that great revolution is but as a tale that is told. The moffed and ivied walls of abbey and monastery remain alone to fay that fuch things were; once facred, now only picturesque: and we who now enjoy thofe once facred lands, imagine, like their quondam conventual poffeffors, that our status is secure as the earth beneath us, and that we shall never be moved: dreaming not of the social revolutions in the bofom of time— of the perpetual elements of change in the heart of society; and that, from period to period, "Sic transit gloria mundi.”

Amongst the more remarkable historical events and customs of the place we may note the following. The Abbot Herlewinus is supposed to have built the exquifite chapel of St. Joseph. He had been a monk at Caen in Normandy, where he had been converfant with the finest Norman architecture of his time. He built a noble church, and was of so hospitable a disposition, that he threatened to deprive the porter of the abbey of his ears, if he drove from its gates pilgrims without relief. William of Malmesbury says that fo early as seven hundred and nineteen fuch was the magnificence of this abbey, that it had a chapel plated over with two thousand fix hundred and forty lbs. of filver; and had an altar of gold of the weight of two hundred and forty-fix lbs., with many precious gems and coftly robes.

Such was the power affumed by the abbots, and their strict afsertion of their rights, that when King Edward I. paid his visit, the abbot would not admit him till he had appointed his own sheriff of the twelve hides, and his own earl-marshal, left, by the king exercising any fovereign rights, the chartered privileges of the abbey should be impaired. Neither would he allow him to hold an affize at Glastonbury, but the king was obliged to hold it in the village of Street, beyond the boundaries of the abbot's jurisdiction.

These noble buildings received much damage at different

times. In 1184, much of them was deftroyed by fire, but they were rebuilt under the munificent patronage of Henry II. During the abbacy of Adam de Sodbury, an earthquake, in 1276, threw down many of the monaftic buildings, and great part of St. Michael's church on the summit of Tor-hill. The abbey itself this spirited abbot rebuilt, adding also the beautiful chapel of St. Mary, which terminated the east end of the church, adorning it with gorgeously painted windows, and many valuable gifts of gold, filver, and precious ftone. The church when complete was five hundred and ninety-four feet in length, or two hundred and twenty-three feet longer than the cathedral of Wells. The abbey poffeffed a valuable library. We have a catalogue of it as it existed in the time of John of Glastonbury; and Leland, who faw it about fixteen years before its destruction, says :-"No fooner had I croffed the threshold of this library, than the fight alone of fo many ancient works ftruck my mind with devout astonishment, so that I even drew back amazed. Then, after faluting the prefiding deity, for many days I remained examining its burdened shelves." There were splendid copies of the scriptures of the Fathers, the Cafuifts, the hiftories of Bede and Gildas, most of the Greek and Roman claffics, Gefta of the Normans, of the popes, of the Fall of Troy, Lives and Miracles of the Saints, Paffionals of the Saints, Libri Prognofticorum, the Enigmata of St. Aldhelm, and the Didafcaligon of Hugo. Befides these, there was an extensive collection of charters conferred on the abbey, and missals, breviaries, paffionals, antiphonalia, etc., most superbly written and illuminated by the monks. They had a fine large room, called the Scriptorium, in which they carried on their literary and artistic labours. The Rev. J. Williams, in his account of Glastonbury Abbey, fays, "In goldsmiths' work and jewellery instances of their most beauteous workman

F

ship still remain. Their caligraphy is unrivalled, as exemplified in ancient documents and charters. The illuminations of their missals are not now to be matched; nor can modern artists surpass their painted glass in the intensity and permanence of its gorgeous colouring. An aftronomical clock, made by Lightfoot, monk of Glastonbury, is ftill preserved in Wells cathedral.”

The monks of Glastonbury were Benedictines, and their rules were very fevere; but there is abundant historical evidence that for a long time they had not been too austere in the observance of these rules; which otherwise demanded that they should perform their devotions seven times in the twenty-four hours. During Lent they fafted every day until fix in the evening, and were then compelled to fhorten the usual time of fleeping. They flept in the dormitory in feparate rooms, and always in their clothes. During the day they were obliged to go two and two together. They never converfed at their meals, but listened to the reading of the Scriptures. For small faults they were expelled for a fhort time from the refectory; for greater ones they were debarred from public religious services. Incorrigible monks were expelled from the abbey. Every monk had two coats, two cowls, a table-book, a knife, a needle, and a handkerchief, and his bed-furniture confifted of a mat, a blanket, a rug, and a pillow.

