. The greater abbeys of England . pon the ruins,and the very names of which are associated with himwho brought the Holy Grail to our shores, and withhim whose gallows crowned the height by St Michaelstower, have been silent witnesses during all those cen-turies of a great and varied history. The memories ofthe British Inyswytryn, the Saxon Glsestingburge, themodern Glastonbury, or as it was sometimes called theisle of Avalon, include the names of Arthur, the Britishhero, and of Alfred, the saviour of the Saxon race fromthe ferocity and rapacity of the Danes. Hither toocame Gildas, from his her
. The greater abbeys of England . pon the ruins,and the very names of which are associated with himwho brought the Holy Grail to our shores, and withhim whose gallows crowned the height by St Michaelstower, have been silent witnesses during all those cen-turies of a great and varied history. The memories ofthe British Inyswytryn, the Saxon Glsestingburge, themodern Glastonbury, or as it was sometimes called theisle of Avalon, include the names of Arthur, the Britishhero, and of Alfred, the saviour of the Saxon race fromthe ferocity and rapacity of the Danes. Hither toocame Gildas, from his hermitage on the Steep Holmeaway across the waters of the Channel, to reconcileArthur to his Queen Guinevere. And hither also: To the island-valley of Avilion;Where falls not hail, or rain or any even vi^ind blows loudly; but it liesDeep-meadowd, happy, fair with orchard lawnsAnd bowery hollows, crownd with summer sea. Hither came Arthur, when wounded in the battle ofCamlin, to die and seek for burial by the side of his lOO. Glastonbury Qiieen, who had already been laid to rest within theprecindls of that San6tuary. Here, centuries later, in1191, King Henry II caused to be made an examina-tion of the spot pointed out by the Welsh bards as theplace of Arthurs burial, and Giraldus Cambrensis,who professes to have been an eyewitness, describesthe finding of a large flat stone with a leaden crossunderneath, bearing in rude charadters the inscrip-tion: Hie jacet sepultus inclitus rex Arturius in insulaAvalonia. Beneath this again there was discovered a large coffinof hollowed oak with two cavities, one containing thebones of Arthur, the other those of Guinevere. Theywere removed to a handsome tomb in the church,where they remained undisturbed till 1278, whenEdward I and his Queen, Eleanor, kept Easter at theabbey. On that occasion the King desiring to see withhis own eyes the relics of the illustrious British Kingand his Consort, ordered the tomb to be opened. Edwardhimself to
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