•,/-''^i:«, &# ]'rain boast of Popery) appears " to me to be so exactly adapted to promote the glory of God by her " reasonable worship, and the virtue and happiness of mankind by her " practical and consolatory tenets. When, like the Patriarch's do\e, I " venture out for a moment upon the wide and wild ocean of conflicting " religious opinions, by which she is at present surrounded, like her I " return with gladness to our ark, as the only spot of safety, peace, and *' rest. Here I find something intelligible, convincing, improving ; " something that satisfies my understanding, affects my heart, and soothes., " while it awes, my soul ; ' tries my reins;' and 'searches my spirit,* This " preference may, perhaps, be called ihe partiality of a son, or thejorc- *' Judice of a friend; but, whatever it be esteemed by others, to me it is a " source of joy and peace; — a feeling which I trust will continue with " me, and keep me faithful to her, to the last moment of my life ; and * See 6th Article. f Letter to the Bishop of Gloucester, &c. Bath, 1818. XIV «' when that shall close, will dictate the same parting prayer in her behalf, " which the dying Father Paul breathed out for his country, " ESTO iPERPETUA I" It now only remains to me to acknowledge my large debt of of gratitude to the accomplished characters who have assisted my late researches, and to whom the Public are indebted for much of whatever may be found either of curiosity or amusement, in "The History of the " Abbey of Glaston, and the Town of Glastonbury" — ^to the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, for his encouraging patronage in the commence- mentj and his kind aid during the progress, of my Work ; for his direction of my inquiries to sources of information, and his communica- tion of various MS. documents, of great interest in themselves, and of much importance to the volume ; — ^to Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart, the Atticus of his day, the scholar and the gentleman, for the free use of his unrivalled library ; the munificent contribution of four of the best plates which adorn, or at least illustrate, " The History of Glaston " Abbey;" and for an hospitality which might well be termed elegant^ did it not deserve the more engaging epithet of friendly ; — ^to the Right Honourable Lord Rolle, for his liberal permission to Mr. R. P. Prat, to inspect, and make extracts from, the curious MS. terrier-book of Glaston Abbey, entitled Extenta Maneriorum, in his Lordship's valuable library at Bicton, Devonshire ;— :to John Goodford, Esq; of Chilton Cantelo, Somerset, for his zealous endeavours to give notoriety to my plan, and to procure that encouragement for its execution, which, had it been more ably performed, it would the better have deserved ; — ^to the Rev. William Lisle Bowles, Rector of Bremhill, Wilts, for the like proofs of friendship and esteem ; and for his ready permission to me to enliven the following pages with a beautiful effusion of his tender, moral, and melodious muse; — ^to the Rev. John Skinner, Rector of Camerton, Somerset, for the use of his highly interesting MS. Itinera, and for those suggestions in etymology (bearing upon my subject), which, from his deep researches, and patient thought on this branch of curious literature, he is so competent to afford ; — to Thomas Shew, Esq; of Bath, for several accurate and tasteful Drawings of Glastonbury, its Ruins, and various articles of Antiquity connected with them ; — to Messrs. Prat, of Glastonbury, for their large sacrifice of valuable time, in analyzing, and making extracts from, what may be strictly called the singular Accounts of the Churchwardens of the Parish of St. John the Baptist; and for much other useful information, of a particular and ge- neral nature respecting that Town and its Neighbourhood j — ^to John Fry Reeves, Esq; the liberal owner of the Ruins of the Abbey, for the constant access to them which he afforded to me ; for his flattering atten- tion to my suggestions for their more complete developement ; and for the expense and trouble which he has imposed upon himself (and here the Public are equally his debtors with the Historian) in disencum- bering and unfolding these beautiful remains of ancient Gothic Archi- tecture, and preserving them for the inspection of the curious, and the contemplation of the thoughtful, for ages yet to come ; — to Mr. John Beaxjchamp, Jun. of West-Pennard, Surveyor, (whose modest merit must eventually find its deserved level,) for what has hitherto been a desideratum in the Somersetshire Maps and Surveys, a correct Plan of that intricate and undetermined district, Glaston Twelve Hides ; to the Rev. Joseph Hunter, of Bath, (of deep but unassuming erudition,) for the explication of several difficulties, and the illustration of frequent obscurities, occurring in the progress of ray enquiries ; — and to Francis Douce, Esq; (long known to the literary world by the published results XVI of his "^profound and comprehensive knovrledge of Antiquities, both foreign and domestic,) for a hke disentanglement of occasional per- plexities ;— — to all and every of whom, coUectivjely and individually, vi^ould I express myself as being lastingly obliged ; v«^ould offer them my sincere thanks ; and assure them, that their favours (in the words of an . amiable Prelate) " have made a deep impression on a mind not " insensible to kindness/'* f Charge, ut sup. p. 30. 35xjplanatwn;8! of tl&e W^ooXi €ut$^ Title- Page. The Arms of the Absey of Glaston. Vert, a cross botonnee argent. This device is found, as the arms of. the Monastery, in several sculptures, in the age just previous to the Dissolution ; but before this period, there had been sometimes added, in the first quarter, a little figure of the Virgin, hold- ing the infant Christ in her dexter arm, and in her left hand a golden sceptre — a circum- stance which accounts for the different bearings of the abbatial arms given by our early heralds. An instance of a shield, thus charged, may be seen in Weston-Zoyland Church, (one of the churches dependent on the Abbey,) over the window on the outside, at the end of the south transept. Dedication. The Arms of the See of Bath and Wells, united with those of the Family of Law. See of Bath and Wells — azure, a saltier divided parti per cross, and saltier or and argent. Law — argent, on a bend engrailed between two chanticleres gules, three mul- lets or. Letter A. A crucified Saviour, and the Virgin Mary mth the child Jesus in her arms. The former is a bronze figure, five inches in length, graceful and natural in fonn, and respectable in execution. It was dug up many years ago, within the precincts of the great church of Glaston, and presented to the author by the Rev. John Skinner, rector of Camerton, Somerset. From the small rivets at the back of the hands and feet, it is believed to have been attached to a metal crucifix ; and probably surmounted a priez Dieu, or little desk for solitary prayer and reading, with which every monk's sleeping- cell was provided. (Eyston, page Ixxi.) It is by no means unlikely, that this ele- gant specimen of the metal-founder's skill might have been executed by one of the Monks of Glaston Abbey, as it made part of their employment to exercise the mechanical arts } and the extensive premises of the larger monasteries included every convenience XVIU for carrying on the secular operations of jewellers' work, metallurgy, painting, gilding, sculpture, clock-making, &c. (Paston's Letters, ii, 30.) Dunstan himself, the abbot and patron of Glaston Abbey, had furnished the monastics with a notable example of industry and excellence, in the fabrication of metallic and other articles of ornament and use. " Ibi (at Glaston, it is Adam de Domerham who speaks) " manus" (Dunstanus) '• applicabat operi : labia Psalrais : animos coelis. Currebat per tabulam stylus, ^per paginam calamus; sumebat pincillum, ut pingeret ; scalpellum, ut sculperet. Sunt namque in Glastonia (ut nobis traditum est) de opere ejus manuali, cruces, turribula (censers), Jlalce (crystal vases or bottles), casuke (little boxes), alia quoque vestimenta, quas adhuc, ob ejus hono- rem, condigno reservantur honore." (John. Glas. p. 116.) He was also a hell-founder ; and stimulated, by his example, other dignified monastics to exercise the same ingenious branch of manufacture. " Fecit etiam (Athelwold) duas campanas, propriis manibus, ut diciturf quas in hac domo (Abingdon monastery) posuit, cum aliis duabus majoribus, quas etiam beatus Dunstanus propriis raanibus fecisse perhibetur. PraBterea fecit vir venerabills Athelwoldus, quandam rotam tintinnabulis plenam, quam auream nuncupavit ; propter laminas ipsius deauratas, quam in festivis diebus, ad majoris excitationem devor tionis, redeundo volvi constituit." (Mon, Ang. vol.i. p. 104.) The little image of the Virgin and Child (about four inches long) is formed of a fine, hard, and weighty cement. Nothing-composedof sucha material can be more exquisitely or delicately finished. Its present possessor, the Rev. Richard Prat, vicar of Littleham and Exmouth, Devon, when he obligingly communicated it for the purpose of being drawn and cut in wood, remarked, tliat it had been found long since among the ruins of the cathedral church of Glaston. Its antiquity is probably very considerable, as it has evi- dently been covered with a coat o? gilding, which the monks (having caught a better taste) ceased to use on their smaller images long previously to the sera of the Reformation. From a hole in its bottom, adapted to receive a peg or wire, it may be considered as having been placed upon the summit of a small rich shrine ; or on the top of a reliquary, containing some precious remains of the Blessed Virgin. To her the great church was dedicated ; and to her v/as directed the larger proportion of the worship performed within its walls. Her altar (pre-eminent in holiness as in magnitude) shone with the choicest treasures, blazed with the greatest flood of light, and rolled through the fane the richest cloud of incense. To her honour all the mechanical arts which the monks practised were tributary ; and on her effigies more especially were bestowed their chief labour, skill, and cost. Numerous were the images of the Blessed Virgin, which glittered in various parts of the venerable pile. To one, however, a peculiar sanctity was attributed, from the cir- cumstance of its having been the subject* of a remarkable miracle. There is here (in Glaston church), says the historian, " an image of the Holy Mother of God in high estimation, and beautifully executed. A fire occurred in the part of the church wherein it was placed, which quickly consumed every thing combustible in its neighbourhood. When, however, the flame approached the hallowed spot, or niche, in which the. image stood, as if afraid of her (ipsam quasi expavescensj, it left the place untouched ; so that not even the peplum (or white veil), which covered her head, was polluted with the smell of smoke. The Virgin's face, notwithstanding, did not fare quite so well ; having slight blisters (vesicse) raised upon it (as on a living subject) by the intensity of the heat ; which continued for some time to manifest, to the gazing votaries, the miracle which she had wrought, for the preservation of her dress, if not of her beauty. In process of time, Abbot John Chynnok clothed the Virgin anew, adorning her with gold, silver, and precious stones ; placing in the shrine beneath her a large stock of relics, which, together with the image and shrine itself, were accustomed to be carried in procession on certain of the most solemn annual festivals." (Johan. Glast. 46.) Letter B. The iNscRiPTiON on Arthur's Coffin. The inquiry into the reality of such a personage as King Arthur, and the account of his connection with the Abbey of Glaston, will be discussed in another part of this work ; but it may not be out of place to say a few words here, on the subject of the singular exam- ple of monkish imposition furnished by the article now before us. ' Camden makes the following mention of Arthur's tomb, and the leaden tablet that bore the inscription in question, the latter of which, it seems, he had himself seen.* " Before I leave this place," says he, " I shall recite in brief what Giraldus Cambrensis, who was an eye-witnesS, relates at large of Arthur's tomb in this churchyard, Henry the Second, king of England, being informed by the songs of the British bards that Arthur, the great hero of Britain, who so often checked the ravages of the Saxons, was buried at Glastonbury, between two pyramids, ordered search to be made for his body. They had scarcely dug to the depth of seven feet, when they struck upon a block of stone, in whose under surface was fixed a broadish leaden plate, in form of a cross ; which, being taken out, was found to have an inscription on it ; and under it, at the depth of about nine feet, was discovered a coffin, made of the trunk of an oak, hollowed, in which, were lodged the bones of this famous champion. I have thought proper to add the inscription, formerly copied from the original in Glastonbury Abbey, for the antiquity of the characters. They have a barbarous and gothic appearance, and plainly shew the barbarism of the age ; which was involved in such fatal darkness, that there was not one person capable of committing the actions of Arthur to writing. The subject was certainly worthy the genius of some learned man, who, by celebrating such a prince, would have immortalized his own fame. It seems to have been the misfortune of this gallant defender of the British empire, that he could find • Leland, also, had the pleasure of contemplating this precious relic, which he did with all the ecstacy of a thorough-bred antiquary. « Quani ego ouriosissirais conteraplatus cum oculis^ et solicitis contrectavi articulis, molus et anliquitate rei etdignitate." — Asseriio Arthuri. D 2 XX no panegyrist of his virtues.. The annexed plate (the woodcut) represents the cross and inscription." (Cam. Brit, in Somerset.) Mr. Gough, in his additions to this work, under the same county, gives us, from Leland, the following particulars. " In the middle (of the presbytery) lay Arthur, with this sin]- pie epitaph, HicjacetArturus, flos regum, gloria rcgni, Quern mores, proUtas, commendant, laude perenni. At the head of Arthur's tomb lay " Henricus, abbas, (Henry de Blois,) and a crucifix. At the feet, the figure of Ajthur ; a cross on the tomb ; and two lions* at the head, and two at the feet, reaching to the ground. At his feet, his Queen (Guinever), with this epitaph, Arturi jacet hie conjux tumulata secunda, Quce meruit coelos, virtutum prole fcecunda. " By this description," says Mr. Gough, "both should seem to have been altar tombs. Giraldus says, that Guinever's bones lay at the lower end of the tomb, two thirds of which were occupied by her husband's bones. The account given by Giraldus of the finding of Arthur's body is in his Speculum Ecclesiasticum, where he adds, that the bones were of gigantic proportion ; the tibia being three fingers longer than that of the then abbot, the space between the eyes and forehead a hand's breadtht ; and in his head were ten wounds, one, his death wound, larger than the rest. The leaden cross (which Mr. Camden has engraved, I know not from what drawing) was let into the stone ; the letters next the stone, as both Giraldus and the Anonymous Monk of Glastonbury, cited by Leland, (Ass. Arthur, p. 50, 51,) assert. The Monk adds, that in the tomb of his queen, opened at the same time, 1189, was found her fair yellow hair, nicely braided, which fell to pieces on touching. It seems to be a mistake that these corpses were found between the pyramids,t (see Eyston's Abstract of Life of King Arthur, Append, n.) * It is a circumstance worth mentioning, that daring Mr. Reeves's late excavations in the crypt of St. Joseph's chapel, a piece of sculpture, in freestone, representing the forepart of a lion couchant, half as large as life, was dug up. As it is not likely that such an ornament would be introduced into monastic structures, unless for some particular reason, io it not probable that this fragment is part of one of the lions alluded to in the text ? t Higden, with great seriousness, corroborates this account of Arthur's " giant mould." " Also have "mynde that Arthures chynboue" (shin-bone) " that was theune shewed, was lenger (longer) by thre ' " inches than the legge and tl.e knee of the lengest man that was thenne found. Also the face of his fore- " hede hetweene hys two eyen was a spanue brode." — Trevisa's Translation fol. 290, rec. t Of these pyramids, William of Malmesbury says, that they stood in the Abbey chnrch-yard, about the sarcophagus of King Arthur. The tallest, and that which stood nearest to the church, was twenty- six feet in height, and consisted of five courses or stories, having some unintelligible names oa it. The XXI which would probably have mentioned them; but this does not appear to have been the case ; though it must be confessed that they are not very intelligibly copied by Malmesbury, and are probably Saxon, commemorating some of the early abbots. Matthew Paris says, these pyramids stood about the sarcophagus ; and that Arthur's body was found in digging to bury a