out trees or shrubs, and previously to its partial cultivation, was an ancient and extensive rabbit warren ; but a considerable portion of the warren, has been of late years enclosed and cultivated. This high neck of land is full of vestiges of EARTH WORKS, from one extremity to the other, and has evidently been strongly fortified at some very remote period; probably, from its remaining tumuli, by the Britons; and subsequently by the Romans, Saxons, and Danes, who are all supposed to have successively occupied it, from the various fragments of ancient pottery which are constantly turned up by the plough. The whole Down was divided into three parts, by two broad and deep trenches, which apparently formed an outer and an inner encampment, the latter occupying about one third of the surface at its western extremity. On the rocks are found whelks, nerita or sea snail, patella or limpet, and other shell fish; large quantities of samphire are gathered for pickling by the country people, who afterwards send it to the inland towns for sale. About five miles from the north western termination of Brean Down, is the STEEP HOLM, whose summit rises 400 feet above the level of the Channel. It was called by the Saxons, Steopan Reorie, or “Reed Island." It is a rock of about a mile and a half in circumference, and in many places over-hangs the water; it is inaccessible, except by two narrow passages, very difficult of access, rising from the small pebbly beach on its north eastern and south western sides. The summit is a sandy unfruitful soil, bearing little grass or any other vegetables, except those which seem peculiar to such situations. The single peony is indeginous upon the rock, and there is a considerable quantity of privet, ivy, and some elder. A few rabbits contrive to exist on the rock, whose fur is of a redder cast than rabbits usually have. The vast number of sea birds, who resort to the ledges and crevices of the rocks, for the purpose of incubation, afford amusement to the fowler; the eggs being sometimes collected as a source of profit. On the summit of this solitary island, a small tenement was erected in the year 1776, for the convenience of the fishermen, who, on attending their nets pitched here, have been detained for several days, in tempestuous weather. It is the point of division, between the counties of Somerset, Gloucester, and Bristol; and upon it, one of its former possessors, Maurice, the third Lord Berkeley, built a small endowed priory in 1320, but no remains of it are now visible. This island has frequently formed a refuge, either from persecution or the arm of justice. It was on this solitary rock, that GILDAS BARDONICUS, the celebrated British historian and philosopher, found, for a time, an asylum during the desolating conflicts between the Picts, Scots, and Saxons; and here it was that he composed his querimonious treatise, "De Excidio Britanniæ." Here he hoped to enjoy uninterrupted retirement; but his hopes were disappointed, as he was frequently intruded on by pirates, who made this island the place of their retreat. For some time he endured their insolence with patience, but at length was compelled to take refuge in the abbey of Glastonbury, where he was well received, and where he ended his days. Leland, in his curious account of Gildas, writes thus, " he preached every Sunday in a church by the sea shore, which stands in the country of Pebidiane, in the time of King Trifunus; an innumerable multitude hearing him. He always wished to be a faithful subject to King Arthur. His brothers, however, rebelled against that King, unwilling to endure a master. Hueil, the eldest, was a perpetual warrior and most famous soldier, who obeyed no king, not even Arthur himself. The term of a year being ended, and his scholars retiring from study, the Abbot St. Cadoc, and the excellent Doctor Gildas, went to two islands, Romuth and Echin; Cadoc entered the one nearest to Wales, (Flat Holm,) and Gildas the other nearest to England, (Steep Holm.)" In 1067, Githa, the mother of Harold, the last of the Saxon Kings, retired to the Steep Holm, accompanied by the wives of many Saxon noblemen, or thanes, soon after the death of her son at the fatal battle of Hastings; they remained in security on the island, until a favorable opportunity offered for their departure to St. Omer's in Flanders. Here also it was that the Danes, who frequently infested these parts of the kingdom, took refuge, after they had been signally defeated at Watchet; and being reduced to great misery, many of them were cut off by famine, and the remainder sailed for Ireland. THE FLAT HOLM is about three miles to the northward of the Steep Holm. This island is about a mile and a half in circumference, with a good farm house and inn, nearly in the centre, surrounded by a dairy farm of sixty acres, the land bearing good crops, and abounding with burnet, wild thyme, and other aromatic plants. The Flat Holm is a favorite place of resort in summer, being in itself pleasing, and commanding a delightful prospect of the Bristol channel, and of the coast on each side, for more than sixty miles in length. The inn affords good accommodation, and is occasionally honored by a visit from the corporation of Bristol, who combine an agreeable aquatic excursion from the city, with the exercise of their judicial rights, which extend aɛ far into the channel as this island. There is good bathing upon the pebbly beach, which at low water extends round the island, strewed with fragments of rock that have fallen from the cliffs, covered with whelks and limpets, and the common kelp-weed, which is in great abundance in the little pools of water; great numbers of sea anemonies, of different kinds, are left by the falling of the tide on the beach, and on the south side are found large tubulated ones, which, when open, are six inches in diameter. In some places also the green and brown confervæ are met with. Also many species of fuci, and some of the corraline or serpularia. On the highest point of this island, is a LIGHT HOUSE, eighty feet in height, standing within 50 yards of the south east edge of the cliffs; and having been, within these few years, fitted up as a revolving light, it presents a pleasing object in the evening from Weston, twinkling like a star, at the interval of a few seconds. At spring tides, the water rises full 36 feet at this island. There is a remarkable well of fresh water here, which, when the sea ebbs, is filled, but when it flows becomes empty; and there is a similar one at Weston, not far from the church. OLDMIXON.-HUTTON, Manor Court House, Brent Family, OLDMIXON is an ancient village between Uphill and Hutton. It gave the designation to a family of the same name; one member of which, John Oldmixon, is well known as the author of H |