Phillips says the Grail was sent to Britain for safekeeping in the fifth century, when the barbarians sacked Rome. Taken to the Roman-built city of Viroconium, sometimes identified as the site of King Arthur’s Camelot, the relic passed into the hands of Welsh rulers whose descendants kept it as an heirloom long after they had forgotten its story. One member of the family stashed it inside a statue in the 1850s: a descendant found it there in 1920 after decoding a snippet of verse. Phillips, 41, who began seeking the Grail in 1988, traced it to the loft of Victoria Palmer, a 24-year-old graphic designer who obligingly dug out her old family china for him. “My family knew how it was found, but everyone thought it was a Victorian novelty hidden for a bit of fun,” she says. “My great-grandfather wanted it to remain in the family, but as far as I know, he never said why.” Legend says that anyone who drinks from the true Grail become immortal. No one has performed the test with his artifact so far, Phillips says. But August isn’t over yet.