monk, who had a particular desire to lie there. He gives the inscription, Hie jdcet inclijtus Britonum'rex, ^c. John of Glastonbury says, Arthur rested in the monks' cemetery 64iO years, before he was removed into the great church.'' (Gough's edit, of Camden : Additions to Somerset.) It is impossible to determine the antiquity of the plate from the shape of its letters, as they tally with the characters which were in use for some centuries, during the Anglo- Saxon, Norman, and old English ages. We can only decidedly pronounce that they are not of the period to which the Monkish writers attribute them. If, indeed, the recital of the discovery of remains supposed to be Arthur's, given to us by Giraldus Cambrensis, be true, (and we can hardly doubt the solemn assertion of a writer who professes himself to have been an eye-witness of the fact which he relates,) it then seems not to be improbable, that the plate in question was (to use a well-known modern phrase) got up by the monks at the time, for the purpose of identifying the bones, and convincing the royal visitor, Henry II., of the verity of their monastic legends, or rather local histories. The two cir- cumstances — of their fixing so readily on the exact spot in which the body was interred ; and of the stone and plate being only seven feet under ground, whereas the corpse itself was nine feet deeper — -seem to imply, not only a previous knowledge of an ancient grave being on the spot, but also that the less deep excavation had been posterior to the one of sixteen feet j and as no other occasion for such a disturbance of the earth appears to have previously occun'ed, it is more than hypothetical, that it took place just before the arrival of Henry at Glaston, when the inscription was introduced by the monks, to authenticate their own annals, and to convey to the king's mind the persuasion tliat he actually beheld the august remains of the origin and flower of British chivalry. The fate of the plate is imknown. It has, probably, long since been destroyed ; though it was clearly extant in Camden's time, who saw, (as Leland had done,) and copied it. It was the suggestion of Mr. Douce, that, at the Reformation, several articles were taken from the dissolved monastery of Glaston, and carried to Naworth Castle in Cum- berland; and, among the rest, the plate, and stone on which it was fastened; and that, in all likelihood, Camden took a copy of the former at that place, as he was well acquainted with Lord William Howard, the celebrated possessor of Naworth in the sixteenth century. This hint induced us to apply for information on the subject to a friend iu Northumber- land ; who obtained, from an estimable clergyman in the neighbourhood of Naworth Castle, the following communication ; which, though unsatisfactory as far as regards the other pyramid was eighteen feet high, and consisted of four stories, whereon three other names were inscribed in large characters. They commemorated, probably, as Mr. Gough suggests, some of the earliest presidents of the monastic institution at Glaston. XXII stone and plate, affords some interesting particulars respecting a large wooden book, which, is still preserved in the original library of the ancient residence of Lord William Howard,, and which was conveyed thither from the dissolved Abbey of Glaston. " In consequence of your request to search for, and explore, the records, &c. at " Naward, I have spent a little time in that business ; but have not been able to discover " the grave-stone you mentioned, nor the smallest trace of it. " I have found, however, a large book with wooden leaves, on which are fixed vellum, " sheets, written in an ancient character. " The MS., according to my decyphering, has the following heads of the chapters " which it contains : " 1st. Incipit narration, de Sancto Joseph, ab Ariraathea : narratq. de libro quoda " que invenit Theodosius imperator in Jerusalem scrip. Sacr. Pilati. *' 2d. Incipit quumodo duodecim discipuli sanctorum Phiiippi & Jacobi Apostolorum ecclesiam Glast. fundaverunt. " 3d. De Sanctis ibidem requiescentibus. " 4th. De translatione Sancti Dunstania Cantuario ad Glastoniam. "5th. De dignitate et sanctitate vetuste ecclesie beate Marie Glastonie ac ejusdem Sancti Cimeterii. " 6th. Nomina sanctorum in ecclesia Glastoniensi requiescentium sub brevitate " collecta. " 7th. Indulgentie raultor. pontificium legatorum archiepiscoporum ecclesie Glasto " concesse. " There are more heads, and a great deal of matter contained under each ; but I have " deemed the above sufficient to transcribe for your information. " I have not found any other book or document at Naward relating to the Abbey of " Glaston."* From the above account it should seem that this curious relic was either transcribed from William of Malmesbury, or that its writer gathered some of his materials from this monkish author's work. It is particularly interesting, as it affords a specimen of those wooden books, which were sometimes found in monastic libraries. (Decern Scriptores, p. M35.) There can be no doubt of its great antiquity. Dr. Stukely had seen it, as appears from his Iter. Boreal, p. 58. "We visited Knaworth Castle — a library once stored with learned books and MSS. Here is the famous Glastonbury Abbey book, or rather skreen, for it is big enough: an account of the Saints buried in that place. " Aand in a tour made by the Author through the North of Englandj; about twenty-five years ago, he also had the pleasure of turning over its ponderous leaves. " Lord " William's library is contained in a small and gloomy room, at the top of a turret. " We were told that the contents of this apartment were in precisely the same order as • We have great pleasure in acknowledging it was by the obliging permission of Lord Morpeth, Ihat this search was made at the ancient mansion, of which his Lordship is the possessor. xxni " he had left thiem, nearly three centuries ago." (Warner's " Northern Tour," vol. ii. page 71.) Letter C. Glastonbury Ton. The situation of this interesting structure of •' the olden time" is surprisingly fine, commanding " A goodly prospect stretch'd immense around," whose circumferential line would probably exceed one hundred and forty miles. Its steep accVwity determines the use to which it was applied in ages far anterior to the times of early Christian devotion, or those more recent ones, the days of Papal superstition ; exhi- biting evident vestiges either of Celtic castrametation, or Belgic defence against the warlike operations of the Romans, of which its neighbourhood was the busy scene, in the first century of the Christian era. As its sides were thus strengthened with the rude military works of the early British ages, so its guarded summit (like one of the " high places" of Jewish idolatry) was, in all likelihood, devoted originally to the purposes of Pagan worship, and occasionally blazed far and near with the Bel-tin, or enormous fire consecrated to Bel, Baal, Apollo, or the Sun.* Nor did this its sacred adaptation terminate with the downfal ofDruidism. Early in the Christian times, many of the converted heathen, influenced either by the prejudices of education and habit, or by the ennobling expansion of mind and sublimity of thought which such lofty situations are naturally calculated to inspire, retired to these high places of their ancestral religion, and there erected oratories or churches, (according to the number and means of the worshippers,) to the honour of the one true God. The place of worship was the same as before, but the object of it — a Being of infinite love and mercy, in the room of imaginary personifications of vice and horror ; and its litual — the sober and decent services of a religion of the heart, instead of the gross and detestable practices of a vicious idolatry. Such, seemingly, was the case with Glastonbury Tor ; and, without adverting to the absurd legends of the monkish writers, we may fairly believe, that, early in the conversion of the Britons of this part of England, the sacred hill would be occupied by some of the more earnest of the new believers, and furnished with one of the small and humble churches of the times, for the purposes of their public and social wor- ship. The practice of dedicating these holy structures to aught but the supreme Majesty of Heaven, or the universal Saviour of mankind, was a growth of after times. As soon, however, as it was adopted, St. Michael appears to have been chosen as the patron saint of all such places of Christian worship as were situated on lofty and commanding eminences. The faithful recognised him as the head of the hierarchy of heaven, the combatant and conqueror of the great dragon ; and thought that the sense of his dignity, and of the value * In many parts of Scotland the- Bel-tin is regularly lighted every May-day. XXIV of his high achievements, would be best expressed, by consecrating to his celebrated name, those ecclesiastical edifices which, from the loftiness of their scite, would be risible at the greatest distance. Hence we may infer that the first structure on Glastonbury Tor would, after a time, be dedicated to St. Michael ; and upon the same principle it was, that the Church, of which only the tower now remains, bore the name of the same saint in former times, and continues to be called St. Michael's Tor or Tower at the pi-esent day. When the Church itself was built, of which the tower is the only remnant, cannot be accurately ascertained; but the style of the architecture of the latter, as well as the records of history, combine to assure us, that its erection must have been subsequently to 1275, when a mighty earthquake laid the chapel of St. Michael of the Tor in ruins.* If, therefore, we attribute to it an antiquity as far back as the latter part of the reign of Edward the First, we shall not be very wide of the period of its being built. An opinion of its age, however, as far as its architecture is concerned, can be formed only from the western front, and northern and . southern sides of the remaining tower ; for the eastern end of it (having lost the nave probably soon after the dissolution) ran into dilapidation ; and having been re-erected in haste and carelessness many years ago, retains none of its original characteristic features. The fabric is strengthened by buttresses ; and entered by a portal of elegant pattern, over which are two pannels of singular sculptures, the one representing the archangel Michael holding in his hand a pair of scales, and weighing the Bible against Satan, while another devil vainly strives to make Satan's scale preponderate ; the other tablet appears to be charged with a spread-eagle. The eflfigies, which occupied the seven niches above the entrance, have all disappeared, save one, which is too much muti- lated to be intelligible. It appears to be highly probable, that the area of Tor Hill was formerly inhabited, not only by a party of the Monks who performed the services of its church or chapel, but also by many who followed secular employments on its summit ; since ajair, of two days conti- nuance on this spot, had been granted, long previously to the reign of Henry I., to the Chantri/ of the Abbey of Glastonbury, a grant which obviously implies a lay population at the place where it should be held. This privilege was extended by Henry I. from two to six days.t Charta Henrici Regis de Feria Sancti Michelis de la Torre. Mon. Ang. nov. edit. Append. No. Ixxiii. In addition to the reasons above advanced, for attributing an antiquity of upwards of five hundred years to this ecclesiastic edifice, we should adduce the additional one, arising from the date of the following charters of indulgencies, which were dispersed to those who had contributed to the erection of the new church, after the demolition of the * Hoc tempore, A. D. 1275, tercio idus Septeinbris capella Sancti Michaelis de Torre, cecidit per Terrapmotuni, John. Glas. p. 245. t A fair is sliil held at the declivity of the Tor, at a spot called the Fair-Field, (being 9 part of the Lill,) on the 19th of September ; it continues only for one day. old one by the earthquake. They were granted in the time of Abbot John de Taunton, who died in 1290> and consequently the church must have been built, or building, at the period of his decease. Cartee de indulgentiis dat. ad ecclesiam de la Torre. Gervasius Menevensis episcopus xx dies. Hadulfus Kildarensis episcopus xv dies. R. Launiensis episcopus xx dies. G. Dulkendensis episcopus xiii dies. Willelmus Exoniensis episcopus xl dies ii paria. Elyas Landavensis episcopus xiii dies. E. Landavensis episcopus xl dies. Item E. Landavensis episcopus xv dies. R. Waterfordensis episcopus xiii dies. Walteriis Waterfordensis episcopus xiii dies. Stephanus Waterfordensis xx dies ii paria. Summa cc xviii dies.* The Tor Hill is by no means uninteresting as an object of natural curiosity, its upper portion being a huge mass of the inferior oolite (resting on a bed of calcareous sand), ex- tremely rich in the fossils which characterise this formation j while from its roots gushes out that copious spring of mineral Water, which, seventy years ago, was celebrated through the kingdom as one of the most efficacious chalybeates in the country. Directing its course to the west, it fills the baths constructed at the south-east of the town, runs through Chinkwell street, crosses the Abbey close, proceeds to Chain-gatef at the entrance of St. Magdalene * As the natare of tbese indulgences is not generally understood, we subjoin an explanation of it given to us by a learned Roman Catholic Clergyman. " An indulgence is simply a remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, after the sin is forgiven. This temporal punishment, in the first ages of the Church, was inflicted in the form of canonical penances, lasting for various periods, according to the circumstances of the case; in some instances for years, months, or days ; a penance of forty days is fre- quently mentioned in the history of the Churcli. An indulgence, therefore, of forty days, or of any given time, is altogether a spiritual benefit, consisting in the remission of that temporal punishment which cor- responds with that proportion of canonical penance, were such penances still in force. An indulgence must be given by proper authority, and with a view to excite christian penitents to the performance of good work»i The power of granting indulgences is claimed by the Popes, as successors of St. Peter, to whom Qur Redeemer said, Whatioever thou thalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matt. xvi. 19.) Such might be tie harmless or unmeaning character of indulgences, at their origin; but it is noto- rious, from the writings both of Papists and Protestants, that they soon assumed a very different one, and were for ages made subservient to the worst purposes of superstition, to the destruction of public morals, the degradation of the laity, the aggrandizement of the clergy, and the inordinately ambitious viQws of the sovereign Pontiflf. " For who would not adore him" says Barrow, " that could loose his " bauds, and free his soul from long and grievous pains." Barrow's Works, vol. vi. p. 311. f So called from the chained gated, an arched passage anciently thus secured, which stood at the entrance of this street, but was taken down many years ago, E XXVI street, wKere it supplies the Gld Bath, and from thence riins through the valley, till i mingles its waters with the river Brent. Its analysis^' according to Dr. Wilkinson, (whose scientific acquirements stamp all the results of his chemical manipulations with the highest; authority,) is as follows: ■■ . ' " The Tor-Hill Spring contains carbonic acid gas, carbonate of iron and soda, and *' sulphate of soda: its temperature is generally 55" Fahren. In its progress through the " Abbey inclosure to Chain-gate,, it deposits the carbonate of iron in a state of oxyde j and " becomes, consequently, better adapted for, and is more used by, scrofulous patients, than it is " nearer its source. The Park-Farm Spring contains carbonic acid gas, carbonate of iron, . " seven grains in a gallon, carbonate of lime, si^phate of magneisia, muriate of ditto, and " sulphuretted hydrogen. Under particular circumstances of the atmosphere, greater or less " quantities of the gas are evolved." Letter D. The Great Entrance into the Abbey Inclosure. The sketch of this wood cut was made by an artist about twenty-five years ago, and represents the then state of this venerable portal. It is much to be regretted that private convenience suggested its destruction, as a mean house but badly supplies the place of an august building, which gave both dignity and picturesque effect to the side of the street on which'it stood. The wood cut shews that it had a machicolation above the gate,* and battle- ments on its front; there was also a groined ceiling over the arch. The smaller arched and groined entrance, for people on foot, on the left hand, still remains, serving now as a passage to the small alms-houses and chapel for women, founded by Richard Beere, the immediate pre- decessor of the last Abbot. An ancient portal leads to these eleemosynary buildings, the arch of which is surmounted by the sculpture of a full-blown rose, having above it a close or covered crown. The