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Exe

(Encyclopedia)Exe ĕks [key], river, c.55 mi (90 km) long, rising in the Exmoor, Somerset, SW England, and flowing S across the Cornwall peninsula, past Exeter to the English Channel at Exmouth. Salmon and shellfis...

Athelney, Isle of

(Encyclopedia)Athelney, Isle of ăthˈəlnē [key], small area formerly surrounded by marshland, Somerset, SW England. King Alfred took refuge from the Danes there in 878 and founded a Benedictine abbey in 888. Rel...

Cheddar

(Encyclopedia)Cheddar, village, Somerset, SW England. It is chiefly a tourist center. Limestone is quarried, and strawberries are grown. Nearby Cheddar Gorge towers c.400 ft (120 m) high, with imposing limestone cl...

Camelot

(Encyclopedia)Camelot kămˈəlŏt [key], in Arthurian legend, the seat of King Arthur's court. The origin of the name is unknown. It has been variously located at Cadbury Camp, Somerset; Winchester; Camelford; and...

Mendip Hills

(Encyclopedia)Mendip Hills, range of hills, c.25 mi (40 km) long, across N Somerset, SW England, extending SE from the vicinity of Hutton to the Frome valley. Primarily limestone, the hills have numerous caves (Woo...

Baer, George Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Baer, George Frederick bâr [key], 1842–1914, American financier, b. Somerset co., Pa. Baer became legal adviser to J. Pierpont Morgan and held many posts as a key figure in the railroad-and-coal em...

Tunstall, Cuthbert

(Encyclopedia)Tunstall or Tonstall, Cuthbert both: tŭnˈstəl [key], 1474–1559, English bishop. After studying at Oxford, Cambridge, and Padua, he entered the church and was rapidly advanced. A friend of Thomas ...

Burghley, William Cecil, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Burghley or Burleigh, William Cecil, 1st Baron both: bûrˈlē [key], 1520–98, English statesman. He first rose to prominence during the protectorate of Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset, and he serv...

Somerset, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Somerset. 1 City (1990 pop. 10,733), seat of Pulaski co., S Ky., in a farm, coal, and limestone area of the Cumberland foothills; inc. 1810. A railroad center, it has agriculture (tobacco, corn, wheat...

Avalon

(Encyclopedia)Avalon ăvˈəlŏn [key], in Celtic mythology, the blissful otherworld of the dead. In medieval romance it was the island to which the mortally wounded King Arthur was taken, and from which it was exp...
 

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