PENSCELLWOOD, a parish in the hundred of
NORTON-FERRIS, county of SOMERSET, 3 miles (N-J?-)
from Wincanton, containing 332 inhabitants. The
living is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry ol
Wells, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the
king's books at £6. 14. 9., and in the patronage or
the Earl of Ilchester. The church is dedicated to bt.
Michael. On the site of an ancient Danish camp, "V?ISI
parish, a tower, one hundred and twenty feet in height
was erected, by an ancestor of Sir R. C. Hoare, Bart.,
to commemorate the celebrated visit of Alfred
Great, in the disguise of a minstrel, to the tent of
Guthrum, whom he afterwards defeated and converted
to Christianity, himself being sponsor at the font.