What may be justly considered one of the oldest drinking vessels in England, with a romantic origin, is a Saxon "peg tankard, in the possession of Lord Arundel of Wardour. It is known as the Glastonbury tankard, and is made of oak, which has been heavily lacquered, thus preserving the wood to a marvellous extent. It contains, when full, exactly two quarts (Winchester measure), divided by eight pegs into equal portions of half a pint each; on the wooden lid is carved the Crucifixion, with the Virgin on the right of the Cross and St. John on the left. A bunch of grapes has been designed for elevating the lid by the thumb when drinking, and around the centre of the tankard are carved representations of the Twelve Apostles, with their names duly inscribed on labels underneath. St. John holds a chalice, St.Peter carries a key, and Judas Iscariot a purse, while the remainder have open books.

Below the Apostles are swans and flowers in full bloom, beneath these again are serpents in pairs showing their teeth to each other, and the feet upon which the tankard rests are three couchant lions. Made about eight hundred years ago, and originally belonging to the abbots of the ancient Abbey of Glastonbury, the tankard commenced its life with a halo of romance around it, for legend has it that it had been blessed at the high table in the refectory hall of the great monastery. However that may be, it was certainly regarded as a vessel of so sentimental a value as to make it worth while for a dumb monk secretly - to deliver the precious relic to a Roman Catholic layman for preservation when monasteries and abbeys were being despoiled during the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII.

Coming into possession of the Lords of Arundel of Wardour, it was carefully preserved up to the time of the Civil War, for the tankard with its sacred emblems carved upon it had by then become vested with a halo of sanctity as well as of romance. During the period when the second baron was fighting on the side of Charles I, his dame was defending his castle against the onslaughts of the Parliamentary troops under Sir Edward Hungerford and Colonel Edmund Ludlow, who ultimately compelled her to surrender it after a nine days' siege. Such was the importance placed by the family on this old tankard, that Lady Arundel artfully managed to save it by secreting it on her person at a time when she knew that practically everything else of value in the castle was in danger. Thus it is to the courage of Blanche, Lady Arundel of Wardour, that we owe the existence today of a genuine specimen of an old Saxon peg tankard.