Compared with the desecration of the Cenotaph, the chopping down of an old hawthorn tree in Glastonbury is low on the emotional Richter scale. There are no statements from the Prime Minister, no counter-reproaches from youthful revolutionaries. It is just a tree of no great beauty, which was significant to people of no interest to the famous or the fashionable.
But I loved the Glastonbury Thorn, and always stopped by it after weekend walks to the Tor. According to legend, the tree sprouted from the staff owned by Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus's uncle. It was visited by Christians from all over the world.
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