GLAS'TONBURY. A market-town and mu nicipal borough in Somerset, England, situated on a peninsula formed by a winding of the river Brue, 25 miles southwest of Bath (Map: Eng land, D 5). It has some manufactures, an export trade, and in the vicinity are chalybeate springs which formerly attracted health-seekers. Population, in 1891, 4119; in 1901, 4016. It is important as the cradle of English tradition and history,. and the great unbroken link be tween modern, mediaeval, and early British Chris tianity. Its chief material interest lies in the ruins of its splendid abbey founded in the sixth century. Of this magnificent pile, which covered sixty acres, the only remains are parts of the abbey church, with the roofless chapels of Saint Joseph and of Saint Mary, and Abbot's Kitchen, a square, massive, and strongly but tressed structure, all' especially important as specimens of early and transitional architecture. A causeway across Sedgemoor and many of the houses of the town are built from the materials of the abbey, which became a common and prolific quarry for the neighborhood. Other buildings and places of interest are the George Inn, a pilgrims' hostelry of the fifteenth century; the two parish churches, the Tribunal, the Ab bot's Barn, Wearyall Hill, and the Tor, 500 feet high, from which a fine view is obtained. Two miles to the southwest lies Sharpham Park, where Fielding the novelist was born.
Glastonbury has prehistoric remains of a marsh village, five acres in extent. At Glastonbury is said to have been situated the first English Chris tian church, a little wattled building erected by Joseph of Arimathea, the leader of the twelve apostles sent by Saint Philip to Christianize Britain. Tradition states that Joseph estab lished himself hdre owing to his pilgrim's staff, which he planted on Wearyall Hill while he rested, taking root. From it sprang the cele brated 'Glastonbury thorn,' the Cratcegus precox, which, according to popular superstition, blos somed every Christmas day. It was fanatically destroyed by a Puritan during the Cromwellian period, but grafts exist which maintain the tra ditional blossoming. The site of the original tree is marked by a stone, inscribed FA, Anno D. XXXI. Joseph was succeeded by two mission aries who established a fraternity of anchorites, which the famous Saint Patrick organized under monastic rule three centuries later. Although
joined to the land by Saint Michael's Tor, the peninsula was first known by the Celtic name Ynyswitrin, 'isle of the glassy water,' and later as Ynys yr Avalon, 'isle of Avalon,' or 'of Ap ples.' It is the Avalonian burial-place of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. The modern name is a corruption of Glnstingaburgh. A legend relates that in the long quest of a lost sow a Ghosting was led to an apple-tree by the old church, where, pleased with the place, he and his family settled; hence Gliestingaburgh—city of the Ghestings.
Reliable history relates that about 546 David Meneva built a new church near the old wicker chapel. Paulinus of York in 630 sought to preserve the old chapel as a sacred relic by incasing it in boards covered with lead. In the eighth century the Saxon King Inc built and endowed a Benedictine monastery; which suffered during the Danish invasions, but was restored and added to by another famous prelate, Saint Dunstan, a native of Glastonbury and a pupil of the institution, who became abbot in 946. It was the sepulchre of Kings Edmund, Edgar, and Edmund Ironside. During the tumultuous period of the Norman Conquest Glastonbury remained unmolested. From 1120 to 1172 the old build ings were replaced by much finer ones, which were scarcely completed when they, with the wicker church, were destroyed by fire on May 25, 1184. Henry II. immediately ordered a larger abbey and church of superb proportions and archi tecture to be built, which were finished about a century after his death. The length of the church was 528 feet. During the foundation excavations, the supposed grave of King Arthur was dis covered. In 1539, on the refusal of Abbot Whi ting to surrender Glastonbury and its treasures, Henry VIII. suppressed and dismantled the ab bey, and hanged the abbot on the Tor. His body was quartered, and his head fixed on the abbey gate. He was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1896. The famous old abbey clock is preserved in Wells Cathedral. Consult: Hearne, History and Antiquities of Glastonbury (Oxford, 1722) ; Wakefield, The Avalonian Guide (Glas tonbury, 1821) ; Willis, Architectural History of Glastonbury Abbey (London, 1866) ; Freeman, English Towns and Districts (London, 1883) ; Gasquet, "The Last Abbot of Glastonbury," in Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries (Lon don, 1888-90).