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Superstitions with regard to Glastonbury Thorn.
—It is handed down, that when Joseph of Arimathea, during his mission to England, arrived at Weary-all-hill, near Glastonbury, he struck his travelling staff into the earth, which immediately took root, and ever after put forth its leaves and blossoms on Christmas Day, being converted into a miraculous thorn.
This tree, which had two trunks, was preserved until the time of Queen Elizabeth; when one of the trunks was destroyed by a Puritan, and the other met with the same fate during the Great Rebellion.
Throughout the reign of Henry VIII., its blossoms were esteemed such great curiosities, and sovereign specifics, as to become an object of gain to the merchants of Bristol; who not only disposed of them to the inhabitants of their own city, but exported these blossoms to different parts of Europe. There were, in addition to these, relics for rain, for avoiding the evil eye, for rooting out charlock, and all weeds in corn, with similar specifics, which were considered, at this time, the best of all property!
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The miraculous Walnut-tree at Glastonbury.
—This far-famed tree was at the north of St. Joseph's chapel, in the abbey churchyard. It was supposed to have been brought from Palestine by some of the pilgrims, and was visited in former days, and regarded as sacred by all ranks of people; and, even so late as the time of King James, that monarch, as well as his ministers and nobility, paid large sums for sprigs of it, which were preserved as holy relics.
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