CHAPTER XXII.
SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN COUNTIES.
WE can trace the expansion of the older settlements in the south-western counties. Somersetshire obtained its name from its original settlers, the Sumersætas. These, as the name implies, probably first formed summer settlements on its marshes, hill pastures, and in its forests. To have used these parts of the county for summer purposes at first the Sumersætas must have come almost wholly from Wiltshire and Dorset. Their pasturage places were probably of the same kind as the Scandinavian sæters or summer pasture houses, often many miles from the permanent homesteads, are at the present time. As the population increased the summer settlements became permanent, and in various portions of the country, as in the Vale of Taunton, immigrants from more distant parts were no doubt located. Somerset was not conquered by the West Saxons until after their conversion to Christianity, or at least until subsequently to the conversion of the royal house. This probably explains the continuous existence of Glastonbury and its abbey from the British period into that of the Saxons. A fusion of some of the British people with the Saxons went on in this county, and in this the influence of the abbey, whose estates were apparently—at least,in part—confirmed to it, must have been very considerable. This fusion probably explains Beddoe’s
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