A series of articles on Ancient British Christianity
Part 6.
The Holy Thorn of
By E. Chisholm Batten, M.A.
Volume 26, pages 117-125
1880
(A few additional footnotes have been added)
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LASTONBURY stood
in the summer of the year 1535, among the splendid Abbeys of England, in
unrivalled magnificence. The successive labours of Abbots Selwood and Bere had
raised piles of palatial buildings round the
Dr. Layton was the visitor sent into
Somersetshire. The Abbot of Muchelney[2]
(Thomas Yve) had prepared for the visitation by sending[3]
£100 to Cromwell; and the Visitors somehow did not reach Muchelney.
[1] Abbot Richard Whiting, in September 1539, refused to take the oath
of supremacy of Henry VIII, and was taken to the Tower where he was
incarcerated until November 14th, after which he was taken back to
Wells for trial, found guilty, and hanged. His head was set over the gate and
his quarters displayed at Wells,
2 Muchelney is a village situated about 10 miles south of
3 Letter,
4 Bruton is about 25 miles east of
5 Maiden Bradley is about 8 miles south of Frome, and 35 east of
6 Abbot Whiting was not so quick as his brother Abbot of Muchelney,
and only on 25th August, three days after
7 Sarsnet, sometimes written sarsenet, or sarcenet, is soft thin silk of oriental origin made in plain or twill weaves, and used from the mediaeval period for dresses and veils. [Webster’s International Dictionary]
8 Latin for “Which is the very hour that Christ was born”
9 Latin for “Which is proved, or vouched for.”
These must have been the flowers of the Holy Thorn at Glastonbury: and among the ruins of every thing else of that age, still flourish at Glastonbury, descendants of the Holy Thorn, whose two flowers seemed such a marvel to the Visitor, and which, now, as then,
“Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord.”[10]
10 Tennyson. The Holy Grail,
page 36.
In this letter of
“The
Do burge and bere grene leaves at Christmas
As fresh as other yn May, when ye Nightingale
Wrestes not her notes musycall as pure as glas;
Of al Wodes and Forestes she is ye chefe chauntress,
In winter to singe if it were her nature,
In Werall
she might have a playne place
On those
The fact of the blossoming of the
Holy Thorn of Glastonbury on Christmas Day is recorded again and again by
successive writers. Gerald in his Herball,
first published in 1596, says, “of
the White Thorne, or Hawthorne tree, we have in the West of England one growing
at a place called Glastonbury, which bringeth forth his flowers about Christmas
by the report of divers of good credit who have seen the same; but myself have
not seen it, and therefore leave it to be better examined.” And in dividing
the classes of
In the first edition of Dugdale’s Monasticon there is a view of
Bishop Goodman, of
This refers to the fact that just before he wrote during the Civil
Wars, some fanatic cut down the old Thorn that grew at Wearyall Hill. The
people of
Dr. Montague, Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1608 to 1618, presented the Christmas blossoms of the Holy Thorn to Queen Anne, wife of James the First.
Sir Charles Sedley, among the beaux and wits of Charles the Second’s Court, had heard of the wondrous Thorn, and sings –
Cornelia’s charms inspire my lays,
Who, fair in nature’s scorn,
Blooms in the winter of her days,
Like
Dr. Plot, who wrote in 1677, after the institution of the Royal
Society, says, “And hither, I think, may
be referred the
Ashmole[11],
writing about the same time, says, “I
never heard nor read that any ancient author did mention this Thorne, which
certainly they had not omitted, if there had been any such thing; and by the
growthe of the Thorne, surely I do judge the age thereof to be much about the
time of the Dissolution.” Ashmole
must be speaking of the stump of the Sacred Tree at Wearyall Hill, or perhaps
only of some other of the plants which then flourished at
11 Elias Ashmole, 1617 – 1692, English Antiquary. Royalist in the
Civil War. Published in 1672 an exhaustive history of the Order of the Garter.
Presented a collection of rarities to
A few years later, John Aubrey, the
Antiquarian, (1626 – 1697,) in his Notes
on Wiltshire, says “In Parham Parke,
in Suffolke (Mr. Bontele’s), is a pretty antient Thorne that blows like that at
Ashmole tells us that “upon St. Stephen’s Day, 1672, Mr.
Stainsby, an ingenious enquirer after things worthy of memorial, brought me a
branch of Hawthorne, having greene leaves, fair buds and full flowers, all
thick and very beautiful, and (which is more notable) many of the hawes or
berries on it red and plump, some of which branch is yet preserved in the plant
box of my collection [the origin of his Ashmolean Museum]. This he had from a
Hawthorne tree, now growing at Sir Lancelot Lake’s House, near Edgware, in
Middlesex: concerning which, falling after into the company of the said Knight
(7th July, 1673), he told me that the tree from which this branch
was plucked, grew from a slip taken from the Glastonbury Thorn, about 60 years
since, which is now a big tree, and flowers every winter about Christmas.”
