GLASSWORT 



GLAUBER 



249 



(lUNNWOrt (Siitii-ni-iiin), a genus of Cln-no 



Iiodiacen- of which one species (X. /in-lim-m ), a leaf- 

 688 plant with jointed stems, i.s common in salt- 

 marshes in Itritain. It makes a good picklt- or 

 antiscorbutic salad. Several species grow abun- 

 dant l\ on tin- shores of tin- Mediterranean, ami, 

 as they contain a large quantity of soda, were 

 formerly of ini]M>rtance in making barilltt, along 

 with the species of S.-ili \vort (q.v.). 



Cilustoilhliry, an ancient municipal borough of 

 Somersetshire, lies, engirt hy the river Brue, amid 

 orchards and level pastures once fen-land at the 

 foot of the conical tower-crowned Tor ( 500 feet ), 6 

 miles hy rail SS\V. of Wells, and .% S. of Bristol. 

 The Celtic Ynysvitrin, the Avalon of Arthurian 

 legend, and the GltKstingaburh or Ghi'stings' 

 borough of the West Saxons, it was hither, says 

 William of Malmt^lnirv, that Joseph of Arimathea 

 calm- hearing the Holy (Jrail, here tliat he founded 

 the first Christian church in Britain. On Weary- 

 all Hill he planted his pilgrim's staff; it took root, 

 and grew into the Holy Thorn, which blossomed 

 miraculously every Old Christmas-eve until it was 

 cut down by a Puritan. [Grafts from it flourish 

 still ; one at Sutton Poyntz, near Weymouth, duly 

 blossomed on the night of the 5th January 1884 in 

 presence of 250 persons.' It is the Cratoegus pnecox 

 of botanists.] Certain at least it is that, unlike 

 Canterbury or York or London, ' Glastonbury was 

 the one church of the first rank in England which 

 stood as a memorial of British 'lays, the only one 

 which had lived unscathed through the storm of 

 English conquest.' For the wattled basilica, which 

 contained the grave of a St Patrick and of Gildas, 

 was in (t'M encased by Paulinus of York in boards 

 and lead ; and to the east of it in 719 King Ine 

 reared the great church of SS. Peter and Paul. 



The Abbot's Kitchen, Glastonbury. 



This, spoiled by the Danes, was the abl>ey re- 

 founded by St Dunstan (q.v.) about 94(>, and 

 became the sepulchre of Kings Edmund, Edgar, 

 and Edmund Ironside, if not indeed of Dunstan 

 himself, of Joseph of Arimathea, or of Arthur and 

 Guinevere. It had just l>een rebuilt when in 1184 

 the whole pile was consumed by fire ; and the 

 splendid minster, 528 feet long, then undertaken 

 by Henry II., was not dedicated till 1303. In l.V 



kichard Whiting, the last of its mitred abbot*, wan 

 hanged on the Tor by Henry VIII. ; and the ruin* 

 of this great Benedictine house, which had covered 

 60 acres, are now comparatively scanty, having 

 long iM'en the quarry of the district. Yet utill on 

 the site of the ' Vetusta Ecclesia ' stands the roof- 

 less chapel of Our Lady or St Joseph, a fine 

 example of Transition Norman, with it- 15th- 

 century crypt ; still there is the massive stone 

 Ablxits Kitchen (14th century), 33J feet square, 

 and 72 high, with its four huge fireplaces and 

 pyramidal roof. Apart from its abbey and it- 

 two parish churches, one of which has a noble 

 tower 140 feet high, Glastonbury is a quaint, old- 

 world place, a very store of domestic antiquities, 

 with the 15th-century Pilgrims' Inn (now the 

 'Ci-orge'), the Tribunal, and the Abbot's Ham. 

 Sharpham, 2 miles south-west, was Fielding's 

 birthplace. Sheepskins, mats, rugs, gloves, and 

 pottery are manufactured. Pop. ( 1851 ) 3325 ; 

 (1891) 4119. A lake-dwelling was uncovered here 

 in 1895. See GRAIL, ARTHUR ; the Rev. R. Willis's 

 Architectural History of Glastonbury Abbey (1866); 

 Freeman's English Towns and Districts (1883); 

 Gasquet, The Last Abbot of Glastonbury (1895). 



Glatigny, ALFRED, a 15th-century French 

 strolling-player, who died young, having written 

 poems somewhat like those of Villon. 



<lul/. (Czech Kladsko), a manufacturing town 

 of Prussian Silesia, situated between two fortified 

 hills, on the Neisse, 58 miles by rail SSW. of 

 Breslau. Pop. ( 1875) 12,553; (1895) 14,151. During 

 the Thirty Years' and the Seven Years' Wars Glatz 

 was frequently taken. 



Glauber, JOHANN RUDOLPH, a German al- 

 chemist and physician, was born at Karlstadt, in 

 Franconia, in 1603 or 1604, and died at Amsterdam 

 in 1668. No details regarding his life are known, 

 except that he resided at Vienna, Salzburg, Frank - 

 fort-on-the-Main, and Cologne, from whence in 

 1648 he removed probably to Amsterdam. Al- 

 though a believer in the philosopher's stone and 

 in the elixir vita?, he contributed very mate- 

 rially to the progress of chemistry. In 1648 he 

 discovered hydrochloric acid whilst experiment- 

 ing with oil of vitriol and common salt ; he was 

 probably the first to procure nitric acid ; and his 

 name has been transmitted in Glauber's Salt, 

 which he likewise discovered. His treatises were 

 published at Amsterdam in 7 vols., 1661 ; and an 

 English translation was printed by Packe at London 

 in 1689. 



GLAUBER'S SALT is the popular name of the 

 neutral sulphate of soda whose chemical composition 

 is represented by the formula Na,SO 4 + 101 LO. 

 It occurs in long four-sided translucent prisms, 

 terminated by dihedral summits, and containing 

 ten atoms of water. On exposure to the air, the 

 crystals lose all their water, and l>ecome resolved 

 into a white powder. When heated they readily 

 melt in their water of crystallisation ; and, if the 

 heat is sufficiently continued, the whole of the 

 water is expelled, and the anhydrous salt remains. 

 Glauber's salt has a cooling,' bitter, and saltish 

 taste ; it is readily soluble in water; its solubility 

 (in the ordinary crystalline form) increasing up 

 to 92", when it appears to undergo a molecular 

 change, and to l converted into the anhydrous 

 salt, which at this temperature is less soluble than 

 the hydrated compound, and separates in minute 

 crystals. Claulx-rs salt is a constituent of many 

 mineral waters ( as at Carlsbad and Cheltenham ), 

 and is found also as an efflorescence about saline 

 lakes in some parts of the United States; and it 

 occurs in small quantity in the hhxxl and other 

 animal fluids. 



The anhydrous salt is prepared in enormous 



