One of the better known tales about the hawthorn concerns the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea in Britain, soon after the Crucifiction. According to legend he brought the Holy Grail to Somerset and climbed a hill. At the top he planted his hawthorn staff in the earth and it burst into flower. A thorn tree still stands at that spot today. Every Christmas a sprig from the hawthorn of Wearyall is laid on the Queen's table.