supporters appear to have been intended for winged greyhounds. A scroll that accompanies it bears the date 1512, notifying the period of its erection. Over the remain- ing foot-passage, is a small room bearing the name of the Stone Chamber, probably from its stone floor. The old bow-windowed house, now the Red Lion Inn, adjoining to the passage, was the ancient Porter's Lodge. Further down the same street was another arched gateway, leading to the Abbot's Kitchen, but of more recent date than the one mentioned above. This, together with a considei'able length of the old boundary wall of the Abbey, were taken down in the year 1 808, an iron railing substituted in their place, and a fine view of the kitchen and ruins openect to the public. Mr. CoUinson has recorded a curious instance of good fortune which attended the owner of the house that now occupies the space of the great gateway, which was formerly the Porter's Lodge, in the seventeenth * The machicolation is that member of a tower or gateway which projected from the summit of the building from eighteen inches to two feet in breadth, and was intended for the last defence of the portal below. Its interior was hollowed into several funnels or openings, through which were poured down, upon the assailants beneath, various destructive substances, such as boiling lead, boiling pitch, scalding wster, stones, &c. . - xxvu century. " He pulled down an old mantle-piece, and placed it in the street, wKere it lay " for several years. He was once offered three shillings for it, but would not sell it under " three shillings and four-pence. At length his daughter, going to build a sinall chamber, " got a workman to saw it out to make stairs; when in a private hole, which had been *' purposely made in it, the mason found near a hundred pieces of gold, of the time of " Richard II. and Edward III. and of the value of about eleven shillings each." (Hist. Som« vol, ii. p. 2QS, ■ . ' Letter E. An Ancient Chimney-Piece. This curious relict of old English sculpture in stone is in one of the first.floor bed- chambers of a house in the south side of High-street, (called, also, in the Churchwardens' accounts, " Great- street,") in the occupation of Mr. William Strieker. It contains, in three compartments, representations of as many old English sports. On the left hand, dancing ; in the middle compartment, archery, or shooting at the butts ; on the right hand, wrestling. The execution is rude, but the subjects interesting, as they illustrate the popular pastimes of the time of Edward the Fourth, the costume of the figures fixing its date to that period. (See the plates of the fifteenth century in Strutt's Horda Angel Cynnan.) It is well worthy remark, that the performers in the compartment on the left hand are exercising their skill on instruments precisely the same as those used by the Italian pifirari of the present day. During the week preceding the festival of Christmas, it is customary for the shepherds of the Campagna di Roma to visit the city in pairs, the one playing on a sort of hautboy, exactly resembling the pipe in the sculpture j and the other on a bagpipe, the bellows of which is made of a goat's skin, and, contrary to the Scotch practice, is inflated hy the mouth. Their performance is confined to the shops of tradesmen, in front of which the image of the Madonna is suspended, with a lamp burning befoi-e it, The Car- penter, however, has the larger portion of their attention, in compliment to Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mf^ry. The idea entertained of this ceremony, or at least the pretence for it, is, that the music soothes the parturition pains of the Virgin, which she is supposed annually to undergo. However ridiculous the ceremony, and monstrous the notions (Connected with it, may be, the wary and acute observer, to whom I am indebted for th§ f^cts, is a sufficient authority for the reality of both. A ceiling, in another chamber of Mr. Strieker's house, is of singular pattern, and coeval with the sculpture. The divisions of its square compartments, its mouldings, and cornice, evince fancy, cost, and elaboratioq. Letter F. Two Ancient Corbels, on which rest the perpendicular supporters of the roo/s aho've. The costume of the figures indicates that both are the work of the fifteenth century. . The wood cut on the left occurs in the front of a house at the eastern point of junction iXXTlU between Higb«street and Northload-street, and represents one of the ^eveii sacraments oS the Romish Church — that of marriage. The other (which may be seen in the front of an antique mansion on the eastern side of Magdalene-street) exhibits the favourite old English sport-^a, westUng match. : ; _ : Letteu G. An Ancient Tomb, the Sepulchre of one Camel, the Purse-Bedrer of the contemporafieous Abbot of Gldstonburtf. The body of the monument is of Doulting stone ; the slab, which it supports, of gypsum, commonly called alabaster. The front face of the former is divided into eight compartments, .containing, alternately, the figures of an angel and a camel. The eastern end, also, exhibits similar representations. A scroll waves round each camel, inscribed with old English letters, now unintelligible. Sixty or seventy years ago, however, they were far less obliterated j and the grandfather of the present Messrs. Prat, of Glastonbury, then curate of that place, and resident in the house called the Tribunal, rescued the follow- ing imperfect lines from oblivion : Me 9uia movo^u^ mtvM tantum gentvo^u^ Ita iJtbttta tnunuti 0i;utttm mitji ptvtinet armie Mt omnt 0axum figit notn^n ttafitt tx cameli iSt tx move meo g^idu0 futbarc magi^tvo Sbic vlu^ livuti^ vetiVbu^ 0umt. tuvvtve inutt^. We must candidly confess, that the lines here given, are not quite intelligible to our- selves, and therefore " tu iibi lector (Edlpus esto." Each angel supports a shield charged with the cross botonnee, the Abbey arms, which shews the connection of the deceased with the monastery. These, and the figures, according to the vicious taste of the epoch of the monument, ("the latter end of the fifteenth century,) were all originally painted, and have not yet lost their various tints. The superincumbent gypsum slab exhibits an ecclesiastic lying on his back, with short hair, and in long robes, having a purse suspended at his girdle, and his feet resting on the back of an animal. The tradition is, that the monument was brought from the Abbey Church, at the time of the dissolution, or shortly after. Be this as it may, the tomb affords a good specimen of the sepulchral rebus, so much in vogue among us three hundred years ago. Wit in rude ages is always of a practical nature. The times must be highly refined, before Johnson's defi- nition can be applied to it — " the action of a vigorous fancy upon comprehensive know- *' ledge j" and hence we find, that its early efforts are evidenced rather in visible represen- tations, than in emanations of intellect. The product of this poverty of thought would naturally be such palpable puns as that under consideration. We recollect a similar one in the ancient chiirch of Christchurch Twyneham, in Hampshire. ^ The person coramemb- SXtSL ratecl Is Robert Harys, the date 1&25. In one of the spandrils of this table monument, is ?een a hare in a cumbent posture, with a label or scroll in its mouth, inscribed with the letters ^&, evidently intended as .a rebus, or pun, upon the name of the deceased. Other examples to the same effect are not wanting. Islip abbot of Westminster has sculptured for his arms, in the church, a man (the portrait of the abbot) slipping from a tree. Bolton, prior of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, arms sculptured in the church,, a bolt,, or arrow, passing through a ion. Rose Knotwin©, arms, in a painting on glass, in an old house at Islington, a rose, a knot or twisted cord, and a wing, (Gent. Mag. vol. Ixxiv. p. 329 and several sculptures of Abbot Richard Beere's arms are to found in and near Glastonbury, charged with the cross botonnee, and a beer^aggon (allusive to his name) in the different chiefs and bases. Indeed, it was not an uncommon thing for those who had no ancestral coat of armour, to form one for themselves, of emblems dictated by the fancy, or suggested by the family name, or circumstances of profession and situation in life; Letter H. The Model of a Chapel. The subject of this wood cut is so well illustrated by George Bennett, esq; of BanwelU Somerset, that we think it quite superfluous to make any additions to his observations, except the single remark, that we should incline to consider this beautiful piece of sculpture, as the model rather of somQforeign chapel, than of any one within the cathedral church of Glaston Abbey. Mr. Bennett's antiquarian taste and knowledge are already known to the public through the medium of the Gentleman's Magazine ; and it is to be hoped, that he will not long withhold from their notice his copious collections towards the History of the ancient, curious, and interesting parish of Banwell, in Somerset, the place of his residence.* I • There is a tradition which connects this very picturesque village in some degree with Glaston Abbey. The magnificent wooden rood-loft in its churcK (without dispute one of the handsomest country churches iii the kingdom^ is said to have been brought to Banwell from Bruton Monastery, but to have originally formed a part of the splendid decorations of the interior of Glaston cathedral church. In truth it was well worthy of that gorgeous edifice — from its unusually large dimensions, the taste of ilS gothic pattern, and the delicacy and elaboration of its workmanship. The use of the rood-loft was simply this : in the centre of it was placed the rood, or image of the Saviour on the cross, and on each side of this image those of the Virgin and St. John, its vacant space being occasionally filled with vocal and instru- mental performers. The pulpit, also, and font, of Banwell Church, (both ancient, and of stone,) are singularly beautiful : the former consisting'of a body, and pedestal on which it stands '; the latter of a basin-formed lavatory, and wooden cover, all richly patterned and finely executed. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on the venerable Vicar, and his estimable perpetual churchwarden, George Emery., esq; for their zeal, trouble, and cost in restoring Banwell Church to its pristine elegance, and preserving it in its present state of beauty and neatness. This village, however, may anticipate much more noto- riety than even its .picturesque beauties and unrivalled church could possibly obtain for it, from the extra- ordinary caverns discovered last year in its immediate neighbourhood; which have been explored, under XXX •' Dear Sir, — >It would have given me great pleasure had it been in my power, to haVe *' sent you the model of the Abbey Chiireh of Glastonbury which you enquire after ; but, " alas ! I verily believe there is no such thing now extajit. What yoii allude to, I apprehend, " must be the model (or carving in stone) of a chapel, dug out of the rains of the Abbey " thirty or forty years ago, and which has for that lengtli of time been standing as an orna- " ment over the parlour mantle-piece of Mr. John Gallopp at Axbridge. Above, you have a *' representation of it, which, I flatter myself, will be found tolerably, if not perfectly, correct. ^' This drawing shews the whole of the carving, except the right-hand gable, but the part not" ** shewn is in every respect like the left-hand gable. The back part is merely the rough *' unpolished stone, which leads me to think that it was formerly a pjirt of some highly orna- *' mented sepulchral monument. This little antique isabout twelve inches in height, and eight *' inches long at the base, and of a dirty red colour : it is sculptured from a block of friable ^' freestone, found in abundance in the neighbourhood of the Tor. Some of the angles and " more prominent parts of the model are now in so decayed a state, as to soil the fingers, in " the manner of chalk, on being handled. Upon the whole, however, it is in tolerably good *• preservation, in consequence of the car© taken bf it since its restoration from ' durance " vile.' It is evident that the octagon turret in. th? centre of the roof vyas once considei'ably " higher, (probably a spire ornamented at its top,) but a part has been broken off'and lost, and " nothing now appears but what is delineated in the drawiYig. Dr., Stukeley observes, that the *' stones forming the roof of the Abbot's Kitchen are gll cut slanting, with the same bevils to " throw off the rain, and the stones of the roof of this model somewhat resemble those on the " Kitchen, except that those on the model are rounded at tlie bottom, somewhat in the shape " of shells, whilst those on the Kitchen, if I mistake not, end downwards in a square form j " but, upon the whole, I think there can be no doubt that the carving of the model was long * ' prior to the erection of the Kitchen. " This model is a most tasteful and scientific piece of architectural sculpture, and were an' ** architect at a loss for the elevation of a chapel, I think he could not select a more proper " one, than the chaste and simply elegant specimen here given ; for my own part, I should " prefer it to any one I ever saw. It was pronounced by the late John Lovell, esq; of " Axbridge, to be the representation of a Confessionary Chapel, which once stood vvithin the, V *' precincts of the Monastery ; and when the model was first shewn to him, he placed his fore- " finger on the knocker of the chapel door, and exclaimed, with all the enthusiasm and " delight of a genuine antiquary, * That knocker is worth five hundred pounds,' " " Whether any chapel, for the purposes of confession, of the form here represented, ever *' contributed a part towards the grand whole of Glaston's gorgeous, far-famed, and ever the auspices of the munificent Prelate of Bath and Wells, (lord af the manor of B^nwell,) and are now the subject of earnest and laborious inrestigation. Both the abysses are very interesting natural curiosities ; but the smaller one, which contains an enormous collection of the bones of various animals, carnivorous and graminivorous, awakens the most impressive train of thought, as it carries the mind into the ages anterior to the Flood, and presents to the eye a visible proof of the verity of the Mosaical spcount of this stupendous universal visitatioo. " tobe lamented. Abbey, I am unable to decide, and therefore leave the question to those more *' intimately acquainted with the history of the place, and more deeply read in antiquarian lore, *f than myself. I suppose you are by this time tired with my antiquarian gossip, but permit " me, however, to observe, that, many yearsago, arespectable Lady, of Weare, near Axbridge, " informed me, a relation of her's at Wells, of the name of Pearse, formerly possessed several " pieces of the Glastonbury conventual plate ; and among others, a superb silver salt-cellar, " which, before the dissolution, was used daily at the Abbot's table. My informant had often " seen it, and it was said to have been a complete model of the Abbey Church (which I am V inclined to think very much resembled in exterior appearance the present cathedral at " Salisbury, though of somewhat larger dimensions) ; it was sold to a silversmith for eight or •;' ten pounds, the value of the metal only; and therefore there is every reason to suppose this " precious relicj which now would be of inestimable value, has long since been given to the " annihilating jaws of the devouring crucible. " I am heartily glad to find that the sacred remains of the blessed Mary's holy fane, are at " length rescued from the hand of the Goth and the destroyer; and shall therefore, for the " time to come, rest satisfied that no further demolition will be permitted, but that all due " care will be taken of them. . I am, dear Sir, your's very truly, " Banwell, June 9,9th, 18gJ. GEO. BENNETT. » Letter, I. An Ancient Table Monument. Letter K. A Ditto. The former of these stands to the left of the communion-table, on the north side of the chancel, and covers the remains of John At well, who died in the year 1472. Eyston says he was a great benefactor to the town of Glastonbury. Collinson adds, that he contributed, to the repair of the church, and gave thereto several buildings in the High-street : vol. ii. p. 263. It has on its south front three jwafre ^i/s, inclosing 5/(/e/(/5 and ^feMr^Mr* in the niches between them. There was formerly a brass plate carried round the slab, charged with an inscription : it has long since been torn away. The other tomb (letter K.) stands on the oppo- site side of the chancel, and was raised to the memory of Joanna, the wife of John Atwelf. Letter L. An Ancient Tomb, standing in the Church-Yard of St. John the Baptist, at the ^ Eastern End. This is of too felegant a pattern, and too nice workmanship, to be exposed, as it now isj to the vicissitudes of the seasons, and the rage of the elements. It seems to be of the ■age of Gharles the First, when the classical forms had triumphed over the Gothic ones, and congruity of style began to be an object with the architect and sculptor. Old English characters ran round the edge of the slab: they have been long obliterated, but the name of Hiomas Alieyn, the person buried, might be distinguished till within these few years. xxxu Letter M. The Seal of the CauncBWARDENS, 3^c. It is presumed that the seal represented by this wood cut has all the value and curiosity' of an unique ; as we are not aware, that Churchwardens incorporated, and having a seal to authenticate their acts, exist any where in the kingdom, except at Glastonbury.