‘Thens to Cury-Malet a 3. Miles, wher is a Parke longging to Chambernoun of Devonshire.
I left this Parke a litle on the lift Hand, and sone after cam over a great Brook, that resith West South West, and rennith East North East into Ivel a 2. Miles above Michelborow by Estimation.
(Here I cam from the Hilly Ground to the Low and Marschy Ground of Somerseteshir.)
Thens to North Cury stille by low Ground aboute a 2. Miles or more. The Chirch of Welles hath fair Landes here.
And hereabout is Stoke Gregory, wher the Chirch of Welles hath Possessions.
Thens about a Mile to the Ripe of Thone Ryver, by the which I passed by the space of half a Mile, and then I went over Thone by a Wood Bridge.
Athelney lyith half a Mile lower on Thon, and ther is a Bridge of Wood to entre thabbay[39], and beneth that almost at the very Confluence of Thone and Ivel is another Wood Bridge over Thone.
Thonetoun alias Tawntoun is a 5. Miles by South West from Athelney.
Ther is a great Bridge on Thone at Basford a Mile lower then Thonetoun.
From this Bridge by Athelney I rode by a low Marsch Ground a 2. Miles to Pedertun Park.
Here at Pederton the soyle Westward and South West rysith agayn and ys not fenny.
There ys a great Numbre of Dere longging to this Park, yet hath it almost no other Enclosure but Dikes to let the Catelle of the Commune to cum yn.
The Dere trippe over these Dikes and feede al about the Fennes, and resort to the Park agayn. There is a praty Lodge moted yn the Parke.
There cummith a praty Broke thorough the Park, and half a Mile beneth the Park it goith ynto Ivel.
This Brooke is caullid Peder, and risith West South West yn the Hylles aboute a 2. Myles of. First it cummith by Noth Pedreton, a praty uplandisch Toun, wher is a fair Chirch, the Personage whereof was impropriate to Mynchin bocland.
Then it touchith on South Pederton, in the which Paroch the Parke standith, and so to the Ryver of Ivel.
From the Lodge in Pederton Parke to Northpedertun a Mile.
From Northpedertun to Bridgewater 2. Miles. The way or I cam ynto Bridgwater was caused with Stone more then half a Myle.’
Here we may observe that Leland appears to know of no river Parret; to him it was ‘Ivel.’ It would be curious to learn when and how a minor tributary gave its name of Parret to the lower waters of the Ivel. It may be surmised that Pedrida was never the name of a river, but of a belt of country, and that it may have meant ‘the passage or ford of the Peder,’ Leland’s ‘praty broke.’ The name seems to contain the Welsh rhyd, a ford. At first it may have denoted the ford of the Peder, and then by natural extension it may have come to designate the whole fenland of the lower Ivel.
3. Racial differences were still seen and felt. The West Welsh had been conquered, and were now living in peaceful subjection, and forming an outlying part of the kingdom of Wessex; but still they were imperfectly assimilated.
The old internecine quarrel between the races had in this western land been hushed and calmed; and on no other border were the British living and mingling with their conquerors on such amicable terms. There was a very great difference between the disposition of the West Welsh towards the Saxon and that of the ‘North Welsh’ on the opposite coast of the Severn Sea.
These pacific relations were not of recent date; they appear as a deliberate policy in the reign of Ina before the end of the seventh century, and even earlier indications of this tendency may be gleaned which carry us back two hundred years behind the reign of Alfred.
When in 665, Wina[40], bishop of Winchester, consecrated Ceadda (St. Chad), he had with him two British bishops as his assistants. These two bishops must have belonged to the West Welsh. Further, there is reason to believe that Ceadwalla, though descended from Cerdic, and king of Wessex, was half a Briton. Again: the legendary tales about Ina’s legislation which are embodied in the so-called Laws of Edward the Confessor, however unhistorical, have possibly a traditional value as characterizing the attitude of Wessex towards her British subjects in the seventh and eighth centuries. In this apocryphal text it is said that by Ina’s enactment ‘the British were declared politically equal with the English, and that as he himself had set the example of a Welsh marriage, so he would that connubium between the two races should be legally recognized.’ These are distorted reminiscences of the historical fact that Ina maintained a conciliatory policy towards the conquered British, and in this course he was well supported or perhaps guided by Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury, who in 704 was requested by a synod to write a letter to Gerontius (Geraint), king of Damnonia, and exhort him and his people to conformity with Catholic usage in the time of keeping the Easter festival. The letter was sent, and it is still extant. It is addressed, in respectful and courteous language—‘To the most glorious prince, swaying the sceptre of the Western realm, whom I, the searcher of the heart is my witness, do embrace with brotherly charity—to king Geraint and to all God’s priests dwelling in Damnonia, Aldhelm, &c.[41]’
And when, shortly afterwards, Hædde, bishop of Winchester, died, and the moment had arrived for the long-contemplated division of the vast diocese of Wessex, Aldhelm became bishop ‘to the west of the wood,’ over a province which (as Ethelwerd tells us) was commonly called Selwoodshire. Aldhelm died in 709 upon one of his episcopal journeys, at the village of Doulting on the western brow of Mendip, between Wells and Frome. His memory has been locally revived in the present century by the discovery of a small Saxon church in Bradford-on-Avon, which has been identified by competent judges with the ecclesiola which William of Malmesbury says that Aldhelm built in that place. To him was probably due the preservation of the British monastery at Glastonbury and its endowment by king Ina.
That spot was dear to the British patriot as the mysterious sojourn of their hero, who in due time was to return and revive the ancient glory of the British name. The extant books in which this legend is recorded are later than the time of Alfred, but the romance itself is of the sixth century. Our oldest English form of it is of about a.d. 1200.
THE PASSING OF ARTHUR
(From Laȝamon’s Brut, line 28,582.)