BURTON, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 31 
no wakes, and never appear to have been any. These 
wakes were, we know, originally Festivals in annual 
commemoration of the dedication of the parish church— 
sometimes held on the Feast of the Patron Saint, and some- 
times on the actual anniversary of the consecration. The 
Abbey was dedicated to S. Mary, the Blessed Virgin, and 
S. Modwen, According to Lingard, an excellent authority 
on such points, S. Modwen’s Day was the 5th July, on 
which day no fair has, I believe, ever been held at Burton. 
The 29th October was the Feast of the Translation of 
S. Modwen. Shaw says, ‘‘ There are now four annual fairs, 
tbe most ancient being by grant from Henry III of three 
days continuance, viz: the Vigil, Feast, and next day 
following the Feast of S. Modwen, which is October 2gth. 
They have no Wake here as is usual with most places in 
this part of the country, but no doubt the fair week after 
the Feast of S. Modwen, to whom the church is dedicated, 
is in lieu of that festival.” This seems to me to be nothing 
more than a guess, and it is remarkable that there should 
be no trace of this having been a pleasure fair, but rather 
a strictly business one. The same remark applies to a 
small cattle fair on the 2nd February, one of the Festivals 
of the Blessed Virgin. There was no fair on Her other 
Festival, the 25th March. The two pleasure fairs, that on 
Ascension Day and that known as the “Statutes,” are at 
seasons quite unconnected with either Patroness. Oddly 
enough there are ‘“‘ Wakes” at Winshill, though I have 
never been able to ascertain that they are connected with 
any ecclesiastical festival, nor that there is any tradition of 
there having been a church there until the present one 
dedicated to St. Mark was built about thirty years ago. I 
notice also that Shaw speaks of the parish of Burton being 
even in his time exempt from episcopal control. His actual 
words are: ‘‘The church is only a perpetual curacy, exempt 
from episcopal jurisdiction.” 