* Re-' marks on the ancient accounts of St. John's parish will be found among the " Observations* **on the different articles in the Appendix," We would therefore confine ourselves at present to the original seal only. Its composition is a mixed metal, formerly called latt/itf a species of bronze. It is of the size of the wood cut, flat in form, nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness, and having on its plain uncut side, near the verge, a perforated knob, for the purpose of suspending it to the girdle of the officer to! whom it was entrusted. Its antiquity cannot be less than five hundred years, since it is expressly alluded to in the oldest parish original lease, bearing date 1325. In all the original leases we find a refe- rence to it, either as the Sigill' comune ecclie p'dicte, or Sigill* comiinitatis sancte Job is Bapte Glaston, or Sigill' comiinitatis pochie s'ti Bapt. Glaston., or Sigill* cv'itatis villa Glaston., or Sigill' usuale ecclie p'dicte. The earliest original lease to which its impres- sion is appended bears date, Die s'ti Bai'tholomei annoregni Regis Henrici Quinti post con- quests p'mo ; that is, in 1412. In a compotus, or account, of 1421, it occurs in the inventory of the goods of the church and parish of St. John the Baptist, then in the custody of the Churchwardens, in the following words, j sigillo, s'ti Johls, de latyn ; and mention IS again made of it in the compotus for 1428. This curious article is in perfect preserva- tion, and held by Messrs. Prat, solicitors for St. John's parish ; who still affix it to all leases granted by the Churchwardens of the property of the parish. By whose authority' the Wai'dens were thus originally incorporated, and by whom the seal was conferred, it is now, perhaps, impossible to say. Highly privileged, however, as the Monastery of Glaston appears to have been, numbering that vill amongst its possessions, and having paramount rule over it, we are authorized to conclude it was through the infiuence at least of the Abbey, that these peculiar rights attached to thfe parish of St. John's, t The seal has this inscription round its verge : ^(gdum COmmunC 23apti^te ©18!?= Letter N. Ancient SeuLPTVRED Arms, They occur in the walls of the chapel, &c. at Sharpham House. One of the shields gives an example of the armorial rebus, explained above — a cross and two beer^agganSy allusive to the name of Abbot Richard Beere, the builder of the chapel, * In some instances in London the Ministers and Wardens ^re, by the custom of the city, a cor- poration to hold lands ; but whether with a corporate seal or not, we are unable to say. t It appears from several accounts, that a chief, reserved, or ground rent, was paid to the Prepositu^ or b.ailifif, of the Lord Abbot, for certain tenements in the town. Letter O. A Fac-Simile of Henry Vlllth's Hanj}-W'bitin6. From Man. Ang. Nov, Edit. Append. The awkwardness of these royal characters will be a subject of surprise to those who are unacquainted with the want of skill in the art of writing, common with the highest born of our ancestors, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It must be recollected, however, that, until the introduction of learning into our country in the former age, the faculty of writing the name was by no means an usual acquirement ; and no one appears to have been ashamed of the deficiency, in the Anglo-Saxon and early Anglo-Norman periods. Kings, and princes, and prelates, could only make the sign of the cross, their names being suf- fixed to these emblems by the \scriptores who wrote the deeds ; for writing was then a mystery f and exercised exclusively by a class of persons who were expressly educated for that profession. To them the art was confined for ages ; and hence it happens, that all our ancient charters are remarkable both for calligraphy and uniformity of character. The earlier their date, indeed, the more beautiful their appearance ; because the mystery being in fewer hands, there was lessdangfer of carelessness or irregularity in its exercise. When the spirit of personal improvement, however, was at length awakened, by the gradual dif- fusion of learning and knowledge, individuals began to attempt to do that for themselves, vfhich professional persons had heretofore done for them, and writing became an object of more common acquirement. But a difficult and delicate art is not soon brought to per- fection ■; and an age elapsed, before popultir writing was little better than so many examples of almost unintelligible scrawling. The consequence of which is, (as they well know, who are acquainted with our charters, MSS. &c. from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries inclu- sive,) that the difficulty of decyphering the writing of the times of Henry Vlllth and Elizabeth is much greater, tlian that of reading charters written seven hundred years before their reigna. The letters on the wood cut are Henricus, and the monogram, Rex. Letter P. The Signature of Abbot Whiting, Subscribed to the acknowledgement of the supremacy of Henry VIHth. Obligingly communicated by John Caley, esq; keeper of records in the Augmentation Office. Letter Q. The Effigy of an Asbqt in full Costume, inserted in the East Wall of the Abbey Kitchen, It was found in 1793, near the north-east pier of the central tower of the Abbey church, whilst the workmen were rooting up the area of the building, for the unholy purpose of selling the fallen sculptured materials of the fabric, for the repair and formation of roads in xxxiY the neighbourhood. As it is not likely that so elaborate a piece of imagery was intended to be hidden in the earth, we may suppose that it originally covered a table monument in the interior of the Abbey church. The figure and its decorations, as well as the form, of the arch under which it stands, accord with similar specimens of sculpture of the four- teenth century ; we may therefofe attribute it to that age. Letter, R. Append. This is an imaginary representation, by Sammes, of an ancient British Church, modelled, according to the description of Bede, and other early writers.. A specimen of this pri- mitive and simple ecclesiastical architecture was in existence forty or fifty years ago, and may possibly be still preserved. It was not, indeed, built in the British times, but in the early Anglo-Saxon age. As its plan, however, agrees exactly with the accounts which we have of the British churches, it may be received as a sufficient example of the nature of such structures. The nave, or body, of this church, (Greensted, Essex,) which renders it so remarkable, is entirely composed of the trunks of large oaks, split, and roughly hewed on both sides. They are set upright, and close to each other, being let into a sill at the bottom, and a plate at the top, where they are fastened with wooden pins. This was the whole of the original; fabric ; which yet remains entire, though much worn and corroded by time. It is twenty-nine feet nine inches long, fourteen feet wide, and fiv^ feet six inches high on the sides which supported the primitive roof.- (Works of the- Society of Antiquaries, vol. ii. page 7.) iBxplm^tiom of tl&e ^lateis* Plate I. Glaston Twelve Hides. No problem connected with the early history of the Abbey of Glaston is more difficult of solution, than the occasion of the name of the district thus called, and the time when it came into the possession of the Abbey. The Monkish explanation of the one, and account of the other, will of course be received with a smile ; but, however reasonably we may object, we are not always able to substitute ; and it must be candidly confessed, that, after no ordinary pains to determine these points satisfactorily, we are quite unable to ascertain the origin of the appellation, as applied to the extensive tract of land in question, or the period when it was bestowed on the religious recluses of Glaston.* * CollinsoH has given the boundaries of the Twelve Hides, and enumerated the islands, villages, &c. -which they included, with sufficient accui-acy from John of Glast., but refers us to the Monkish writers for theii* early history. « Glaston Twelve Hides," says he, " is a long narrow tract of land lying between the " hundreds of Wells-Forum to the northeast, and Witney to the southwest. The river Brew traverses it " lengthwise from Baltonsbury to its junction with the Yeo, and thence falls into the Parret near Burnham, " commixing soon after with the channel. The soil is fenny, having formerly been overflown by the waters of " the sea, which retiring, and being excluded by sluices and sea walls, the marshes have from tijne to time by " much industry been di-ained and reduced to profit. " The boundaries of these Twelve Hides were anciently distinguished in the following manner:* — They " begin at Brutasche, at Strete bridge, on the south side of the said bridge, and proceed eastward, in the south "part of the marsh, to the south head oi Baltenesbergehx'iAge; and from Baltenesberge on the north part from " the house of Wlgar cum, barba, who was the constructor of that bridge in the time of St. Dunstan, abbot " of Glastonbury; and so above the causey to the further side ef Pinnelahe, by the middle of the marsh to the " house of Norman at Baltenesberge mill. And so up the road which comes from that church into Reholte as " far as la Lupiwite in the eastern part of the house of Osgar AttahoUe. And thence into the road which leads ".through the middle of that HoUe directly to Keneward bridge over St. Dunstan's dike. And so into the " rivulet coming from Coleburi. And so up against the water-course to the house of Osward de la Burne. " And thence over-against the Burne to the court-house of Ailmer, steward at Bradelee. And so up from that " Burne into the road which lies befwe his house. And so on the south side of that church, eastward as " far as St(^, into the high road.: And so athwaj-t the road over-against Withelee hUl into that path which "lies on the south side of Chukbury. Then into a certain path as far as Windeiete, into the bounds of Bihenham " and Ferlege. And so downwards through the middle of PiUon park to the further side of the way which goes " * Johannjs Glastoniensis Historia de R?bus 6lastoniensibus, torn, i. p. 13." F 2 XXXVl In this absence of all proof and certainty, therefore, we may be permitted to have recourse to rational conjecture ; and the following remarks, though they will not throw a clear light on the history of the Twelve Hides, may perhaps be thought to lessen, in some degree, the total darkness in which it has hitherto been involved. " across the stone bridge into the road leading to Wbttone, and so along a path to Fukbroc. And thence in the " south part of that church to a rivulet, and as iaafaa-LoffellegeOie. And so down into the moor as far as Hocdhye, "and thence through the middle of the moor to Smioye, and into the dike hounds on the north side ot Bachin- " icm-e. And so by the hank, and along an old water-course to Bledemy bridge, and so by the middle of that " bridge to Litlenie, which is the bounds of Martenesei. And so about that island as far as SadJhy, and thence "by the bank, and along a water-course to the dike which lies between the moor of Stohe and Withrichesham; " and so in the Wynerdlake. And thence by the bounds of Andredesei island, and from Draicote up over against "the hiUto Horestone. Then in the Wyarepathe, and so down as far as Upper Batecumhe. And so by the "bounds of Ceddre to Gremballe. And s& to Littellakwey, thence to Laymerwinel. Thence directly through " the middle of an alder-grove to Horewythege, and so as far as Mumhemkgh. Thence to a certain trench " called Bitioynevm-de, and so to Scearpehorde. Thence to Notepulle, and so along YlaM down to Ywere. And "froni Ywere along Abedesdiche, up to tiangby, thence into the great water-course, and along it' eastward into " the bounds of Wethemore, and from Northilade as far as Tunsingwere. Thence to Kinpingmere, thence to " Middlemede ; thence beyond the hill to Cumesham. Thence into Lithlahe, and through the middle of the " moor, as far as the, bounds of Mere and Pouldone. And so by those bounds eastwai'd, in the south part of "the moor till underneath Scherpham. And so thence under jHwredeioorfe eastward to 5r2ffa!seAe, where the " bounds began. " Within this district were contained the following, places, viz. The island of Glaston, with the fields, " woods, meadows, and moors, belonging thereto ; the isfand otHeorti, with- a fine and extensive grove of alders, "meadows, and iruitfid pastures. After this a great part of Piltone park; then Bechenham and Stikelingh. "After these Withele and Co^wJim, with aU JFe«§3eMM«r(f, fields, meadows, and pastures thereto belonging. " Then the Burm and Kynmrd, -with their fields and meadows. After, great part of Baltenesbergh, with its " fields, meadows, large pastures, and with all the alder groves, and moors westward, on the north side of " Buddeclee, as far as Brutasche on the south, side of Strete hriige. Then. Edgarldgk, with its fields and "meadows. Then the island of Beokery, with its appm-tenances; and from Bmiascke above mentioned, the " whole of the marsh westward, which lies on the north side of Hundeswode and ScJierpham, as far as the " bounds of Pouldon and Mere into Liehelahe. The island also of Mere and Westhey, with their fields, "meadows, woods, and spacious moors ; the island of GodeTtey, with its lands and very large moors; the " island of Padeiuhearge and NortMlade, with arable lands, meadows, pastures, moors, and ample woods; the " island of Andredesey, excelling all the rest in pleasantness of situation, with its lands, woods, meadows, and "large moors; and the island of Martineshey, with the lands, meadows, and pastures appertaining thereto. " And near Mdndepe hUl is Bateeumb, with all its lands and pastures upon the bill thereto belonging. All " these places, (conthiues my author,) contained within the bounds of the twelve hides, and belonging to Glas- " tonbury, enjoyed all the immunities of regal dignity, from ancient times, and from the first establishment " of Christianity in this land; and they were confirmed to the church of Glastonbury as well by the British as " the English and Norman kings.* Of the immunities and powers which appertained to that church, one was " very particular; which was, that by the grant of King Canute, no subject could enter this district without " the leave and permission of the Lord Abbot of Glastonbury. It now includes the foUowing parishes:— " Glastonbuiy St. Benedict, Glastonbury St. John, Baltonsbury, Bradley, Mere, West-Pennard, and North- "Wotton." « * jQhannes.Glastpn. De hm principaWm infra dtiode(aiin.hi4as" XXXVU I5/. As the term Hide was in common use with the Anglo-Saxons (if not of Saxon etymology),* and as a tract of land denominated the Twelve Hides made, unquestionably, a part of the property of Glaston Abbey in very remote times, we may date its possession of a district so called as far back as the Anglo-Saxon period, perhaps as early as the reign of Ina. Mly. As the term Twelve Hides, however, among our Saxon ancestors, though by no means precise in its signification, t could never imply a surface of forty or fifty thousand acres, (the present extent of this tract,) we must suppose that, when first imposed, it indi- cated only twelve hides of the measure customary in the age wherein they were granted, amounting together to something between fifteen hundred and two thousand acres. ^dly. In that authentic dogument, Domesday Book, the very first item of the possessions of the Church of St. Mary of Glastonbury is as follows : •' Ecclesia Glastingberiensis habet " in ipsa villa xii hid. quae nunc geldaver." that is, the Church of Glastonbury has in that vill (implying the town, and its surrounding demesne lands) twelve hides, which have never paid Danegeld ; or, in other words, have never been assessed to the land-tax of the time.t After having made this particular mention of the twelve hides, and recorded them as having always been exempted from Danegeld, the survey goes on to specify the other possessions of the Church, enumerating, among various manors, villages, &c. most of the places which are included within the district now called the Twelve Hides / and describing many of them as having been gelded in the time of Edward the Confessor. Now the inferences from such an apparent contradiction are clearly these, that, at the period of the Domesday survey, no such a district was recognized, as the present Glaston Twelve Hides ; that the tract then known by this name^was a definite admeasurement of land immediately surround- * The Rev. John Skinner (whose etymological labours will not, we trust,, be lost to the public) seeks for a derivation of the word hide in ages far anterior to the Anglo-Saxon times ; though he