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MYTHS, SCENES, AND WORTHLES OF SOMERSET. fll^tbs, Scenes, SL Worthies of Somerset. BY MRS. E. BOGER. lionrtoit : GEORGE REDWAY, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. MDCCCLXXXVII. deification* THIS ATTEMPT TO KEEP GREEN THE MEMORY OF WORTHY DEEDS DONE BY SONS OF SOMERSET, IS DEDICATED, BY KIND PERMISSION, TO LORD ARTHUR CHARLES HERVEY, LORD BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS, BY THE AUTHOR. Preface. The author has somewhat departed from her original intention of making a collection of the myths and legends of Somerset. Unwittingly, fiction glided into fact, and the story developed into history, and it was found difficult, if not impossible, to define their respective limits. For in stance, though Arthur is an impalpable and shadowy per sonage, while Alfred is a most real and substantial one, yet the mingling of truth and fable in the story of each — as connected with Somerset — is only one of degree ; and even in later times, myth is so entertwined with the lives of St. Dunstan, of Sir John de Courcy, of Roger Bacon, &c, that, if one tries rudely to tear away the accretions of myth and fable, a maimed and distorted picture is all that is left.
Among the legends of Saints are some of rare beauty, full of earnest thought and quaint suggestiveness. It has been endeavoured to show that, instead of being — as they are generally and conveniently classed, with a charming sim plicity as — the " lying inventions of the monks," they are in most cases but the loving exaggerations of a simple age, to which every unexplained wonder was a miracle. Some of the articles may be thought to be of undue length ; but St. Dunstan is a character so strangely mis represented in most histories, that the author was anxious to prove incontestably his claim to be one of the worthiest of the worthies of Somerset ; again, as to the unhappy Duke of Monmouth, though the story of his rebellion is of necessity taken chiefly from Macaulay, the story of his quasi-royal
Preface
. VIII progress is little known, and Macaulay studiously omits any palliating or softening circumstance in the terrible record of the battle of Sedgmoor and the Bloody Assize. There is no excuse to offer for the arbitrary way in which the subjects are selected, but a record extending from the ninth century B.C. to the nineteenth a.d. could not by any possibility be exhaustive ; as many more myths could be selected, and as many more worthies found, as those herein recorded, if the public chooses to demand them. One or two articles promised in the prospectus will be missed, but as it is, the allotted space has been largely exceeded. There is only left the pleasant task of thanking those who have so courteously helped the author with advice, encouragement, information, and — not the least valuable — kindly criti cism.
Among these are the Rev. G. G. Perry, Canon of Lincoln; the Rev. H. T. Perfect, Rector of Stanton Drew; the Rev. G. J. Gowring, Vicar of Whitelackington; the Rev. C. R. Tate, Rector of Trent ; the Rev. W. Hunt, Vicar of Congresbury ; the Rev. S. A. Hervey, Vicar of Wedmore ; the Rev. S. O. Baker, Vicar of Muchelney ; the Rev. W. Hook, Rector of Porlock ; the Rev. R. B. Poole, Vicar of Ilton ; the Rev. B. H. Wortham, Rector of Eggesford, and the Rev. Edmund Wyndham ; also Hugh Norris, Esq., of South Petherton, Edward Walford, Esq., Arthur Kinglake, Esq., St. David Kemeys - Tynte, Esq., J. H. Pring, Esq., and, one who has already passed away, the late Mr. Edward Solly. To each and all, and to those whose names by any chance may have been omitted, cordial thanks are given, with a sincere wish that the result were more worthy of their kind assistance. C. G. B. Content?. PACE
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