Legend has it that Joseph of Arimathea brought the Holy Grail to Glastonbury and buried it at the purported entrance to the Underworld at the foot of Glastonbury Tor. On nearby Wearyall Hill, Joseph also thrust his staff into the ground where it took root and grew into the famed Glastonbury Thorn.
The Chalice Well Gardens enclose the Chalice Well, Guardian Yews, and scions of the Glastonbury Thorn.
At the right is a close-up of one of the yews, one with whom I would have liked to sit down for a long conversation about all that he has seen and heard. Below are the dancing branches of the Holy Thorns. They bloom twice a year, at Christmas and Easter - don't ask me why. I don't mean to insinuate anything here. It is what it is. When I visited the Gardens a few years before, the trees held a variety of ribbons, tied on by visitors honoring an old pagan tradition in which the ribbons hold prayers or wishes. Apparently that practice is now discouraged, since so many people come that the trees were getting damaged.