concludes, that, according to the course of language, the meaning of the term would become gradually more limited and defined. " The hide," he observe?, " like the acre, was, originally, an inclosure of land, with this distinction, " that as the acre was bounded by a bank, so the hyde would be by a rivukt or ditch f hy (the y in the aspi- " rate) implying water, and ed a seat or residence; e. g. the F river in HoUand ; the Wye in England and " Wales ; Hyde Abbey, near Winchester ; the ryuis, or ditches, in the lower parts of Somersetshire; Hythe, " near Southampton, and in Sussex ; Hyde, in Hampshire, &c. ; v^uf, water. The Hydra vanquished by " Hercules was no other tban a strong hold, encompassed by moats filled with water, which one of the Er- " culi, or pirates, captured after along siege, by drawing around it successive circumgyrations. The Saxon " ir, or Ey, signifies wafer; and the eygrAfe, or ijeb, (the islands on the Thames more especially,) are " hydes or yets, places inclosed with water." ■|- The probability is, that the Saxon hide expressed, generally, a measurement of an hundred and twenty , acres; for the Black- Book, in the Chapter-House at Westminster, particularly says, " Hyda a primitiva " ipstitutione ex centum acris constat." (Lib. Nig. in cap. penult, lib. i.) And an hundred Norman acres (the measm-ement here spoken of) were equal tp an hundred and twenty Saxon ones. (See Glossary to Warner's " Hampshire, extracted from Domesday Book," in verb.) ^ See a succinct account of this assessment in " Remarks on the various articles of our Appendix, No. 6." xxxvm ing the village ; and that, between the period of William the Conqueror's general survey and the reign of Henry II. (when the Twelve Hides, according to their present boundaries, appear to have been first formally recognised), the adroit monks of Glastonbury had, by a sort of geographical catachresis, extended the name and privileges of the original Saxon twelve hides, from their ancient limitations to the wide surface which they now cover. The islands which the present Twelve Hides are said formerly to have included, are all, save one, sufficiently identified by their existing appellations. The exception is Heorti, a word with which no modern name at all accords. But as there is a beautiful and extensive eminence within the boundary of the present Twelve Hides, known by the name of Nj/land, (evidently a corruption of island,) it seems reasonable to attribute to it the description given of Heorti, in the old perambulation, of an island " with a fine and " extensive grove of alders, meadows, and fruitful pastures." The Twelve Hides form one of the hundreds of Somersetshire. Plate II. Viezv of Glastonbury fiom the West. This view, from a correct drawing by Thomas Shew, esq; of Bath, was taken from the declivity of Wearyall Hill, on the south-west of Glastonbury. It embraces the Town and its interesting adjuncts, the Ruins, the Tor Hill, &c. The boundary line to the east describes a part of the Mendip Hills. No other liberty is taken with nature or reality in this etching, than that of expanding the water, in the front of the view, to a bi'eadth which it assumes only after heavy rains ; and making the ground descend into it rather more rapidly than is actually the case. Plate III. North Portal of St. Josepii's Chapel. Nothing in freestone masonry can be more highly sculptured than this rich portal must have been when it was originally executed. For reasons which we have explained else- where, we attribute the building of the fabrick, to which it pertains, to the abbacy of Herlewinus ; the portal, consequently, would be erected between the. years 1102 and 1120. It formed the great northern entrance into what has long been known by the name of St. Joseph's chapel ; and, from its gorgeous finishing, was an appropriate introduc- tion to the architectural beauties of the interior of that building. Like most of the considerable portals of the age to which it is attributed, it consists of semicircular arches, (four in number,) receding gently in succession into the body of the wall, and diminishing in size as they recede, the exterior^ arch being twelve feet eight inches in height, and eleven feet eight inches in breadth ; and the interior one nine feet nine inches, by six feet eight inches. Each of these arches rested on four slender pillars, the bases and pilasters of which were of blue lias, two on each side. Their four Jascice are thickly covered with a profusion , of sculptural representations ', the work of which cannot be exceeded in delicacy and spirit. XXXIX That these numerous and diversified ornaments had (at least most of them) a specific meaning, and were not the mere creations of the taste or fancy of the sculptor, was suffi- ciently obvious to us on our first visit to Glaston Abbey, many years ago ; but we have only been lately indebted to the Rev. John Skinner for the idea that an historical cha- racter may be attributed to them ; and that they may be considered as sculptural comme- morations of the royal, and noble, and holy personages, who were founders, builders, or benefactors of the monastery, and its sacred adjuncts, or whose remains were interred within its consecrated walls. ' A more detailed description of the ornaments will be found to corroborate the probability of this notion. Little can be made out from the highest or outermost^scza ; which exhibits an elegant running pattern of tendrils and leaves, inter- spersed with figures of men and animals. Towards the centre the sculpture is much mutilated : we may trace, however, the effigy of a person in long robes, seized on the shoulder by some ferocious animal. Beyond him are the indistinct remains of thi'ee or four upright figures. A continuation of the foliage fills up the remainder of this^5c/<7. The second fascia comprises eighteen separate parts or ovals, each containing its dis- tinct subject : they may be individually described as follows. No. 1, defaced. No. 2, ditto. No. 3, a person kneeling, as may be conjectured from the position of the legs, the only remains of the effigy. No. 4, a female, with a high head-dress, sitting on a couch. No. 5, a female on horseback, riding astride. No. 6, a man on horseback, with stirrups to his saddle. No. 7) a crowned personage on horseback, with a large saddle, and stirrups to it. No. 8, the body of a deceased person, stretched on a couch, with a canopy over it ; the corpse covered, and the head resting on a pillow. No. 9, ditto. No. 10, ditto. No. 11, a knight in a coat of chain armour, with a pointed shield, charged with a cross, indica- tive of a crusader. No. IS, a regal personage, with a flowing beard, and in long robes, crowned, and sitting on a throne. No. 13, a knight in chain armour, with a pointed shield charged with a cross, and falling from his horse, as if mortally wounded in battle. No. 14, a figure armed like the former one, his right arm stretched out, and holding a sword, which impales an infant. No. 1,5, the upright figure of a female with, a veil, apparently in male costume. No. 16, a deceased person stretched out on a couch, as before. No. 17, unintelligible. No. 18, the figure of a pilgrim, with his usual accompaniments — the bQurdonoY staff; the leathern scrip or mantica over his shoulder ; and the sclavina,. or long and coarse pilgrim's robe. The intervals between these ovals exhibit tasteful patterns of foliage, worked by a master hand. These subjects all indicate that something of real action was connected with them ; the royal personages being, probably, effigies of those monarchs who had endowed the monastery with its numerous and high privileges ; the recumbent figures commemorating such of its benefactors as had djed peacefully in their beds; and the warlike ones, those who were desirous of commuting the punishment due to violent and atrocious actions, for those bles- sings hereafter, which, in the middle ages, were taught and believed to be the aertain por-, tion of all benefactors to the church. xl The {ouTthJascia, the lowest In the series, is also much mutilated, but has doubtless a reference to some act of munificence bestowed upon the monastery, from the canopied couch It displays with a figure recumbent upon it j and the representations of several angels, which seem to be guarding or attending It. But whether or not the above interpretation of the sculpture of this magnificent portal be considered as carrying any probability with It, the figures themselves are, notwithstanding, very Interesting, not only from their correct execution, but because they furnish satisfactory evidence for determining the «era of the erection of St. Joseph's Chapel. The portal Is evidently identified with the fabric, and formed a part of its original plan. The ornaments, therefore, vpould be coeval with Its structure; and, as they point to the costume, and manners, and history of the latter end of the eleventh and the beginning of the twelfth centuries, it Is perfectly allowable to adduce this sculptural masonry as an additional proof to what will be urged, hei'eafter, of the erection of Joseph's chapel, about the period of Herlewin's abbacy, which extended from 1101 to 1120. Plate IV. South- Postal of St. Joseph's ChapeU This portal, which formed the southern entrance into the chapel, was constructed- on a similar plan with the other, except that It has five Instead of (our fascice. Of these the first, second, and fifth, (taking them in a descending series,) are covered with a graceful pattern of finely-chiselled j^MjWa^^, the third is plain, and the fourth one only partially worked. It was obviously Intended to complete this fascia in a series of oval compart- ments, similar to the second fascia of the northern portal. Only two of these ovals, how- ever, have been executed, at the lower extremity of the western side ; the under one representing the creation of man, the other, the eating of " the fruit " Of that forbidden tree, whose /mortal taste " Brought death into the world, and all our woe." In the former is seen an upright figure, with a nimbus or glory round his head, designating the Almighty in the act of calling man into being, and^at his feet man himself, the product of his fiat ; and In the latter, the sculptor has represented the fatal tree, Satan behind It, and Adam and Eve sating themselves with the interdicted apples. Had the design been completed, it is clear that the whole of this, and probably of the third, fascia would have been occupied with a regular chronological series of scriptural histories. Why the work should have proceeded no further it is Impossible to say : perhaps the death of the muni- ficent builder of the chapel (Herlewinus) Intervened, and his successor had no funds, or no inclination, to finish the structure at the e:-pense, or to the extent, which Herlewinus. had contemplated. We may, however. Infer from this unfinished part of the portal, that it was the practice of the extraordinary architectural workmen of these times, (whoever they were,) to execute all their finer sculpture after the substantial masonry had been xli finished. Near this portal, to the right, are deeply cut into the flat surface of the wall, in fine Gothic characters, the words ^t&\ifi JWaria* Plate V. South-East View of St. Joseph's Chapel. This is, perhaps, the most striking point of view which the august Ruins of Glaston -Abbey afford. The recesses of the chapel, seen only partially through the opening of a splendid arch, throw a character of mystery arid solemnity over the scene, fixing the gaze by its singularity, deeply affecting the mind, and powerfully acting on the imaginative faculty. The receding semicircular windows and intersecting arches of its northern side, and the beautiful triarial and mullioned window at its western extremity, all elaborately wrought and richly ornamented, present one of the finest specimens extant of what may be properly termed the Anglo-Norman architecture ; a style which did not preserve i(s purity beyond the middle of the twelfth century, when the Gothic began to mingle its more airy graces with the sober. features of our earlier ecclesiastical structures ; and in a short time led captive the public taste to its gayer, but less solid and simpler, charms. But the thinking faculty is not less interested than the eye, at this glance into the interior of Joseph's Chapel. It contemplates the Golgotha of distant ages, — the silent and desolated spot, where kings, proud in territory and power ; warriors, mighty in strength and valour ; ecclesiastics, high in dignity and influence ; terminated their violent, or san- guinary, or ambitious careers, in one common grave ; serving only as a practical comment on the poet's moral stanza, — " A little rulei a little sway, " A sunshine in a winter's day, " Are aU the great and mighty have " Between the cradle and the grave." Fancy, too, will awaken the forms and objects which once peopled this hallowed spot — the vested abbot, and his attendant monks; the prince and chieftain, humbled for a moment, weeping in contrition, or prostrate in prayer ; the wandering palmer, offering his thanksgivings, or pouring out his vows ; the credulous devotee, seeking soundness and health at its miraculous water ; the long, imposing processions ; the daily ritual ; the mid- night mass; the smoking incense ; and the stupendous altar, which sparkled with " the " wealth of Ormus, and of Ind," "vessels of gold, and vessels of silver," gems, relics^ embroidery, and brocade. Nor will her vision fail of its improving effect, if Fancy will always listen, as in the case of a modern popular Bard, to the comparison that reason suggests between this gaudy picture of Papal superstition, and the sober character of the Reformed system of faith and worship. xKi mmtomuvn mttp, ami 2129^10 Ctattft^valt IWritten after viewituf tfi£ RumSofUie one, and hearing ^ CsURfS SMuri-QE in the other^ June. 18th, 1635.:i Glory and boast of Avalok's {ak valej* How beautiful thy ancient turrets rose L Fancy yet sees them in the sunshine pale Gleaming, or more majestic in repose, — When, west-away, the crimson landscape glows,— Casting their shadow on the watersf wide. How sweet the sounds, that, at still day-light'S close, Came bltended with the airs of eventide. When thro' the glimmering aisle faint " misereres" died i But all is silent now I — silent the bell, That, heard from yonder ivied turret high, Wam'd the cowl'd brother from his midnight cell; — Silent the vesper chaunt — ^the Litany Responsive to the organ ! — scatter'd lie The wrecks of the proud Pile, 'mid arches greyj — Whilst hollow winds through mantling ivy sigh, And e'en the mould'ring shrine is rent away. Where, in his warrior weeds, the. British Arxhub lay.. Now look upon the sister Fane of Wells ! — It lifts its forehead in the lucid air, — Sweet o'er the champain sound its Sabbath bells,— Its roof roUs back the chaunt, or voice of prayer. Anxious we ask, " Will Heav'n that temple spare? " Or mortal tempest sweep it from its state ? " Oh ! say, shall time revere that fabric fair, " Or shall it meet, in distant years, thy fate, " Shatter'd, Proud Pile, like thee> and left as desolate ?" • Glastonbury Abbe;. ■); The Vale of' Avalon was surrounded by waters at the time. King Arthur is described as buried in the Island of Avalon. Part of a sculptured Lion remains ; and it may be observed, that Leland, in his Itinerary, speaks of " Dm Leowes sub pidibus Arlhuri." The masonry over the sacred Well, discovered by Mr. Warner, is eminently beautiful. ' xliii NO! to Subdue or elevate the soxil, Our best, our purest, feelings to refine, Still, shall the solemn Diapasons roll Through that high Fane ! still hues reflected shine, From the tall windows, on the sculptur'd shrine. Tinging the pavement ! for He shall afford — He who directs the storm — ^his aid divine. Because its Sion has not left thy word,* Nor sought for other guide than Thee, Almighty Lord? W. L. Bowles. * However ffisposed to consider with the utmost latitude of charity the religious opinions of all who profess a belief different from our own, this observation must be made : — If DmwE Revelation be submitted to human interpretation, and infallibility claimed for this interpretation, then revelation is no longer divine but human ! This is the nucleus of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Question. The Church of England maintains, that there is nothing infallible but the Woan of Gob : upon " this " Rock" her bulwarks are founded. It is a singular fact, that the last meeting of the BfflLE Society was held amidst the august desolation of Glastonbury Abbey. Plate VI. A General View of the Rums from the East. This view carries the eye through the choir of the Abbey Church, and the space occu- pied by its gigantic nave, to the arch that formed the eastern termination of what is usually called St. Joseph's Chapel ; through which it catches a glance of the interior of this fabric, and sees above it the westernmost of its two remaining turrets. The vast masses of masonry which rise in the centre of the picture, are the remains of two of the four main piers, on which rested the tower of the church, crowning originally the four magnificent arches, that connected, on the east and west, the chancel and the body of the church ; and on the two opposite points, the north and south transepts. Attached to the north-eastern pier, and running at right angles with it, are seen the remains of two chapels, said to be those of St. Edgar and St. Mary ; and to the left or south-west of the fabric, at the distance of fifty or sixty yards, the Abbot's kitchen, " Which long has ^tood the rage of conq'rlng years, " Inviolate,'' presents itself in its primasval form, and almost pristine integrity. If the spectator move a few feet to the left hand of the spot from whence the drawing was made, he has the whole range of Ruins immediately before his eye, and looks through a range of arches, columns, detached masses, and better-preserved walls and turrets, for a length of five hundred feet— a coup d'ml not, perhaps, to be equalled in extent and mag- nificence by any ruins of a similar description in Europe. But he will be surprised by an incongruity in the objects, while he is struck with their general effect ; for, singular to say, the architects of Glaston Abbey Church, in their successive additions to St. Joseph's Chapel, did not observe a direct longitudinal line from the central point of its western G 2 terminating wall to the same spot at the eastern end ; so that, in order to obtain a view of the triarial window at the end of St. Joseph's Chapel, from the two great piers at the eastern extremity of the nave,, it is necessary to quit the middle point between them, and approach nearer, by some feet, to the northern than the southern pier. The scite of the Gothic residence which Mr. Reeves, the purchaser of the Abbey inclosure, is about to erect to the eastward of the Ruins, (after the fine designs of Mr. Buckler, of Spa-road,^ Bermondsey,) will command the whole of the superb range ; and give to the mansion a view, which (when the judicious plantations now in progress shall have excluded all inharmonious features from it) will be one of equal rarity and beauty. It must be confessed, however, that impressive as these Ruins now are, they have been deprived, in no small degree, of their interest, within these few years, by an injudicious, and almost total, destruction of the rich mantle of ivy, which overspread their features before the year I8O7.