Did those feet walk on ’s pastures green? In the first of three articlesMark Herbert synthesises findings from recent independent studies, each contending a previously undeclared Joseph of Arimathea tradition in the former Dumnonian, tin-mining county of Devon.

Beneath the Great White Palace its grand and exclusive 1929-built art Melkinus (‘qui fuit ante Merlinum’, who oncealed along the south-west deco hotel, once described as the finest was before Merlin, flourishing c.540). coast of Devon’s lodgings west of London’s Ritz. The They represent the lone, tangible link that Cpromontory, remote and off the venue played host to eminent guests Joseph was buried on Britain’s misty isles. inland beaten track, is the secluded, tidal such as Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson, They have endured only because of their mound of Burgh Island. Being tidal, the Winston Churchill and Noel Coward. replication by John of Glastonbury (flour- isle has a twice daily constraint of access. But what of the island’s distant past ishing c.1340) in his Chronicles or At ebbing tide, one can trek across the some 2,000 years ago? Antiquities of the Glastonbury Church. shore from the mainland resort, - In 2001 this private island came up Miraculously, John’s source manuscript on-Sea; when the tide floods, however, a for sale. It was the day after Michaelmas survived the Abbey’s inferno of 1184, as sea tractor (a bus on stilts) conveniently when seller and buyer gathered to con- did several other works by Melkinus, ferries to and fro. Apart from Drake’s vey the isle’s title deed of ownership. found at the Dissolution (c.1536 but no Island (in Plymouth Sound) and the Outgoing vendors, the Porters, had just longer extant) by Henry VIII’s antiquary, Great Mew Stone (off Wembury Point at handed over the key to new proprietors, John Leland (1503-52). the River Yealm’s inlet), Devon’s south the Orchards. With the cavernous He held license to search and suppress coast has no other habitable isle; Burgh, Mermaid rock pool providing the back- ancient records at ecclesiastical sites with its unique tidal singularity, stands drop, both parties raised their glasses to including Glastonbury Abbey; the havoc is unrivalled in the shire. toast a smooth exchange. Then some- said to have caused him ‘infinite distress’.5 Situated at the mouth of the lesser thing extraordinary happened. A vivid Leland read John’s replica and dared to known River Avon, the island is flash of lightning struck the water; a sin- challenge public opinion which he under- supremely placed to receive inland cargo gle thunderclap crashed overhead. stood to have been formed by Melkinus’ conveyed from Dartmoor’s heights. The Seconds later stair-rods of rain, as never declaration one millennia earlier, that Avon’s head, 13.8 nautical miles (nmi) seen in 16 resident years, poured down, Joseph was interred at the Abbey. Leland due north of Burgh, is sited beside the swamping outside to a 3-inch depth in responded: ‘For I cannot easily believe that old tin workings near Ryder’s Hill (1,690 as many minutes. Then, as if turning off Joseph, a disciple of Christ, best and great- feet above sea level). Once spelt ‘Aven’ or a tap, the deluge ended as abruptly as it est, was buried at Glastonbury.’6 Evidently, ‘Aune’, the river outlets into the sea at the began. Everyone was stunned. Ex-owner, two thousand years since Joseph, His headland-protected haven of . Tony Porter, recalls that surreal instant; enshrined remains have never been found With the island so naturally cut off ‘Call it cosmic, divine or supernatural, it in Somerset’s former lake village. Thus, if and access to international waters via the was uncanny that such a display had Melkinus’ prophecy is still to be realised, , it offers scope for the been sent at that very moment.’2 then it will almost certainly be elsewhere couriering and stowing of all sorts of amongst south-west England’s rich, closeted merchandise. Indeed, a few cen- Melkinus’ prophecy Arimathean lore. turies ago, Burgh was renowned as a The spectacle witnessed over this sacred Whilst Leland’s instinct has so far been bootlegger’s paradise. This half-tide spot has a remarkable parallel with the proved correct, crucially, he never appreci- skerry became the hideout for stealthy spiritual ‘cloudburst’ foretold in the clos- ated that Melkinus’ original text could not imports and those needing to escape the ing lines of a 6th century tract. Its intent have ascribed Glastonbury in the term local excisemen. Frequent island visitor was, unmistakably, provision of exact that John’s facsimile proclaimed. How and famed novelist, Dame Agatha grave-finding clues (using metrology) to could it when John’s copied prose attrib- Christie (1890-1976), exploited the set- locate the worthy isle on which Joseph utes ‘Insula avallonis’, Isle of Avallon, an ting’s bygone notoriety in her 1941 of Arimathea eternally rests; ‘When His appellation not apparent until 600 years thriller with its biblically inspired title tomb is found, it will be seen whole, after Melkinus’ death? (Eccles. 6:1).1 Therein, Burgh became untouched and open to the entire world. There are only two rational explanations Smuggler’s Island. From then on, those who dwell in that to resolve this chronological paradox. It also gained repute as an islet fishery noble island shall lack neither water nor Either Melkinus (and his tract) is a con- after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, dew of heaven. Long before the Day of cocted, 12thc. fraud, which is unlikely given specialising in pilchards. Still standing Judgment in Josaphat; open shall these that Leland recounts seeing two other atop the grassy summit, lie the ruins of a things be and told to the living.’3 works by Melkinus (viz. Historiae fragmen- huer’s shelter from which the outcry of Those words were purportedly tum – ‘A Piece of History’, and Historiolam shoal watchers echoed across the bay. scribed 1,461 years earlier (one Sothic de rebus Brittanicis – ‘A Story about the Today, the island is best recognised for ‘Sirius’ cycle4) by the alleged Welsh bard, British),7 or else it is a genuine, 6thc.

4 • issue 103 CADUCEUS