KING ARTHUR’S CAMELOT.
This is the story the people of the country-side have been telling from time out of memory. Very learned men have disputed their facts and warred and wrangled over great Arthur’s history, and you must please yourself which side you take, but this is a story of Cadbury Castle, which tradition holds was King Arthur’s Camelot, where that famous hero:
“ ... kept his Court Royall
with his fair Queen, Dame Guinevere the gay:
And many bold Barons, sitting in hall
With ladies attired in purple and pall....”
And it was here, too, that was installed the immortal Round Table, with the chivalrous knights that sat about it.
You will find this Camelot a mile or two from Sparkford station, between Castle Cary and Yeovil, on the main line from Paddington to Weymouth. It is a great rounded hill seared with ancient ramparts and ditches, and crowned by a mound which was King Arthur’s palace.
They will tell you that Cadbury Castle is slowly sinking into the earth; that at one time it was vastly bigger. But they will tell you, too, that King Arthur has not forgotten his old home, and that he and his knights may often be seen galloping round the old fortifications on moonlight nights, mounted on gallant chargers shod with silver shoes.