* It was " in evil hour," that the Society of Antiquaries sent down an architectural draughtsman to take admeasurements^ and make drawings, of the Glaston Abbey Ruins. He executed his commission with, sufficient accuracy and skill ; but he inflicted an injury upon his subj^ect, which it will require time and taste entirely to repair. The exuberant evergreen had, indeed, enveloped many of the archi- tectural beauties of the fabrick, and in some spots, had insinuated its growing branches so intimately among the tracery, as to endanger this ornamental part of the masonry. Here, then, the pruning hook might have been properly applied ; luxuriancies might have been pared away ; openings made sufficiently spacious to give the character of the feature which had been obscured ; and ramifications cut off, whose increasing bulk would, in time, have torn off the fillagreed sculpture. But, instead of this allowable decimation, an order was issued for a general massacre, and fire and sword were let loose upon the whole venerable mass ; part of it was burned, and the rest otherwise destroyed. Nx>thing could be more, out of taste than such a proceeding. To ruins of every description, and more espe- cially to ecclesiastical ones, the accompaniment of ivy is essential, for the production of that impression on the mind, which these remains are so well calculated to make. The very contrast which it affords to the grey surface of the time-worn walls, is in itself agreeable ; and the associations identified with it,, classical and domestic, awaken trains of thought, both in the scholar and the man of plainer feelings and calmer contemplation, which may be numbered among the best enjoyments of the reflecting faculty. No one art should be suffered to infringe upon the rights of another; nor can the architectural draughts- man stand excused, if, in his zeal to display some of the minuter wonders of the chisel, he violates the charms of the picturesque, and robs both the eye and the mind of more pleasing, effects, and higher enjoyments, than all his fancied improvements can ofifer as their recompense. * When Wie were at Glastonbury, a few years previously to this act of havock, we remarked that the immense massof ivy, which clothed St. Joseph's Chapel, was thrown over the building chiefly from a cluster of stems, attached to the north-west turret, (the offspring of one root,) measuring in diameter full two and twenty indies. Xlv: The care and attention, however, of Mr. Reeves in the restoration of the ivy covering, will, we doubt not, in the course of three or four years, cast another beautiful and less over- whelming mantle of this plant over the ruins of Glaston Abbey. Plate VII. The Abbey Kitchen* This building is formed entirely of stone. Mr. Grose preserves a tradition, which, while it attributes its erection to the time of Henry VIII., gives a reason foi: the exclusive use of this material in its construction. " Tradition says, that " Henry VIH. having some disputes with one of the Abbots, threatened to burn "his kitchen, thereby insinuating a reproach for his gluttony and luxurious manner " of living ; to which the Abbot haughtily answered, that he would build such an one, " that all the wood in the royal forests should not suffice to accomplish that threat, ** and forthwith erected the present edifice."t Mr. Grose adds, " that it might be " true of some former king, but the building seems rather older than the time of " Henry "VIII." This, indeed, is the fact, for though we no where find the exact time of its erection, it is clear, from a hint in John of Glastonbury, that it was standing in the time of Abbot Nicholas Frome, who died in 1456.1: Dr. Stukeley has given a pretty accurate description of this singular building ; but no verbal account can convey a complete idea of its admirable plan, and ingenious contrivance, by an apparatus of double tunnels, to ri^ the apartment below both of smoke and steam. To be understood and properly appreciated, it must be seen and examined. " 'Tis formed," remarks Stukeley, "from an •' octagon included in a square: four fire-places fill the four angles, having chimnies over " them : in the flat part of the roof, between these, rises the arched octagonal pyramid, " crowned with a double lanthorn, one within another. There are eight curved ribs " within, which support this vault, and eight funnels for letting out the steam through " windows, within which, in a lesser pyramid, hung the bell to call the poor people to the " adjacent almery, whose ruins are on the north side of the kitchen. The stones of " the pyramidal roof are all cut slantingj with the same bevils, to throw off the rain.§" The officers connected with this branch of the monastic establishment at Glaston,. were very numerous ; for the kitchen supplied, not only the conventual family, but provided,- also, for a large company of guests, who were perpetually sharing the hospitality of the Monks, and a crowd of indigent beggars, who daily surrounded their gates. The chief of these * Some have supposed that this fabric was not for the exclusive use of the Abbot, but served the purposes both of the convent and himself; led to this opinion by the marks of a separating barrier, which divided two of the chimnies from the others. But whatever this appearance may mean, it is clear, from an ancient inventory of the buildings of the monastery, given in a subsequent article, that there were two kitchens, one for the convent, and another for the abbot. The one which now engages our attention was probably the latter, as tradition has always declared it to have been. t Antlq. vol v, p. 30. :j: John Glast, 280., § It. Curios.^ it. vi. p. U4* xlvl officers was the magister coqulrus, or kitchener, a situation of ample power and privilege. Without his permission, the Abbot could not contract any of the manors assigned to the use of the kitchen. When he happened to dine at the table with the servants, his presence was presumed to give such respectability to the company, that it was not beneath the dignity of any stranger abbot to take his meal at the same board. To him, also, a solatium was allowed, a friend or companion, who lived with him on terms of intimacy, and consoled him with his constant society. He had, further, the privilege of a horse, and was permitted to make purchases for the convent at distant markets. Under him were the coquinarii, or cooks, the chief of whom was always chosen for his superior skill in tHe culinary art.* A long train of inferior domestics filled the subordinate offices of this department of the Monastery. To provide for the large and constant expenses of the kitchen, an ample proportion of the monastic property was permanently assigned by every religious house. In Domesday Book, we meet with many instances of estates given ad cibum et ad victum monachorum: and, in John of Glastonbury, we have an instance of an assignment by Abbot John of Breynton, in the middle of the fourteenth century, who ^ave eight marks annually, from a place called Monk's-Croft in Northlode, to the use of the kitchen.t Thus amply provided with the means and facilities of good living, as the Monks appear to have been, it was out of nature to expect that they should have resisted a temptation so alluringly and constantly spread before them. The monotonous tenor of their lives rendered the stimulus of the carousal essentially necessary to them. Man, if he has nothing praise- worthy to do, will always be doing something that is wrong ; and the mind in cloistered life, dead to that activity which the bustle and intercourse of general society can best excite, soon sinks into irremediable dulness, unless it be kept awake, by the anticipation, or actual enjoyment, of some sensual indulgence. A proneness to luxurious living, therefore, and a fondness for good cheer, may be expected, and are found, in the character of the monastics of old times; and, doubtless, those of Glastonbury shared in the common failings of their contemporaries : a weakness, or a vice, (according to its degree,) of which the poets and satirists of the day did not fail to remind them. * FuUer's Church Hist. b. 6. Andrews's Great Brit. vol. i. p. 2. In the escheat rolls of the 1st of Edward I. WiUiam PasttireU is mentioned as holding twelve bxgangs in Glastonbury of the Abbot thereof, by the service of finding a cook in the kitchen of the said Abbot, and a baker in the bake-house. We may fairly suppose, however, that this singular tenure referred only to one of the inferior coquinarii: the Abbot and his Monks would never have left the choice of the principal one to so unskilful a gastronomist as a tiller of oxgangs. -j- P. 269. " Notwithstanding the appointments made for the support of the Kitchen of Glaston " Abbey, its expenses sometimes outran its income. Abbot Adam de Sodbury, about 1330, relieved it from " an embarrassment of tliis kind by presenting to it one hundred marks. Ad relevacionem coquinse Conventus, " sere alieno oppressse ultra centum sexaginta libras, quas coquinarii solent annuatim de baronia percipere, " gratis contulit centum marcas." — P. 268. " The manor of Up-Lyme, Dorset, was one of several others, the " profits of which were given, from very ancient times, to the kitchen of the Mciaastery." John Glas. p. 200. In the time of the early Anglo-Norman Icings, probably soon after the Conquest, a satirical Bard exercised his wit (in a poem preserved by Hickes) on this popular subject, and lashed the luxury of the Monks, under the idea of a monastery constructed of various kinds of delicious viands, in the following humorous lines : " Ther is a wel fair abbei" (There is a beautiful abbey) " Of white monkes and of grei," (Of grey and white clad monks,) *' Ther beth boures and halles," (There are chambers and halls,) " All of pasteus beth the walles/'' {The walls are made of pasties,) " Of fleis of fisse, and a rich met," (Of shoals of fish, and all or every rich meat.) ',' Fluren cakes beth the schingles alle," (All the tilea are cakes of flour,) " Of church, cloister, hours (chambers), and halle, " The pinnies beth fat podinges, (The pinnacles are formed of fat puddings,) " Rich met (meat, foody to princes and to kings — '.'■.. ^i " Yite I do you mo to witte" (I would yet have you further to know) " The gees irosted on the spitte,"^ (The geese which have been roasted on the spit) " Fleey to that abbai, God hit wot," (Fly to- that abbey, G — d knows ! ) " Andgteedeth, gees all bote, allhote."* ^And ery out, '' Geese all hot, all hot.') And a Poet of a subsequent age has added a more odious feature than even excessive sensual indulgence, to the character of the generality of the Monks, by assuring us, that they persecuted such of their brethren as would not imitate their own inordinances : "" And if that one lived well and virtuously^ " In way of grace, like as he ought to go» " The remenent assaile him with envy, " And him oppresse with grievous payne and woe, " Until he followe like as the othfer do."i; Nor did the .prose wrfters oT theperiod neglect to vituperate these cloistered revellers, for their dainty and' extraVagaiit diet. Giraldus Cambrehsis, who wrote in the reign of * Warton's Hist. Eng; Poetry, vol.-i. page 10, edit. 1824. f Barclay's Ship of Fools, 236, b. xlvili Heijry II. speaks thus of the conventual luxury of Canterbury and Winchester.* " Their " table (tliat of the Canterbury Monks) consisted regularly of sixteen covers, or more, of *' the most costly dainties, dressed with the most exquisite cookery, to provoke the appe- " tite and please the taste. They had an excessive abundance of wine, particularly claret, " of mulberry wine, of mead, and other strong liquors, the variety of which was so great " in these respects, that no place could be found for ale, though the best was made in " England, and particularly in Kent." And of the Prior and Monks of St. Swithin, he says, " they threw themselves prostrate at the feet of King Henry II. and with many tears " complained to him, that the Bishop of that diocese, to whom they were subject, as their " abbot, had withdrawn from them three of the usual number of their dishes. Henry " enquired of them how many there still remained, and being informed they had ten, he " said that he himself was contented with three ; and im.precat;ed a curse on the Bishop, if " he did not reduce them to that number." It was in allusion to this characteristic feature of the conventual life, that some wit, of modern days, inscribed, on a pane of glass in one of the windows of the White Hart Inn, Glastonbury, the following distich, on the present state of its Abbey Kitchen : " Templa ruunt, sacrceque domus, sedtuta, palati " TcmJta fuU monachis euro, Culina manet." Which may be thus Englished, — While sinks the sacwd j)ile by ruffian hands, ^ A type of gluttony, the Kitchen stands- The entrance into the Kitchen is on .the south side, through a large door-way; near which the remains ef an oven may be distinguished, its mouth opening into the south-east fire-place. The west and north sides have large windows. Another door opened to the east, which has been some time walled up, and the figure of an abbot inserted in the masonry, which was found in excavating the area, near the north-east pier of the nave of the Abbey Chureh, In 179^. The dimensions of this singularly curious building are these-: it formed an exact sqnar£ below the chiinney->hcads, and an exact octagon above tliem. Feet. Iucli«8, Length «f jej«3h-side of the square, externally - - - 40 Breadth of the area, from the head of one of the chimnies to another . ^ .._.... 33 jj^ Height of the structure to the top of the lanthorn - - 74 Ditto to the top of the square from whiclr the octagonal roof springs -------.. 28 Ditto from the ground to the foot of the lower lanthorn - 4^3 * Grose's Preface to his Antiquities, p. 60, note (b.) xlix The massiveness and stability with which this and other parts of the monastic buildings were constructed, may be estimated from a fragment of the almery, very near to the kitchen, on its northern side. At the base of this ruin may be seen an arch, which leads to the remains of a staircase, contrived in the thickness of the wall, over which a rude mass of stonework beetles for several feet, supported in this projecting state entirely by the unconquerable firmness of the mortar. This tenacity in the cement, indeed, is very common to all ancient structures, and is supposed to be produced by a crystallization of the constituent parts of the mortar; which, by this natural process, becomes harder than the materials of which the edifice is formed. Pirate VIII. The Abbey Barn. As our monastic houses received a great proportion of their rents in kind, it was neces- sary for them to have, on all their estates, secure depositories for the reception and preservation of the different species of agricultural produce. Hence, on every manor, a ham made a part of the conventual buildings, which was large or otherwise, according to the extent of the property whose grain was to be stowed within it. One of the largest buildings of this description in England was the barn belonging to the Abbey of Beaulieu, in Hampshire, called St. Leonard's, (from being dedicated to that saint,) which measured 226 feet in length, 77 in breadth, and 60 feet in height. Its gavel ends, and ruined walls, include, at present, a considerable modern barn within them, which appears quite diminutive in the spacious area.