188 



THE HAWTHORN. 



hundred years old, which no doubt were either 

 grafts, or sprung from seeds, of the original tree. J 

 From one of these, which stands within the pre- jj 

 cincts of the Abbey, in a garden adjoining St. 

 Joseph's Chapel, I received, on the 11th of Febru- 

 ary, 1846, a sprig, in full leaf, and furnished with 

 perfectly formed flower-buds. The tree from 

 which it was gathered measures two and a half 

 feet in circumference, and I was assured by the 

 vicar of Glastonbury, Dr. Parfitt, that it had been 

 budding and blossoming since Christmas. It blos- 

 soms a second time in May, and from these latter 

 flowers only is fruit produced. Formerly, the 

 blossom^s were so highly valued, that they were 

 sold at Bristol, and even exported to various 

 parts of Europe ; and the variety is still propa- 

 gated by grafts in the gardens of the curious, but 

 only on account of the strange efforts which it 

 annually makes to commence spring in mid-winter. 



Miss Strickland, in her Lives of the Queens of 

 England, mentions that its branches were deemed 

 worthy of being presented to royalty. " Christ- 

 mas," saj^s Pere Cyprian, " was ahvays observed 

 in this country, especially at the King's palaces, 

 with greater pomp than in any other realm in 

 Europe." Among other ancient ceremonies now 

 forgotten, he mentions a pretty one, in which 

 a branch of the Glastonbury Thorn, which usually 

 flowers on Christmas-eve, used to be brought up 

 in procession, and presented in great pomp to the 

 King and Queen of England on Christmas morn- 

 ing. Pere Gamache, in mentioning this cere- 

 mony, says, this blossoming Thorn was much 

 venerated by the English, because in their tradi- 

 tions they say that St. Joseph of Arimathaea 



