BUCKLAND (ST-MARY), a parish partly in the
southern division of the hundred of PETHERTON, and
partly in the hundred of MARTOCK, hut chiefly in the
hundred of ABDICK-and-BULSTONE, county of SOMERSET,
6 miles (W. by S.) from Ilminster, containing 565
inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry
of Taunton, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated
in the king's books at £ 12.19.9., andin the patronage
of Mrs. Popham. The churchyard contains a mutilated
stone cross. A fair for cattle and toys is held on the
Wednesday and Thursday next after September 20th.
Various relics of warfare have been found in the neighbourhood,
which was the scene of some sanguinary conflicts
between the Saxons and the Danes: on the edge
of Blackdown hill are the remains of a Roman fortification,
called Neroche Castle; and on the summit of the
same ridge, a little further on, by the side of the road
leadingto Chard, there is a huge collection of flint stones,
lying in heaps upwards of sixty yards in circumference,
styled Robin Hood's Butts, and supposed to be the rude
sepulchral memorials of warriors who fell in battle.