* The Barn of Glaston Abbey (situated at the eastern end of the town) is by no means on this extensive scale, measuring only 90 feet in length, and 60 feet in width from door to door ; but nothing of the kind excels it in solidity and elegance of architecture. Its squared firm masonry, and well-finished roof, have preserv.ed it unimpaired for upwards of three centuries, and bid fair to secure its integrity through an equal lapse of years j and its more delicate ornaments, — its efiigies, figures, and highly-sculptured pannels, though much effaced by the hand of time, still evince the labour and art which were bestowed originally on the structure, and prove the importance which the Monks attached to these appendages of their possessions. On the apex of one of the gable ends stands the time-worn statue of a male figure, clad in robes (probably of the abbot who built it); and, on the opposite, that of a female, in like decay, with equal likelihood, the image of the Virgin Mary ; for the Monks were accustomed, and it was sagaciously done, to call in the influence of the " religio loci" to protect their property ; and guarded the depot of their grain, by consecrating it to their patron saint, as their prototypes, the mythologists of Rome, had done before them, in shielding their fields by the eflSgies of Silvanus, and their gardens by the representations of a less seemly deity.t * Warner's Topog. Remarks on tte South- West pai-t of Hampshire, vol. i. p. 334. •f Hor. Sat. viii. lib. 1. D". Epod. od. ii. Vii^. Ec. vii. Geor. iv. 110. H Plate IX. The Abbey Clocz. The art of measuring time by the mechanism of doch-'worJc, strictly so called, is, com- paratively, a modem invention. The ancients effected it, though in a very imperfect manner, by their clepsydra^ which, as the name imports, was a water apparatus : and Alfred was content to ascertain the periods of time which he devoted to his various successive duties, by the assistance of waxen tapers, or lighted lanthorns. It is a curious circumstance, however, (which shews how much forwarder the East was in scientific discovery than the nations of Europe,) that, at this very period, the Persians had made an approach to modern horological mechanism, by blending together the principles of the clepsydra and the clock of more recent days. ♦• They imported a machine into Europe," says the learned Author of the History of English Poetry, " which presented the first rudiments of a striking clock. " It was brought as a present to Charlemagne, from Abdalla, king of Persia, by two Monks of " Jerusalem, in the year 800." " Among other presents," says Eginhart, " was an horologe " of brass, wonderfully constructed by some mechanical artifice, in which the course of the " twelve hours, (^ac? celpsydram vertebatur,) with as many little brazen balls, which, at the '• close of each hour, droppeth down on a sort of bells underneath, and sounded the end of " the hour. There were, also, twelve figures of horsemen, who, when the twelve hours " were completed, Jssued out at twelve windows, which till then stood open, and returning " again shut the windows after them." He adds, " that there were many other curio- *' sities in this instrument, which it would be tedious to recount."* It should seem that this piece of mechanism was the original model of that complicated system of whimsical ornament, which was adopted in aftertimes in the horological art ; and which we find, in the subject of the present plate, so ably represented by the masterly pencil of Mr. Buckler. This curious timepiece was executed by Peter Lightfoot, a monk of Glastonbury, but at the expense of Adam de Sodbury, who was promoted to the abbacy in 1322.t It appears to have been originally placed (if we clearly comprehend William of Worcester_)l! in the south transept of Glaston Abbey Church, where it continued till the^dissolution ; when, tradition says, it was carried to Wells, and placed in the north transept of the Cathedral, with all its appendages, the figure which strikes the quarters with his feet on two little bells within the church, and the two knights who perform the same office with their battle-axes, on the outside. * Eginhart Car. Mag. p. 108. Hist. Eng. Poets, vol.i. p. 125, edit. 1824. t Magnum Horologium processionibus, et spectaculis insignitmn construxit. John. Glas. 263. X Longitudo brachiorum (the transepts) juxta chomm a bori^ in meridiem versus fc m-lcu/e (the horologium, or clock) ninety-six gressus. Will. Wor. p. 393. li The horologe itself Is of very curious construction. Its diameter is about six feet six inches ; and its dial, divided into twenty-four hours, shews the solar motions, and age and phases of the moon. Above the dial-plate is an apparatus, consisting of two pieces of curved wood, which bear four figures, (two on each piece,) equipped for the tournament, and so contrived, by the connection of a wheel with the clock, as to continue crossing each other with great rapidity, as if running at the ring, at the striking of every hour. The interior works of the clock are of metal ; not differing in principle from the mechanism of the present clock, except that the apparatus for the movements of the dial-plate are some- what complicated. In the central part of this face are two circles, each having its inscription, allusive to the different operations of the machine. That of semper peragrat Phcebe crowns a female figure in one of these compartments. The other, which exhibits a moon waxing towards the full, is surrounded by an inscription far less intelligible. The following few and imperfect words are made out, by the help of conjectural additions, from a fae-simile very kindly transmitted to us by P. Davis Sherston, esq; of Stoberry Park ^ ab hinc MONSTRAT MICRO ERicus ARCHERYPUNG. The meaning of the legend seems to be, that in this microcosm are shewn all the wonders of the vast sidereal hemisphere. The conclusion may be a proper name connected with the construction of the machine. A dial of the kind we have been describing is alluded to in a general way by Shake- speare; " He'll sleep the horologe a double set ;" And Chaucer, two centuries before him, in his animated portrait of the " cock, highte " chaunticlere," makes more specific mention of it : " Well sikerer (surer) was Ms crowing in his loge (pen) " Than is a clok, or any abbey orloge," Plate X. The Old Market-Cross. This structure, which stood at the divarication of the streets at the bottom of the town, was taken down in 1808, in furtherance of a judicious plan for the general Improve- ment of Glastonbury. It seems to have been built late In the sixteenth, or early in the seventeenth century, and was occasionally used as a market-house. The plate shews the plan of its structure— a roof supported by nine pointed arches, and a large central pillar. A rude stone figure stood on Its apex. H 3 lii Plate XI. The Churcs of St. John the Baptist^ and two Fragments of Sculpture. It has been frequently remarked, and with great truth, that no county in England can boast so many splendid or curious parish churches as that of Somerset. The singularity in pattern which appears in many of the larger ones, or, at least, the general resemblance of their magnificent towers to each other, has been accounted for, by supposing, that the loyal adherence of the county to the cause of Lancaster had conciliated the favour of the princes of that line, who had evinced their gratitude, either by rebuilding a considerable number of the churches altogether, or adding, to the bodies of these fabrics, the lofty and highly ornamented towers by which they are characterized.* But allowing, for a mon;ient, this improbable supposition to be true, we still have to account for the architectural beauties and internal curiosities of the smaller churches in Somersetshire ; most of which bear evi- dent marks of an antiquity far anterior to the struggles between the two hostile Roses. The churches dependent on, or connected with, the Abbey of Glaston, — the Pennards, Mere, Weston-Zoyland, Pilton, Ditcheat, Ashcot, Shepton-Mallet, &c. and those stretching from Long-Ashton to "Weston-super-Mare, and from thence, bordering upon the south shore of the Severn, quite to the western extremity of Somersetshire, contain such a col- lection of marvellously-carved oaken roofs, rich rood-lofts, beautiful stone pulpits, ancient baptisteria, confessionals, &c. as are not to be paralleled in any like extent of country ; which manifest not only a deep antiquity, and a great original cost bestowed upon them, but also that they have had the good fortune to preserve their primaeval interior features, secure from the shocks and casualties which have robbed the larger proportion of English churches of all their similar ancient internal ornaments. The problem, however, of their original decorations, and subsequent preservation, is easy of solution. Most of the sesmaller churches were either built by, or dependent on, some of the rich religious houses which crowded the county of Somerset ; and as the abbots and priors of these establishments were sufficiently liberal in the erection, and laudably careful in the decoration, of the distant places of worship under their patronage, so no cost or labour was spared, in the first instance, to furnish them with those accommodations or ornamented adjuncts, which the ritual of the times required ; and no zeal wanting to preserve them in a perfect state, so long as the * " Most of the cturclies in Somersetshire (which are remarkably elegant) are in the style of the Jbmd " gothic. The reason is this : Somersetshire, in the civil wars between York and Lancaster, was strongly and " entirely attached to the Lancastrian party. In reward for this service, Henry VIL when he came to the " crown, rebuilt their churches. The tower of Gloucester cathedral, and the towers of the churches of " Taunton and Glastonbury, and of a parochial church at Wells, are conspicuous examples of that fashion; " Most of the churches of this reign are known, besides other distinctions, by latticed battlements,^ and Broad " open windows." — Warton, Spenser's Fairy Queen, vol. n,p, 259. liil monastic supervision continued. The other part of the problem k as readily explained, by the secluded or remote situation in which most of these churches are placed ; which kept them far aloof from the ravages of foreign war, or the more destructive devastation of civil contention ; and preserved them, consequently, from havoc, spoil, and desecration. The striking resemblance in the plans of the larger Somersetshire churches, more especially in the patterns of their quadrilateral towers, is a circumstance less easily to be accounted for. That they are not all of the same age, and consequently could not have been built under the same patron, or by the same architect, is'evident to any one at all versed in ancient ecclesiastical architecture. The gorgeous tower of Taunton, indeed, may have been built by the grateful Henry VII. at a time when the simpler beauties of the pure Gothic had been entirely superseded by the unmeaning meretricious ornaments of the florid style ; but, that the sober graces of St. John the Baptist's tower at Glaston should have been the production of the same era, is an hypothesis which cannot possibly be granted. Perhaps, after all, it may be admitted as reasonable to suppose, that, early in the fifteenth century, (for to that hundred years we would attribute most of the towers, if not the churches, in question,) some gifted architect arose, who, by an happy effort of skill, constructed one of these admirable fabrics. The model would soon surprise by its gran- deur, or captivate with its beauty; and imitations of it be adopted in other places, which, as time rolled on, and taste became more luxuriant, would depart more and more from the simple elegance of the first pattern, till the copy reached the acme of the rich Gothic, in the celebrated tower of Taunton church. If the reasonableness of such an hypothesis be allowed, it will not be out of probability to believe, that the tower of St. John the Baptist's church at Glastonbury (considering the style of its architecture) may claim the honour of having been the model, after which all the other magnificent ones of Somerset were built. But be this as it may, it cannot be questioned, that a more ancient ecclesiastic fabric stood on the spot which is now covered by the church in question ; for it is a matter of record, that, about the year 1200, one Ralph, who was a chaplain in the Monastery, and rector of the church of St. John in Glastonbury, " procured, at his own cost and pains," the appropriation df the same church to the Abbey of that place, converting it, by this mea- sure, from a rectory into a vicarage.* When this ancient edifice was taken down, and the present more recent church erected, or whether any parts of the original one remain, it is impossible to say ; though a few data, afforded by the curious accounts of the church- wardens of the parish, seem to indicate that its re-edification took place in the commence- ment of the fifteenth century. In the compotus (or account) of Walter Poole and Walter Willcokes, custodum bonorum ecclesie beati Johannis Baptiste, A. D, 1-128, is the follow- ing entry : Indiversis expensis factis circa reparacionem nqv^ ecclesie cum Porchia Ut in liberis petris tritandis et frangendis apud Doultyng (in quarrying, &c. freestone at Doulting, the quarries from which the Abbey itself was built) cum expensis pro eisdem • John. Glast. p.200. liv deinde apud Glastoniam cariandis ; 'walston (wall-stone) tritandis et Jragendis apud Strete cum eisdcm domum cariandis ; xxix quarteris vj bz (bushels) calcis emptis, uno novo ostio ecclesie facto (the southern porch; diversis ferramentis <§- clavibus emptis pro eodem ostio, <§• siipendiis diver sorum latomorum <§• cementariorum (tilers and plasterers) per ebdomadas, ul patet per cedulam coram parochianis monstratam xli. x\is. vd. But the proof of the date of St. John the Baptist's church does not rest on this extract alone. Among the same documents is an account without date» headed thus : Compotus Thome Colbrook super visoris fabrice ecclesie Sancti Johannis ibidem. In this we find the fol- lowing entries : Et de xiid. de tabulo vendito J. Morthfield et Ricardo Attwelle, et de xxiiii/;. xiiiy. iiii confinement, and severe beating,, were inflicted; and sometimes death, induced by the severity of the inflictions. (Matt. Par. p. 1051.) Several fetters and links of chains have been found within the inclosure of Glaston Monastery, and are still preserved ; dire proofs of its having been the customary, place of incarceration. Davis tells us where it was situated : " Within the infirmary, underneath the master's " lodge, was a strong prison, called \h& Lying-House, ordained for great offenders, as for Monks guilty of felony " or adultery, where they were imprisoned, in chains, a whole year, without seeing any one, except the master " of the infirmary, in letting down their meat through a trap-door by a cord, and that at a great distance from " thei prisoners." Rites, &c.p. 148. Fuller cannot be serious, even on the subject oUhBgaok: " Oneroome " reniaines," says he, " last named, because least loved, even a prison for the punishment of incorrigible Monks, '^ who otherwise could not be ordered into obedience. It was a grand penance, imposed on the delinquents, to " carry about thelantorn (though light, an heavy burthen) ; but for such contumacious Monks as would not be " amended therewith, the Abbot had tetrum etfortem carcerem, a strong and hideous prison, where their obstinacie " was converted into reformation." Church Hist. p. 596, fol. 1656. Ixxii appended to the act of acknowledgement of Henry the Eighth's supremacy, signed by the Abbot and Monks of Glaston Abbey, aijd now preserved in the Chapter House, Westminster. The original seal (probably of silver, as was the case in all the rich religious houses) must have been a very superb one ; and, from the different forms of the arches, and other archi- tectural features represented on it, would appear to be as ancient as the time of Richard the Second ; unless, indeed, the roses and the^eur de lis, at the sides of the two parts, be thought to indicate a more recent date. The etching is of the same dimensions with the original impression. In the centre of the seal appear the figures of the three canonized abbots : that of St. Patrick to the left, of St. Dunstan in the middle, and of St. Benignus on the right hand : each has a mitre on his head, a pastoral staff in his left hand, while the right is lifted up in the act of benediction. Under the feet of the saints, are their respective names ; and beneath these, emblematic allusions to some particular in the history or character of the individuals. A legend surrounds each of these representations, but it is illegible. The inscription running round the verge of the seal may be read as follows : — ©onfirmant fiaSreief SCrfpti pontifi'ce!5 €«0. Something is wanting in the impression before 0Ctipt(t which should be supplied by COlt, the meaning evidently being, that these three personages were those heads of the house who had been enrolled, conscripti, in the calendar of Saints. The emblem under the figure of St. Patrick is a plant, and, probably, the shamrock, the external distinctive index of an Irishman: that beneath St. Dunstan is of more certain explication, referring, clearly, to the achievement of this saint, so much boasted of by the Monkish writers, and so admirably told by Caxton, in the " Golden Legend," printed A.D. 1493. " And thenne he was made Abbot of Glastenburye, by consent of the Kinge " and his brother Edmund ; and, in that place, ruled full well and relygiously the Monks, '• his brethren, and drewe them to holy lyvynge, by good example gyvyng. St. Dunstone " and Saint Ethevvolde were both made preestes in one daye ; and he was holy in contem- " plation. And when soo that Saint Dunston was wery of prayer, thenne used he to werke " in goldsmythes* work, wyth his own hands, for to eschewe ydleness ; and he gave alwaye ' ' almesse to poure people, for the love of God ; and on a time as he sat at his werke, his * ' hert was on Jehesu Cryst, his mouth occupied wyth holy prayers, and his hands besi on his " werke ; but the devil, which ever had grete envye at him, came to him, in an eventyde, " in likeness of a woman, (as he was busy to make achalys,) and, with smyling, said it, " she had greate thynges to tell him ; and thenne he bade her say what she wolde, and " thenne she began to tell him many nice trifilles, and no manor therein ; and then he " supposed that she was a wyoked spirite, and an one (anon) caught her by the nose wyth a " payre of tongues of iron, brenninge bote, and thenne the devyelle began to rore and crye, " and faste drewe away, but Saynte Duustone held fast, tyll it was ferre within the night, " and then he let her goo, and the fende departed, with an horrible noise and crie, and sayd, " that all the people mighte here, Alas! what shame hath this carle done me ! How may I best *' quyte him agen ? But never after the deuyell had never lust to tempte him in that crafte.'