ut in the days of the
Saxons the river Parrett was the frontier of Wessex, and one of its
districts sheltered Alfred from the first onset of the Danish invasion
when he retreated to the fastnesses of the Isle of Athelney. In the
epoch of the Normans and in the Civil War there was fighting all along
the Parrett. After the defeat at Naseby the Royalists, under Lord
Goring, on July 10, 1645, met their foes on the bank of the Parrett,
near Langport, were defeated and put to flight, losing fourteen thousand
prisoners, and the king's troops never made a stand afterwards.
Bridgwater is a quiet town of about twelve thousand people on the
Parrett, a half dozen miles from the sea, and in its churchyard reposes
Oldmixon, who was made collector of customs here as a reward for his
abusive writings, in the course of which he virulently attacked Pope.
The poet retorted by giving Oldmixon a prominent place in the _Dunciad_,
where at a diving-match in the putrid waters of Fleet Ditch, which
"rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to the Thames," the heroes are
bidden to "prove who best can dash through thick and thin, and who the
most in love of dirt excel." And thus the Bridgwater collector:

"In naked majesty Oldmixon stands,
And Milo-like surveys his arms and hands,
Then sighing thus, 'And am I now threescore?
And why ye gods should two and two make four?'
He said, and climbed a stranded lighter's height.
Shot to the black abyss, and plunged downright."

In the Market Inn at Bridgwater Admiral Blake was born, who never held a
naval command until past the age of fifty, and then triumphed over the
Dutch and the Spaniards, disputing Van Tromp's right to hoist a broom at
his masthead, and burned the Spanish fleet in the harbor of Santa Cruz.
He was buried in Westminster Abbey, but Charles II. ejected his bones.
Bridgwater is now chiefly noted for its bath bricks, made of a mixture
of clay and sand deposited near there by the tidal currents.

[Illustration: SEDGEMOOR, FROM COCK HILL.]

[Illustration: WESTON ZOYLAND CHURCH.]

It was from the Bridgwater church tower that the unfortunate son of
Charles II. and Lucy Walters, who had been proclaimed "King Monmouth,"
looked out upon the grassy plains towards the eastward before venturing
the last contest for the kingdom. This view is over Sedgemoor, the scene
of the last fight deserving the name of a battle that has been fought on
British ground. It is a long tract of morass lyi