One of the most remarkable events of Glastonbury was the introduction of a German monk, Savaricus, as abbot. This was one of the ftipulations for the release of Richard I. from his captivity in the castle of Dürrenstein on the Danube. The abbot Henry Swansea had to be superseded, and a violent oppofition was made by the monks; but Swansea was made bishop of Winchester, and thus the ftorm was fomewhat appeased, This was a proof that its wealth

but its effects continued long.

was so notorious as to excite the cupidity of even foreign

monarchs. At the time of its fall the revenues of the abbey amounted to £200,000 per annum, according to the present value of money. The commiffioners of Henry VIII. thus defcribe its domains :-"The house of Glastonbury is great, goodly, and so princely that we have not seen the like. It has four parks adjoining: the furthermoft but four miles diftant from the house, having a large weir or lake, which is five miles in compass, that being a mile and a half distant from the house, well replenished with great pike, bream, perch, and roach. Also four fair manor places belonging to the lord abbot, the furthermost three miles diftant, being goodly manfions, and also one in Dorsetshire, twenty miles distant from the monastery." Whenever the abbot wifhed to go to one of these retreats, or elsewhere, he was accompanied by a retinue truly regal, consisting of a bannered hoft of a hundred or more in number, in fplendid military coftume, armed, and preceded by a great crucifix. The people thronged to the highway as he passed, to receive his bleffing and pay him homage on their knees. this style he went up to parliament, where he fate mitred and croziered, the first abbot of the realm.

In

In the last abbot, Richard Whiting, Henry VIII. found a sturdy refifter of his fpoliation. He refused to obey the royal injunction to furrender. He declared that he held the trust from God, for the service of religion and of the poor, and he would not concede his functions to mortal command. He was fummoned to Wells, and the Oath of Supremacy put to him. He refused to take it. The church-reforming king did not pause at trifles. He had the abbot waylaid; a confeffor was forced into his carriage, and he was bade to prepare for death. In vain did he fupplicate for a few days to take leave of his brethren and prepare his foul; he was dragged to the top of Tor-hill on a fledge, where he could not only look down on

Glastonbury, and all his noble estate, but over a magnificent expanse of country one hundred and forty miles in circumference. There lay below him the beautiful Isle of Avalonia; the Wyralle or Weary-all-hill, the Chalice-hill. In the midst of this august scene, enough to make the most heavenward heart feel a touch of lingering affection, he was barbarously hanged, with his treasurer, John Thorn, and his under-treasurer, Roger James, on the 14th of November, 1539. His head was placed on the gate of his abbey, and his four quarters fent to be exposed at Wells, Bath, Ilchester, and Bridgewater. Such was the fate of the last of fifty-nine abbots who had held the crozier at that famous fhrine for one thousand one hundred and fourteen years.

Rapacious hands very soon not only ftripped its altar, and rifled its coffers and walls, but dashed in its gorgeous windows, demolished its carved monuments, reft from its roof lead and timbers, knocked down its lofty columns, fhattered its sculptured capitals and niches, and built cottages or made roads with its stones grey with centuries. In the words of William Lisle Bowles:

All is filent now! Silent the bell,

That heard from yonder ivied turret high,

Warned the cowled brother from his midnight cell.

Silent the vefper chant-the Litany,

Refponfive to the organ! Scattered lie

The wrecks of the proud pile, mid arches grey :

While hollow winds through mantling ivy figh;

And even the mouldering fhrine is rent away,

Where in his warrior weeds the British Arthur lay!

Amongst the remains at Glastonbury, which are now preserved with care, are some fine arches of the nave of the great church, with the chapel of St. Joseph at the west end. The chapel is a beautiful object, its principal walls remaining, and testifying by their round arches, and especially by the one richly ornamented receding portal, its Norman period. The portion