50 S. MODWEN AND "THE DEVILI, OF DRAKELOWE." 



and for the confirmation of this grant, he gave to the king 300 

 niancas of gold, to every bishop in the realm five, to each of 

 the two archbishops ten, to every abbot one pound of gold, and 

 to every abbess five niancas. It is not with the abbey of Burton, 

 however, but rather with its titular and local saint that this paper 

 proposes to deal. As if to aid the writer in his researches, and 

 to illustrate this paper already commenced, the July number of 

 the Reliquary for this year appeared with some fragments of 

 a life of S. Modwen, probably printed by Winken de Worde, 

 and recently discovered in the binding of an old book in the 

 possession of the Hon. Mrs. Bulkeley Owen. The legends given 

 in these fragments seem to have been derived from the original 

 biography of that saint by Geoffry, the sixth abbot, who died 

 A.D. 1 151, of whom The Annals of Burton relate: — "Hie 

 dictavit vitam et miracula sanctse Modwenae virginis, pro qua 

 misit in Hiberniam, ut habetur in prohemio eiusdem." 



The original manuscript of Geoffry is now in the British 

 Museum. It is referred to by Pinteus, one of the Bollandists, 

 in the "Acta Sanctorum" (July, vol. ii., p. 297), as a volume 

 in the Cottonian collection, "Cleopat. A. 2," but its modern 

 reference is "Royal MS., 15, B. iv." 



I am indebted to Sir Robert Gresley, Bart., for the following 

 description of it by the favour of C. H. Jeaqes, Esq., of the 

 British Museum, to both of whom the editor desires to offer his 

 iiest thanks for their courtesy, as well as to Lord Burton for his 

 valuable assistance: — "The MS. unfortunately is written in a 

 minute hand, and half of two columns is damaged by damp, and 

 so rendered illegible. The volume contains various treatises, but 

 the article on S. Modwen begins on folio 76 with these words: 

 ' Incipit prefatio Gaufridi Abbatis Burtonie in vita Sanctse 

 Modwenne virginis.' The preface is followed by ' The Life,' 

 and after that ' Incipit tractatus de Miraculis eius que contin- 

 gerunt post obitum ejus '"; and it is amongst these that we find 

 the legend termed "The Devill of Drakelowe." 



Pinjeus apparently derives his account from a life of the saint 

 compiled by Warseus. "Let us revert," he writes, "to the 



