Glastonbury, an ancient municipal borough of Somerset, lies, engirt by the river Brue, amid orchards and level pastures - once fen-land - at the foot of the conical tower-crowned Tor (500 feet), 6 miles by rail SSW. of Wells. The Celtic Ynysvitrin, the Avalon of Arthurian legend, and the Glœstingaburh or GlAestings' borough of the West Saxons, it was hither, says William of Malmesbury, that Joseph of Arimathea came bearing the Holy Grail, here that he founded the first Christian church in Britain. On Weary-all Hill he planted his pilgrim's staff; it took root, and grew into the Holy Thorn, which blossomed miraculously every Old Christmas-eve until it was cut down by a Puritan. A wattled basilica, which contained the grave of a St Patrick and of Gildas, was in 630 encased by Paulinus of York in boards and lead; and to the east of it in 719 King Ine reared the great church of SS. Peter and Paul. This, spoiled by the Danes, was the abbey refounded by St Dunstan about 946, and became the sepulchre of Kings Edmund, Edgar, and Edmund Ironside, if not indeed of Dunstan himself, of Joseph of Arimathea, or of Arthur and Guinevere. It had just been rebuilt when in 1184 the whole pile was consumed by fire; and the splendid minster, 528 feet long, then undertaken by Henry II., was not dedicated till 1303. In 1539 Richard Whiting, the last abbot, was hanged on the Tor by Henry VIII.; and the ruins of this great Benedictine house, which had covered 60 acres, are now comparatively scanty. Yet still on the site of the 'Vetusta Ecclesia' stands the roofless chapel of Our Lady or St Joseph, a fine example of Transition Norman, with its 15th-century crypt; still there is the massive stone Abbot's Kitchen (14th c), 33 1/2 feet square, and 72 high, with its four huge fireplaces and pyramidal roof.

Apart from its abboy and its two parish churches, one of which has a noble tower 140 feet high, Glastonbury is a quaint, old-world place, with the 15th-century Pilgrims' Inn (now the' George'), the Tribunal, and the Abbot's Barn. Sharpham, 2 miles SW., was Fielding's birthplace. Sheepskins, mats, rugs, gloves, and pottery are manufactured. The population is a little over 4000. See Willis's Architectural History of Glastonbury Abbey (1866).