animals, now confined to distant countries, and much warmer climates.

These animals, together with "species supposed to be altogether extinct in the creation, probably lived and died in this region of the earth, at that period of the world's existence when the palm, the bamboo, and the large American fern, with other tropical plants, so abundant in our coal measure, were among the indigenous productions of our soil. The existence of these organic remains in caves and fissures, is comparatively a new feature in geology, and may be regarded as another ray of light to assist in guiding us to the source of truth."

We conclude our description of these most interesting caverns with the beautiful Lines of the REV. W. LISLE BOWLES, whose early days were spent at Uphill Parsonage.

SPIRIT and shadow of the ancient world,
Awake! Thou who hast slept four thousand
years,

Arise! For who can gaze upon this vault,
Strewn with the fragments of a former world,
Swept to destruction, but must pause to think
Of the mutations of the Globe; of Time,
Hurrying to onward spoil; of his own life,
Swift passing as a summer-cloud away;
Of HIM, who spoke and the dread storm went
forth!

Since then, these bones that strew the inmost

Where once a child I wandered: Oh! return,
(I sigh) "return a moment, days of youth,
"Of childhood,-oh, return!" How vain the
thought,

Vain as unworthy! yet sad Poesy
Unblam'd may dally with imaginings.
For this wide view is like the shadowy scene,
Once travers'd o'er with carelessness and glee,
And we look back upon the vale of years,
And hear remembered voices, and behold,
In blended colours, images and shades
Long pass'd, now rising, as at Memory's call,
Again in softer light.

There is the Church,

Crowning the high hill-top, which overlooks
BREAN-DOWN, where in its lonelier amplitude
Stretches into grey mist the Severn Sea.
There, mingled with the clouds, old Cambria
draws

Her line of mountains, fading far away;
There sit the sister Holms, in the mid-tide
Secure and smiling, though its vasty sweep,
As it rides by, might almost seem to rive
The deep foundations of the Earth again,
Might seem to scorn its limits, and ascend
In tempest to these heights, to bury there
Fresh welt'ring carcasses, and leave their bones
A spectacle for ages yet unborn,

To teach its sternest moral to the heart.

'Tis well we hear not the fleet wings of Time.
Enough, if while the summer day steals on,
We muse upon the wreck of ages past,
And own there is a God who rules the world.

Gents. Mag. May, 1828.

LOXTON, Church, Charitable Bequests.-CHRISTON, Court House, Church.-COMPTON BISHOP, Church, Crook Peak, Cross.-WINSCOMBE, Manor, Church, Charitable Bequest-Sidcott.-WEARE. -AXBRIDGE, Roman Rouds, Tessellated Pavement, (note) Corporation, Ancient Manuscript, Charters, Church, Charitable Bequests.-CHEDDAR, Manors, Church.-CHEDDAR CLIFFS.

LOXTON

is a village situated under Crook Peak, a remarkable eminence at the western extremity of the hill It is romantically placed on the slope of a rocky projection, both

M

steep and lofty. The cottages are built promiscuously on the craggy eminences; giving the place, at a distance, the appearance of a town in ruins.

Loxton contains 26 houses, 35 families, and 198 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the deanery of Axbridge. The Rev. D. S. Moncrieffe, incumbent. The rectory house is delightfully situated on the gentle slope of the hills, with extensive enclosed gardens, in which fuschias, myrtles, and other tender plants flourish throughout the year, in the open air.

LOXTON CHURCH

is a small irregular building, with evident marks of considerable antiquity. The pulpit is sculptured from one block of stone, into Gothic compartments of high relief. An antique oak screen, curiously carved, divides the chancel from the body of the building; the interior has recently been thoroughly repaired and neatly painted. Attached to the chancel is a vestry room, which was formerly a chapel, with a recess and drain for the consecrated water, still existing. On the floor are several very old tomb stones, two of them with crosses, and part of an ancient inscription in Saxon characters, that is not legible. In one corner of the porch is a curious recess, about eighteen inches square, guarded by an iron grating, and penetrating through the walls to the depth of six or eight feet; the use of which it is difficult to account for, unless it was intended to open a view of the altar to those who stood in the porch. The tower of this building is attached to the south side of the church, and the lower compartment of it forms the entrance. An old stone cross is remaining in the church yard, with an ascent of five rows of steps, leading to a shaft sixteen feet in height.

CHARITABLE BEQUEST.-MRS. ANN GADD, in 1765, gave by will 50l. to be lent out on the best security, the interest to be applied to teaching poor children of Loxton parish to read and knit. A poor woman is appointed, by

the present rector, to teach six or eight poor children to read and knit, for which she is paid 25s. half yearly, from the interest of this money.

LOXTON CAVE

lies about a mile to the south-east of Hutton, on the western flank of that fine gorge which separates Loxton Hill from Crook Peak; but as it was sadly despoiled of its beauties soon after its first discovery, about 80 years since, a brief summary, extracted by Mr. Williams from Dr. Catcott's unpublished manuscript, will suffice. It appears to have consisted of three chambers, leading into each other, beautifully and abundantly adorned with stalactites of various lengths and colours, pendant from the roofs and sides. In some places the incrustations assumed a serpentine and wavy form, curiously entwined along the slope of the roof and sides, being more or less tinged with green, red, or yellow, as the copper, iron, or ochre, predominated in the solution by the water, which percolated through it. In a lateral fissure from the middle cavern, were seen beautiful efflorescences, and incrustations of stalagmitic matter.

CHRISTON

is a small retired village, situated a short distance north of the road from Loxton to Compton Bishop.

THE COURT HOUSE

was a fine old mansion, standing west of the church. The greater portion of the building was taken down in 1822, and the remaining part is completely altered, being converted into a farm house. The original name of the manor was Chricheston, and it was possessed in the time of Henry II. by a family of the same name. After being subdivided into four parts of a knight's fee, which were held by a long list of possessors, it became again united in the reign of Edward VI. and was held by Francis Vaughan, esq. who either re-built or greatly embellished the ancient court

house; for in one of the remaining rooms is a carved oak mantel-piece, surmounted by the arms of Vaughan, with the date of 1674, on one side of which is a figure of justice with her balance, and on the other, peace with her olive branch. In front of the former mansion was a richly decorated porch, and over it a similar coat of arms, sculptured in stone; this now lies neglected in the enclosed garden; the latter still retains its ancient gravelled terrace, 64 yards in length. From the Vaughans, the manor came, by purchase, to the Smyths of Ashton Court, and from Lady Anne, relict of Sir Hugh Smyth, bart. it passed to the Gores of Barrow Court, the present possessors.

CHRISTON CHURCH

is a small building, having a low ancient tower between the chancel and the nave, but without transepts. The nave and chancel arches beneath the tower, are of Norman structure, as is the interior door-way in the porch, the latter being richly ornamented with the chevron moulding, though now much disfigured with white-wash. The font is plain and circular, of the Norman character. The roof is formed of ribs of oak, open to the leads, with a row of ornamented bosses down the centre.

On the old walls in this parish are some curious mosses, and in the meadows the meadow saffron, or autumnal crocus, (colchicum autumnale,) grows plentifully.

Christon contains 13 houses, as many families, and 57 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the deanery of Axbridge, and appendant to the manor.-Rev. William Truman, incumbent.

COMPTON-BISHOP,

or Compton-Magna, is two miles from Axbridge, pleasantly situated in a hollow, under the southern side of the Mendip Hills, and open to the extensive moors, which reach to Glastonbury and Wells. Soon after the conquest, it was