8 ELEVENTH ANN UAL MEETING. 



Under the guidance of the ßev. F. Warre the Company 

 then proceeded to visit the Abbey, the Abbot's lütchen, 

 Almshouses, Barn, &c. 



The Rev. F. Warre gave a lecture on the ruins of the 

 Abbey, very much to the same purport as the paper which 

 he pubHshed in the Proceedings of this Society for 1851. 

 He mentioned the tradition respecting Joseph of Arima- 

 thea, but dld not attach much importance to it, as he 

 thought there was a want of sufficient evidence of its truth. 

 Another tradition, that St. Paul himself had preached on 

 this spot, he thought more probable, as there is strong 

 reason to believe that he came to Britain, the extreme 

 west of the Roman empire ; and there is good reason to 

 believe that at Glastonbury was one of the earliest Chris- 

 tian Settlements in England. St. Patrick is said to have 

 retired here with a party of monks about A.D. 533. The 

 populär belief that King Ai-thur was buried here, whether 

 well founded or not, shews that this was considered the 

 most fitting place. Paulinus, Archblshop of York, is said 

 to have rebuilt the church of timber, covered with lead, 

 in A.D. 630, and King Ina to have again rebuilt it in 

 the most sumptuous manner in 708. This church was 

 destroyed by the northern pirates, and another church and 

 monastery built by St. Dunstan, in A.D. 942 — 944. By 

 this tlme, from successive grants, the Abbey had attained 

 great wealth and importance, and was considered the 

 riebest foundation in England. St. Dunstan's Church is 

 distinctly recorded to have been of wood plated with gold, 

 which probably means ornamented with gllding, and it is 

 mentioned as of wood in a charter of the time of Edward 

 the Confessor. During the reigns of the first two Norman 

 kings the Abbey was a scene of perpetual strife and 

 slaughter, and no new building seems to have been erected. 