Down to this time, the only
suggestion we find in any author, as to the supernatural character of the
plant, is its flowering at Christmas tide; but the real condition, dear to
The staff het budded and het grew,
And at Christmas bloom’d the whole day droo,
And still het blooms at Christmas bright,
But best of all at dork
In the Acta
Sanctorum, March 17, the day of St. Joseph of Arimathæa, there is a careful
account of the traditions concerning him, but no allusion to the legend of the
budding staff, nor is there in Watson, or Arnold, or Catgrove. In the list of
Saints with emblems, published by Husenbeth, are the emblems given to
Eyston, who wrote the Little Monument of Glastonbury in 1715,
and was an enthusiastic Catholic and devoted Jacobite, records the legend: “I was told by the Innkeeper [at
Glastonbury], where I set up my Horses, who rents a considerable part of the
enclosure of the late dissolved abbey, that St. Joseph of Arimathæa stuck on
Wearyall Hill his staff, being a Dry Hawthorn Stick, which grew and continually
budded and blew upon Christmas Day.”
“Whether,”
adds Mr. Eyston, in a glow of credulity, “it sprung from
Eyston says there were then divers trees taken from the old tree by grafting and inoculation. He specifies the localities in the town of Glastonbury, and adding that there was a person about Glastonbury who had a nursery of them, and sold them for a crown a piece, or as he could get.
On the introduction of the new style
in 1753,[12] the
Somerset people seem to have expected another miracle, the London Evening Post records as follows: “Glastonbury. A vast concourse of people attended the noted Thorne on
Christmas Day, new style, but to their great disappointment, there was no
appearance of its blowing, which made them watch it narrowly the 5th
of January, the Christmas Day, old style, when it blowed as usual.”
12. This refers to the change from the earlier Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, whereby October 4th was followed immediately by October 15th, to bring the seasons back into line with the calendar.
Botanists began now to look into the
specific peculiarity of the plant. Ray had said that he thought it differed but
accidentally from the common Hawthorn. Martyn said that it was a distinct
variety, flowering usually in January or February, sometimes earlier; so that
it may happen to be in flower on Christmas Day. Withering first gave it a
distinct name, and distinguishes it as Cratægus
Oxyacantha Præcox. He wrote about
the beginning of the present century. [i.e. early 1800s] He says, “It blossoms twice a year. The winter
blossoms, which are about the size of a sixpence, appear about Christmas, but
sometimes sooner. These produce no fruit. The berries contain only one seed,
and there seemed only to be one pistil; but it was late in the season when I
examined it (October 1792). I was informed that the berries, when sown, produce
plants, nowise differing from the common Hawthorn.”
The industrious and accurate Loudon dwells with particular pleasure upon the Holy Thorn. “The most remarkable legend,” he says, “connected with the Hawthorn, is that of the Glastonbury Thorn;” and his version makes it Christmas Day when S. Joseph arrived at the spot where he had been commanded to build a church in honour of the Virgin Mary; and finding that the natives did not appear inclined to believe in his mission, he prayed to God to perform a miracle to convince them. His prayer was at once answered; and on striking his staff into the ground, it immediately shot forth into leaves and blossoms.
There are now specimens of the Thorn in numerous places, both at Glastonbury and the neighbourhood, as they have during the last fifty years been propagated freely, and sold by the Glastonbury nurserymen.
The blossoms of the Christmas shoots are for the most part smaller than the May ones, and do not produce any haws. The haws are of a very deep red colour, almost black; but plants grown from the haws do not retain the characteristics of the parent stem, and the Glastonbury gardeners propagate the Glastonbury Thorn by budding and grafting.
In an old number of the Gardeners’ Weekly Magazine, it is stated that “the flowers of the venerable tree were long a favourite sign for hostelries, particularly in the vicinity of Glastonbury. Boson’s Inn in St. Lawrence’s Lane, London, is a corruption of “Blossoms’ Inn.” “Blossoms’ Inn,” it would seem, means an Inn having the sign of the holy blossoms of the Glastonbury Thorn.
The question arises, what is the origin of the plant? Is it a variety of the Hawthorn, or is it only an individual with peculiarities?
Miller, in his Gardeners’ Dictionary, published in 1759, says the Glastonbury Thorn is a variety of the Hawthorn, and that it can be no other way propagated than by grafting or budding upon the other roots; and recommends it being budded on the White Beam.
