GLASTONBURY GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 



493 



tradition," observes Mr Southey, "may seem the 

 more deserving of credit, because it is not contra- 

 dicted in those ages when other churches woulc 

 have found it profitable to advance a similar pre- 

 tension." There can, indeed, be no doubt that 

 this tradition was one of the great causes of the 

 high patronage and rich endowments which the 

 abbey possessed from a very early period: and we 

 may rest assured, that if in behalf of any other 

 church in England an equal claim could have been 

 advanced to the assumption of such titles as those 

 conferred on Glastonbury, as "the first ground oi 

 God;" "the first ground of the saints in England," 

 and " the rise and fountain of all religion in Eng- 

 land," such a manifest advantage never would have 

 been conceded to this establishment without many 

 a struggle. Other accounts say that the abbey 

 really owed its origin to David, a British prelate, 

 in the fifth century, or to Ina, king of Wessex, 

 who began his reign in 689, and by whom, accord- 

 ing to William of Malmesbury, the monastery was 

 erected and adorned with great splendour, and at 

 a vast expense, and also richly endowed and fa- 

 voured with various franchises and privileges, to 

 which additions were made by several succeeding 

 monarchs and other benefactors. It was consti- 

 tuted one of the parliamentary mitred abbeys, and 

 the revenues, at its dissolution under Henry VIII., 

 amounted to 3508. 13s. 4d. A series of abbots, 

 sixty-one in number, presided here during a period 

 of nearly six centuries; and the last of them, Rich- 

 ard Whiting, though he surrendered the abbey, 

 was executed as a traitor, together with two of 

 the monks, for refusing to acknowledge the king's 

 supremacy. Many illustrious persons were in- 

 terred in the church of this monastery, among 

 whom is supposed to have been the famous king 

 Arthur, whose tomb, with a Latin inscription, is 

 stated, by Giraldus Cambrensis, to have been dis- 

 covered here in the reign of Henry II. Some fine 

 ruins of the abbey church are still remaining, as 

 likewise a building called the Abbot's Kitchen ; 

 and a tower on a hill, near the town, named Glas- 

 tonbury Tor, a noted sea-mark for ships sailing in 

 the Bristol channel. The foundation plot upon 

 which the Glastonbury abbey and its immense 

 range of offices were erected, included a space of 

 not less than sixty acres, and was surrounded on 

 all sides by a lofty wall of wrought freestone. The 

 principal building, the great abbey-church, con- 

 sisted of a nave of 220 feet in length, and 45 in 

 breadth; a choir of 155 feet; and a transept of 

 nearly 160 feet; and with the chapel of St Joseph 

 of Arimathea, which stood at its west end, 110 

 feet in length by 24 in breadth, its extreme length 

 measured the vast extent of 530 feet. Adjoining 

 the church on the south side, was a noble cloister, 

 forming a square of 220 feet. The church con- 

 tained five chapels, St Edgar's, St Mary's, St 

 Andrew's, the chapel of Our Lady of Loretto, and 

 the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. Under the 

 body of the church were three large crypts, sup- 

 ported by two rows of massive pillars, in which 

 lay entombed the remains of many of the most il- 

 lustrious personages, and under St Joseph's Chapel 

 was another large and handsome crypt, having, 

 in one of its angles, an arched passage, which is 

 said to have been traced for a considerable distance 

 and supposed by some to have led to the Tor. 



On the south-west side of Glastonbury may be 

 seen Weary-all Hill, which is supposed to have 

 taken its name from a belief instilled into the 



minds of the ignorant in former days, that here St 

 Joseph and his companions sat down, all weary 

 with their journey. From the stick also which 

 Joseph stuck in the ground on that occasion, 

 though then only a dry hawthorn staff, they say 

 sprang the famous Glastonbury Thorn, which blos- 

 soms every year at Christmas. The tree, which 

 was considered the original stock, had, in the time 

 of Queen Elizabeth, two trunks, or bodies, when 

 a puritan exterminated one of them. The other, 

 which was of the size of a common man, was still 

 an object of wonder and attraction, and the blos- 

 soms were esteemed such curiosities by people of 

 all nations, that the Bristol merchants made a 

 traffic of them, in exporting them to foreign parts. 

 In the great rebellion, during the time of Charles 

 I., the remaining trunk of this tree was also cut 

 down, but others derived from it then existed. 

 Absurd as is the account of the origin of this thorn, 

 still there can be no doubt that it is an early var- 

 iety of the common hawthorn, and has the pro- 

 perty of sometimes flowering in December. Dr 

 Maton says, "I have never seen the Glastonbury 

 Thorn in fructification, but all the botanists who 

 have examined it in that state, agree that it is no 

 other than the common Cratcegus monogyna. It is 

 a fact, however, that the shrub here flowers two 

 or three months before the ordinary time, and 

 sometimes as early as Christmas-day, O.S., whence 

 I conjecture it must be at least a variety of the 

 above species, which may have been introduced 

 originally by some pilgrim or other from the east." 

 An intelligent correspondent of the Gardener's 

 Magazine thus writes on this subject: " The un- 

 satisfactory, and even contradictory, statements 

 which occur in various works, both on systematic 

 botany and on horticulture, respecting the Glaston- 

 bury Thorn, induce me to trouble you with this 

 communication. Not that I consider myself able 

 to give you full and satisfactory information on the 

 subject, but I hope, at least to be enabled, from 

 very long residence in the neighbourhood, to de- 

 scribe with accuracy whatever is known with cer- 

 tainty at Glastonbury about the plant in question. 

 The popish legend about the staff of Joseph of 

 Arimathea, I may be permitted to pass over in 

 silence, and, therefore, come at once to the thorn- 

 tree now standing within the precincts of the an- 

 cient abbey of Glastonbury ; for there can be no 

 doubt, that from this tree and its forefathers, (the 

 present one being of great age,) all others of the 

 kind had been propagated by budding or grafting. 

 The most remarkable peculiarity of this tree, and 

 in those descended from the same stock, is the 

 time of flowering: it is now (December 31, 1832,) 

 in blossom, and I transmit you a specimen for ex- 

 amination; it will again blossom in the month of 

 May, and from these latter flowers fruit will be 

 produced." 



The parish of Glastonbury, which is divided 

 into the two parishes of Glastonbury-St-Bene- 

 dict, and Glastonbury-St-John, in the county of 

 Somersetshire, contained in 1841, a population of 

 3314. 



GLIADINE ; the adhesive, elastic principle of 

 ^luten and birdlime, a substance found in all kinds 

 of grain and leguminous seeds. It is very prone 

 to fermentation, and when undergoing that change 

 causes fermentescible fluids to ferment. It is the 

 chief ingredient of yeast or ferment. 



GLOUCESTERSHIRE; an inland county of 

 England, bounded on the north-west by Hereford- 



