In the reign of James II.  Somerset was the soil upon which was fought the last battle that has taken place in England.  In 1680, the Duke of Monmouth, in the course of a tour through the county, greatly ingratiated himself with its people; and at Whitelackington held a great reception under a gigantic chestnut tree, which was standing as recently as 1897, when it was unfortunately blown down.  When in 1685 Charles II. died, and Monmouth made his attempt to disturb the succession of James, it was to Somerset that he looked for support.  After landing at Lyme, he entered the county at Chard, and passing through Ilminster, was proclaimed king at Taunton and Bridgwater.  From the latter town (where he had stayed at the castle), he started on his luckless campaign, which was wholly confined within the borders of Somerset.  He proceeded through Glastonbury (where some of his troops bivouacked in the Abbey), Wells, and Shepton Mallet, intending to attack Bristol, but at Keynsham he turned aside on finding the city defended by the Duke of Beaufort.  He threatened Bath, but it refused to surrender; and he thereupon retired to Norton St Philip, intending to enter Wilts.  There he had a skirmish with the advanced guard of the royal forces which had marched from London to meet him; and shirking a more general engagement, he withdrew to Frome.  The townspeople of Frome, like those of Taunton and Bridgwater, gave him their sympathy, but nothing else; and disappointed at the lack of support, and wearied with his march along miry roads in drenching rain, he abandoned the advance into Wiltshire.  A report that a rising in his favour had taken place at Axbridge decided him to return to Bridgwater.  On the way he again passed through Wells, where some of his men tore the lead from the Cathedral roof to make bullets, and inflicted other damage on the building.  Soon after his arrival at Bridgwater, the royalist general, Feversham, with about 4000 troops, reached Weston Zoyland from Somerton, disposing some of his forces at the neighbouring villages of Middlezoy and Chedzoy.  As the royal troops were said to be in a state of disorder, Monmouth, who had about 6000 men, very badly armed, determined to attack him by night; and late on Sunday, July 5, he started from Bridgwater under cover of darkness.  But in the passage of some of the “rhines” which cut up the Sedgemoor plain a mismanaged pistol gave the alarm; and in the engagement that followed his ill-equipped followers, though they fought bravely, had little chance against the regulars, and more than 1000 of them fell on the field.  The battle had a sad sequel for Somerset.  James knew no clemency; and Jeffreys’ bloody assize left a crimson trail across the country, which even time found some difficulty in obliterating.  Macaulay estimates that the number of the rebels hanged by Jeffreys was 320, and though the assize extended into Hampshire, Dorset, and Devon, most of its victims were Somerset folk.  A certain poetic justice may