret flows water, receiving midway between that town and Langport the Tone on the left bank. Below Bridgewater the Parret has a winding course of 16 miles into Bridgewater Bay, in the British Channel, receiving the Cary on its right bank, and uniting just at its outfal with the Brue. The whole course of the river is thus about 43 miles; but the computation would be considerably higher were the Tone or the Yeo regarded as the principal stream. SOM never been executed. The English and Bristol Channels ship canal was to cross the county by Chard and Bridgewater, but this undertaking, for which an act was obtained A.D. 1825, has been given up. course in the western extremity of Somersetshire, to which The river Exe has its source and the upper part of its some of its first affluents belong, but this river belongs chiefly to Devonshire. by Calne and Chippenham, the other by Devizes and MelksThe two principal coach roads from London to Bristol (one ham) enter the county near Bath, before reaching which city they unite; the road from Bath to Bristol through Keynsham is wholly in this county. The mail-road from London to Exeter through Salisbury crosses a corner of the county between Shaftesbury and Sherborne, and re-entering it beyond Sherborne, passes through Yeovil, Crewkerne, and Chard. The Falmouth mail-road by Amesbury enters runs through Ilchester and Ilminster. A road from Bristol the county between Mere (Wilts) and Wincanton, and leads near the coast by Watchet, Dunster, and Minehead to runs by Axbridge to Bridgewater, from whence one road Porlock, and from thence to Ilfracombe in Devonshire; a Devon; and a third to Taunton, and from thence either by second by Milverton and Wiveliscombe to Barnstable, Wellington and Collumpton (Devon) Glastonbury to Taunton; and roads from Bristol and Bath (Devon) to Exeter. A road from Bath leads by Wells and or by Honiton unite at Shepton Mallet, and proceed by Castle Cary and Yeovil to Dorchester. and Trowbridge to Frome enters the county a little beyond Trowbridge. From Frome a road leads on one hand to ShepThe road from London by Devizes ton Mallet, Glastonbury, and Taunton; and on the other to Bruton, Castle Cary, and Ilchester. The Great Western railway, now open throughout the to Bristol, where it is connected with the Bristol and Exeter whole line, enters the county near Bath, and runs by Bath railway. border of this county. The Bristol and Exeter railway The Box tunnel, near Bath, is close on the down and Broadfield down through the Nailsea coal-field, commences at Bristol, and runs south-west between Leigh where there is a short branch, to Weston-super-Mare; its course is then south by Bridgewater to Taunton, where it inclines to the south-west, and passes by Wellington into Devonshire. There is one tunnel just on the border of the county, under White Ball hill, between Wellington and Collumpton. This railway is open from Bristol to Bridge The Isle or Ile rises in the slope of an outlying chalk hill between Chard and Crewkerne, and flows north and north-east 15 or 16 miles into the Parret, through marshes which cover the lias formation. It passes near Ilminster, but not through it. The Yeo or Ivel rises amid the oolite border hills near Milborne Port; and flows south and south-west, and then north-west 11 miles, through a valley amid the oolite hills, past Sherborne in Dorsetshire to Yeovil, receiving several streams from the Dorsetshire chalk downs on the left bank. From Yeovil it flows 8 miles in a circuitous course north-north-west to Ivelchester or Ilchester, and from thence 7 miles west-water. north-west, making 26 miles in all, into the Parret at Langport. All this part of its course is through marshes, which cover the lias and new red-sandstone formations. The Tone rises in the southern slope of Brendon hill, and flows 10 miles south to the border of Devonshire; its course thus far is through the hills of the slate formation in which it rises. It then turns eastward and flows 23 miles through the new red-sandstone formations of the vale of Taunton, past the town of Taunton into the Parret. The Cary rises in the oolite border hills near Castle Cary, and flows westward through the lias and new red-sandstone, and through the marshes which cover them, into the Parret; its whole course is about 30 miles. The navigation of this system of rivers commences at Ilchester on the Yeo, which is navigable for 7 miles into the Parret at Langport; this is sometimes called the Ivelchester and Langport Canal. A little above Langport the navigation of the Parret commences, and continues to the mouth of that river. Ships of 200 tons can get up to Bridge-short-horns are also to be found in the dairies. The oxen water. The Tone is navigable from Taunton to its junction with the Parret ten or eleven miles. The Carey is not navigable. It was intended to make a canal from Morgan's Pill in the Avon six miles below Bristol, to the neighbourhood of Taunton, where it was to unite with the intended Grand Western Canal' from Exeter. branches, one to the coal-works at Nailsea, and one to AxThere were to be two bridge and Cheddar. The act was obtained, A.D. 1811, and the project taken up with apparent spirit; but thirteen years afterwards (A.D. 1824) another act was obtained, abandoning the greater part of the line, retaining only the portion between Bridgewater and Taunton, which has been made. A branch to Chard is in progress if not finished. The Grand Western Canal was designed to follow the valley of the Tone from the border of the county to Taunton. Acts were obtained A.D. 1796, 1811, and 1812, but the canal has and climate well suited to the growth of wheat and all the agricultural produce usually raised in any part of England. Agriculture. The county of Somerset possesses a soil The hills do not rise to any great height, and are mostly cultivated or in profitable pasture. There is a fair proportion of woodland without any extensive forests. In some of the vales, such as the extensive vale of Taunton, the soil is of a rich nature, and the wheat which is produced there is of superior quality, so as to be much sought after for sowing in other parts of the country. cheese are made where the land is better adapted to pasExcellent butter and ture. The Cheddar cheese, which, from its superior quality, county, is reckoned by many to be the best cheese made in gives its name to a great portion of the cheese made in the England, from pure milk without any addition of cream: the real Cheddar cheese is consequently scarce, and bought up as soon as it is made. The cows are mostly of the Devon breed; but many fatted are either Devons or Herefords and short-horns. Down breeds, with crosses between these and the Cotswold extensive hop-gardens; nor is there much cider made, al- |