* Ixxili Osbernus, precentor and sub-prior of the Monastery of Christchurch, Canterbury, who wrote the life of Dunstan, relates the same story, with this additional circumstance : that " the foul fiend, whilst under the pinchers of the saint, called him bald pate, his hair being, " as his historian observes, rather thin."* The device under St. Benignus consists of a party of fishes. What connection these tenants of the waters had with his labours, we are not aware. Perhaps he preached to them, as St. Anthony did. The counterpart of the seal is equally interesting. The figures in the centre are, — St. Catherine to the left, with a sword in the right hand, and her tvheel'm the other; the Virgin Mary, in the middle, bearing the child Jesus in her left arm, and having an olive branch in her right hand, loaded with fruit, a plant, which, when associated with the Saviour and his Mother, always indicates the Prince of Peace; and St. Margaret to the right, treading on a serpent, and supporting herself on a staff surmounted with a cross. The figures are crowned, to shew their canonization. Beneath their feet are their names ; and under those of St. Catherine, and St. Margaret, are doves, as emblems of their innocence. Under the name of the Virgin, is a representation of the great church of Glaston, dedicated to her ; which, rude as it is, at least determines that its great tower was originally surmounted by a spire. The legend on the counterpart, as far as it can be made out, is as follows : — Testis adest isti scrip itrix pia xri Glastonie. It is an invocation to the holy Virgin to sanction and corroborate the contents of the document, whatever they might be, to which the seal was applied. The emblems of Catherine and Margaret are fully illustrated by Caxton in his Golden Legend, both by wood cuts and verbal description. St. Catherine is there represented with a sword in her right hand, and an open book in her left. A broken wheel is by her side : on this, it seems, armed with razors, .she was to be tormented. '• And then," says Caxton, " the blessed Virgyn prayde our Lorde, that he wold breke these engynes, to the praysing " of his name, and to converte the people that were ther. And, anone, as this blessed Virgin " was set at this torment, the aungell of our Lord brake the wheles by so great force, that " it slew foure thousand Paynyms." (fol. 133.) The woodcut of St. Margaret shews her kneeling on a vast dragon or serpent, and holding a cross. She was condemned to martyr- dom by the " Provost of i\ntioch." " And than appeared an horryle dragon and assayled her, " and wolde have devoured her, but she made the sygue of the crosse, and anone he " vanyshed away. And the fend came to her (again) and took her by the hande, and sayd, " itsuffyseth to thee that thou hast done, but now cease as to my person. She caught him ' by the heed, and threw him to the grounde, and set her right foot on his neck, saying, " lye styll, thou fende, under the fote of a woman." (lb. fol. 144.) * John of Glaston gives the fiend's exclamation, " 01 quid fecit calvus iste!" and adds, that the tongsi were still preserved at Glaston, in testimony of the fact. P. 117. Ixxiv The Watce of Abbot Whiting, and his Secbmtum or Private Seal appending.^ These relics are in the possession of the Rev. JohnBowen, of Portland-place, Bath, vicar of Mudford, Somerset, perpetual curate of Godney, near Glastonbury, minister of Margaret cha- pel, Bath, and a magistrate and deputy lieutenant for the same county j who most obligingly and readily allowed a drawing to be made of them, for the use of this work. The proofs of the genuineness of these articles, and the account of their descent to the present time, are as follow. In the year 1783, Mr. Bowen, being then vicar of Bishop's Lydeard, Somersetshire, purchased of Mr. Howe, a watchmaker in that parish, the articles in question. Mr. Howe had bought them, some time before, at a sale by auction of the goods of the Rev. Mr. Paine deceased, who had lived to the advanced age of one hundred years. In the family of this gentleman a tradition was preserved, that the watch and seal had been successively worn by himself, his father, and grandfather, all the time they were at Oxford, of which University they had all been members ; and that they had been purchased, by an ancestor of the grandfather, at the sale of Abbot Whiting's personal property, after his execution, and the dissolution of the monastery. Mr. Bowen considered himself particularly fortunate in becoming the possessor of such curious relics, as it enabled him to present them to Mrs. Bowen, who was descended, in a right line, from Mr. John Jeanes, who married Elizabeth, one of the two sisters of Abbot Whiting, about the beginning of the sixteenth century. Of the secretum, or private seal, of the Abbots, a full account is given in the " Observa- " tions on the Articles in the Appendix, No. xi." The one here represented as belonging to Abbot Whiting, must be of older date than the period when he lived. If it belonged to him, it was by inheritance, or gift. The legend, as far as it can be made out, gives the words Ave Maria. The device is the Holy Spirit, in the shape of a dove, descending on a pix held by two Monks. Plate XVIII. An Ancient Wooden Tankard, Armorial Bearings, and Impressions of Seals. The first of these articles, which, from its high antiquity, well deserved the dissertation written on it by Dr. Milner, in the eleventh volume of the Archaeolog. p. 411, is in the pos- session of the noble owner of Wardour, Wilts. It was made from heart of oak, lackered with a strong varnish ; and is now in perfect preservation, with the exception of the pegs uniting the handle with the cover, the former of which appears to have been broken, and repaired by an artist of inferior skill. It holds just two quarts, ale measure ; and there were originally eight pegs, placed one above another, ih the inside, which divided the con- tained liquor into equal quantities of half-a-pint each. The four uppermost of these pegs remain, and the holes are discernible from which the remaining four have fallen. On the lid is carved the crucifixion, with the figure of the blessed Virgin Mary on the right hand of our Saviour, and that of St. John on his left, together with a star over each of them, and Ixxv a clierub on either side. The knob on the handle, which was intended for the purpose of raising up the cover, represents a bunch of grapes. Round the body of the cup itself are carved the twelve apostles ; whose names, in capital letters, are inscribed on labels under their respective figures. Each of them holds in his hands an open book ; except St. Peter, who bears a key ; St. John, who supports a chalice ; and Judas Iscariot, who grasps at a purse. Beneath the labels of the Apostles are seen birds, beasts, and full-blown flowers, of difiFerent kinds ; and under these, again, serpents, which, by two and two joining their heads together, produce the forms of strange monsters ; but as in all these last-mentioned ornaments no consistent meaning is to be discovered, they may be attributed to the mere fancy of the artist. The three feet on which the cup stands, and which descend an inch below the body of it, consist of as many figures of lions couchant ; emblems so oflen adopted by our ancestors, probably, as the supporters of thrones, statues, monuments, and a variety of other things, in consequence of their having been employed for the same purpose in the throne of Solomon, as we learn in the first book of Kings x. 19, 20. The tankard appears to have been rescued from the hands of the spoilers of Glastonbury Abbey, at the dissolution of that monastery; and the plunder of its goods, by an ancestor of the present Lord Arundel, who was a catholic ; and to have been ever since preserved with the greatest care by the different heads of that family, who have always continued to profess the Romish faith. Its fortunes, indeed, have been rather singular. Endangered, as it was, at the wreck of the Abbey property, its jeopardy was not less at the time of the convul- sions in the seventeenth century j when the gallant Blanche Lady Arundel, having, with, twenty-five men, sustained a siege of nine days, in the castle of Wardour, against Sir- Edward Hungerford and Colonel Strode, and an army of thirteen hundred men, contrived, on her capitulation, to secrete this cup, together with certain other small articles of value ; and kept it in her possession to the end of her days. It is a relic of remote antiquity ; for Dr. Milner, by a train of very ingenious reasoning, renders it highly probable: that it was made in the Saxon times; and it is of singular curiosity, as it illustrates the law of King Edgar, suggested by Dunstan, which attempted to restrain the inebriety of the English, (introduced among them by the Danes,) by regulating the quantity of liquor to be drupk by one person, at one time, according to certain pegs or marks in the sides of the drinking vessels, which quantity was not to be exceeded, under the penalty of severe punishment. Vide Lambardes Archaionom. 53 ; and Strutt's Horda Angel Cynnan, vol. i. page 49. When the law of Edgar ceased to be regarded, (and its easy evasion would soon occasion its disuse,) the tankard in question, probably, became a grace-cup, jpoculum chariiatis, or ivassel bowl, which, in the greater monasteries, was placed on the abbot's table, at the upper end of the refectory, and quaffed by himself and the guests, with the formalities which are still observed in circulating the grace-cup, at some of our college and corporation feasts ; and used to be practised at the dinner given by the Mayor of Bath, on his assuming the authority of his official station. That the drinking vessels in the English monasteries were, in early times, chiefly formed of wood, is evident from a curious inventory (published t 2 Ixxvi by T. Hearne) of the goods of the Priory of Poghley, committed to the trust o£ John atte Hyde, when he was constituted steward of that religious house, in the forty-ninth year of Edward III., which mentions the following articles, " viii tangarda, quorum unum ferro " ligatur, i koustrel ferro ligatum, x eifi lignei ;" i. e. eight tankards, one of which was of wood, and bound with iron ; a pail of the same material, and strengthened in a similar way ; and ten wooden cups. (Hist, of Glaston, App. page 330.) It may be doubted, however, whether the mazers, or common drinking. cups, of the Benedictine monks, were furnished only with a single handle, as it was one of the rules of this order that they should hold the cup, while using it with both their hands .• " Bibentes, duobus manibus " cifum tenemus." (Reyneri Apost. Benedict. Append, prima pars, p. 6. See also Du Cange, voc. Scyphus.) The Armorial Bearinos, A, B, C, D, E, F, occur in the walls of the house of Mr. Downes, at the south-eastern extremity of St. Magdalene-street ; which, as Mr. Eystoh tells us, was built out of the materials of the Abbot's residence, in the year 1713. If it be allowable to consider the elegance of the whole edifice as congruous with the beauty of these specimens of its sculptured ornaments, it musthave been no mean example of domestic archi- tecture. The shield, marked A, bears the arms of Edward the Confessor. B, the arms of England, after the time of Henry IV. C, the badge of Henry VIII. D, an Abbot's mitre, inclosing the initials of his name. E, a pelican feeding her young with her own blood, an emblem of Christ*s love for his church. F, the rebus, probably, of some person connected with the Abbey, in whose name the syllable graft made ^a part. Such fancies were not uncommon, as has already been shewn in the case of Camel's tomb, in the illus- trations of the wood cuts. Compare, also, the device of Grafton the printer. G, two pannels placed over the door of the Tribunal, a badge and emblem of the Tudor family. The SEALS represent impressions from (H) Abbot Whiting*s Secretum ; (I) from a seal in the possession of Mrs. Hood, of Wotton House, found in the area of the Abbey church. It gives a stag's head emboshed, ensigned between the horns with a cross; on a. chief three indistinct letters, or two letters with a cross between them. If it relate to any saint, as the sacred insignia seem to indicate, it would be St. Hubert ; who, as we learn from Butler*s Lives of the Fathers, &c. (p. 70,) was a nobleman of Acquitaine, and after- wards bishop of Liege, about the conclusion of the seventh century. He was passionately addicted to the diversion of hunting. In the time of a great drought, he obtained rain by his tears. He was buried at Liege ; and his shrine gifted with miraculous power. The hydrophobia, more especially, was either prevented, or cured, by holy oflfices performed before it. The pious lie of the vision, with which this saint was favoured, has been immor- talized by Albert Durer's magnificent print : without any doubt his chef d'ceuvre. (K) from a seal found among the ruins of some old houses, formerly belonging to the wardens, opposite St. John's church, in the possession of Samuel Prat, esq; : the device (a ship) and its legend are equally inexplicable. Ixxvii Plate XIX. The Crypt in St. Joseph's Chapel, and the Holy Well of Gl ASTON Abbey. For the complete developement of this curious subterraneous apartment, the antiquary, the artist, and the inquisitive traveller, are entirely indebted to the public spirit of Mr. Reeves. Till vyithin the last four months, the body of the crypt was filled, to the height of six or seven feet, with a mingled mass of ruins and earth, the accumulation of the years which have elapsed since the desecration of the Abbey church. The whole of this the liberal purchaser of the monastic inclosure has caused to be removed. The original level of the crypt is now laid open ; the ancient shore, at the western end, which drained the whole oi the ecclesiastical structure, has been detected, cleansed, and repaired ; and an entrance into, and exit from, the crypt, so judiciously contrived, as to give the most imposing eifect to its inspection.* The remains of the roofing, represented in the plate, are the only portion that remains, with the exception of a little fragment at the west end ; but it is quite suffi- cient to afford a clear idea of the design and appearance of the whole ceiling in its perfect state. Its plan is, perhaps, unique, and utterly inexplicable by those who are not initiated into the mysteries of architecture ; since, from the broad flatness of its crown, no visible means seem to present themselves, by which the upper portions of the groins should be kept in their places, and held together, or the floor on the crown be rendered capable of supporting any superincumbent weight. The ribs springing from the pillars, and those intersecting them along the summit, are all pierced with small holes, at nearly regular distances, obviously intended for the suspension of lights, while the base of an altar at the eastern extremity, a piscinaf to the left, and a stane tr