GLASTONBURY ABBEY. 99 
the dust,” I cannot help thinking that those of 
the present day are in some danger of doubting the 
existence of the inscription, because in the course 
of twelve or thirteen hundred years, some dust has 
collected upon it; and it appears to me that they 
will be more likely to arrive at the real meaning of 
the letters by carefully removing as much of the 
dust asthey can, than by refraining to look at it all. 
This is the course which has been pursued by 
the learned historian of the Anglo Saxons, Mr. 
Sharon Turner, who has shewn in the treatise ap- 
pended to his valuable history, that in the writings 
of the Welsh bards, some of whom were probably ac- 
tually contemporaries of king Arthur, he is repre- 
sented as a very different person from the fabulous 
hero of the Morte d’Arthur,—not as a knight errant 
following the guest of the holy Sangreal,—nor, “ girt 
with British and Armoric knights,” holding high 
festivals of theround table at Caerleon or Camalet, 
and, in a manner somewhat inconsistent with his 
character as the champion of Christendom, receiv- 
ing aid from the mighty enchanter, Merlin; but 
simply as a gallant prince and warrior, striving to 
the death against the Saxons, at once the ruthless 
invaders of his country, and the bloody persecutors 
of his faith. 
Nor is there really the smallest improbability 
in his being buried at Glastonbury; for if he 
died on the banks of the river Camal,—and that 
a desperate and prolonged contest did take place 
30 