Boswell’s Antiquities of England and Wales, as quote in the Every Day Book for 1826, says: “There are several of this species of Thorn
in England, raised from haws sent from the East, where it is common. One of our
countrymen, the ingenious Mr. Millar, raised many plants from haws brought from
Aleppo, and all proved to be what are called Glastonbury Thorns. This exotic,
or Eastern Thorn, differs from our common Hawthorn in putting out its leaves
very early in spring, and flowering twice a year; for in mild seasons it often
flowers in November or December, and again at the usual time of the common
sort.”
It must be remembered that the position of
the Holy Thorn on the slope of the south side of Wearyall Hill, was just
adjoining the fields called the Vineyards, which are noted in Abbot Bere’s
terrier. (Terrier. A register in which lands of private persons or corporations
are described.)
Gough in his additions to Camden’s Britannia, in 1759, says, “It is common in the Holy Land, and flowers
at the same time.”
The Morocco Thorn, a native of Morocco, was introduced into England in 1812. It produces its leaves very early in the season; in mild seasons even in January; and there is a Siberian Thorn, introduced about the same year, that begins to put forth its leaves in January: but neither of these has the peculiarity of the Glastonbury Thorn – that of flowering twice; once early, and producing flowers which form no fruit, and then again at the same time as other thorns, and which later flowers produce fruit.
The habit of the plant would induce the belief that it is a variety, and comes from some region where the transition from winter to summer was more abrupt than in Palestine.
The Siberian Crab affords an illustration. The winters of Siberia are intensely cold, the change to summer is sudden, and the heat equally violent. Our own change in temperature is much slower, and more irregular. Thus, when our native Crab scarcely shows signs of life, the Siberian variety puts forth its leaves, blossoms, and bears fruit, early, even in an unfavourable season.
The circumstances of the early flowers of the Glastonbury Thorn not coming to maturity by producing seed is easily explained by the want of that heat which would in its own climate follow the first warmth of the opening year.
A writer in Notes and Queries quotes a botanical writer as saying that the Glastonbury Thorn is a native of Siberia, a variety of the Oxyacantha Strathyphylus.
Other authorities say that the Glastonbury Thorn differs only from the ordinary Hawthorn in its early flowering; and that this is a peculiarity of the individual – but not of this individual alone, for early flowering Hawthorns are not unknown – just as early flowering chestnuts and other plants are known; and that consequently there is no native country for the Glastonbury Thorn, except where it now grows.
It is remarkable is it is only an individual, and not a variety, that for three hundred and fifty years the peculiarity of the tree has been preserved in its progeny.
I own my opinion would incline to the belief that it is a variety belonging to a far different climate from ours, and that some pilgrim from the Holy Land brought it from thence a plant, which, even in Palestine, was distinguished by its early bloom, and there acquired a character of sanctity from its flowering
Even in winter wild,
While the Heaven-born Child,
All meanly wrapped, in the rude manger lay. [13]
The name commonly given today for the
Glastonbury Thorn is Crataegus Monogyna
Praecox. The word praecox is Latin
for “early”, and our word precocious derives from it.
[1] Abbot Richard Whiting, in September 1539, refused to take the oath of supremacy of Henry VIII, and was taken to the Tower where he was incarcerated until November 14th, after which he was taken back to Wells for trial, found guilty, and hanged. His head was set over the gate and his quarters displayed at Wells, Bath, Ilchester and Bridgwater.
[2] Muchelney is a village situated about 10 miles south of
[3] Letter, 15th June, 1535. Ellis’s Original Letters, 3rd Series, Volume ii, page 334
[4] Bruton is about 25 miles east of
[5] Maiden Bradley is about 8 miles south of Frome, and 35 east of
[6] Abbot Whiting was not so quick as his brother Abbot of Muchelney, and only on 25th August, three days after Layton’s visitation, he sends to Cromwell a grant of the presentation to the living at West Monkton, near Taunton.
[7] Sarsnet, sometimes written sarsenet, or sarcenet, is soft thin silk of oriental origin made in plain or twill weaves, and used from the mediaeval period for dresses and veils. [Webster’s International Dictionary]
[8] Latin for “Which is the very hour that Christ was born”
[9] Latin for “Which is proved, or vouched for.”
[10] Tennyson. The Holy Grail,
page 36.
[11] Elias Ashmole, 1617 – 1692, English Antiquary. Royalist in the Civil War. Published in 1672 an exhaustive history of the Order of the Garter. Presented a collection of rarities to Oxford in 1677, which became the nucleus of the present Ashmolean Museum.
[12] This refers to the change from the earlier Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, whereby October 4th was followed immediately by October 15th, to bring the seasons back into line with the calendar.
[13] The name commonly given today for the Glastonbury Thorn is Crataegus Monogyna Praecox. The word praecox is Latin for “early”, and our word precocious derives from it. Kew Gardens uses the title “biflora” instead of praecox.