BEISTOL, ETC., IN MAY AND JUNE, 1767. 19 
hardly yet come into flower. From hence proceed to 
bloody well, a Spring so Calld from the reddish rust 
colour with which it tinges the stones over which it 
Passes. It has a very mineral appearance, but very little 
taste. The people here hold it in great Repute for astma, 
scurvy and Dropsy telling of several cures it has and con- 
tinues to make every day. Not far from this on the other 
side of the town, is the hill on which the Glastonbury thorn 
is said to have grown, but it has been dead several j^ears, so 
long that we have not met with anybody who remembers it. 
The Tradition belonging to it is this, that Joseph of Arima- 
thea Landed there and stuck up his Staff which immediately 
grew up to a tree that, in token of its Christian original, 
constantly used to flowr on Christmas Day. That the Sea 
formerly came to this Place there is very little Reason to 
doubt, tho it is at Present at Least 15 miles distant. The 
country that intervenes is quite flat and in the old Church 
on the wall is an inscription recording that in the year 1606 
the Sea having broke its banks flowd up to the church yard. 
The old Church is Curious as it is certainly of Grreat anti- 
quity, if you believe the people here, the first place in which 
the Christian religion was preachd in the Island. In it are 
several Escutcheons of arms very ancient, one bearing the 
five wounds of Christ bleeding, another on a Cross a heart 
bleeding between two hands in Cheif and two feet in base 
Pierced. Here are also several others in the same style, but 
I am by no means Learned enough in antiquities to Record 
them. From hence we went to the Abbey, which appears to 
have been a building of vast size as well as very great anti- 
quity, tho very little of it is now remaining, but that which 
is, is coverd with the most venerable Ivy I ever saw, which 
is turnd to very good use, for the people to whom it belongs 
feed sheep there and fodder them in winter with its leaves, 
