an ancient town in Somersetshire, from whence the county derives its name. It is 123 miles from London; it has five streets, containing 25 houses, which are mostly built of the blue stone from the quarries in the neighbourhood. It is governed by constables, and has a hall for petty sessions. The mar- SONNAMBULI, persons who walk in their sleep.

SONNER, WILLIAM, an eminent English antiquary, was born at Canterbury in 1626. His first treatise was The Antiquities of Canterbury, which he dedicated to Archbishop Laud. He then applied himself to the study of the Saxon language; and having made himself master of it, he perceived that the old glossary prefixed to Sir Roger Twysden's edition of the laws of King Henry I, printed in 1644, was faulty in many places; he therefore added to that edition notes and observations valuable for their learning, with a very useful glossary. His Treatise of Gavelkind was finished about 1638, though not published till 1660. Our author was zealously attached to King Charles I, and in 1648 he published a poem on his sufferings and death. His skill in the Saxon tongue led him to inquire into most of the European languages ancient and modern. He assisted Dugdale and Dodsworth in compiling the Monasicon Anglicum. His Saxon Dictionary was printed at Oxford in 1659. He died in 1669.