THE ANNALS OF BURTON ABBEY 55 
And yet the whole period covered by the chronicle is a period 
filled with great and stirring events. Of the changes. revolutionary 
changes, brought about by the Norman Conquest, confiscation of 
lands for example, nothing is mentioned That changes took place 
in the government of the Abbey itself is certain. The names of the 
first Abbots are Saxon names, these are succeeded by Norman names. 
And here I might mention that such facts as the accessions, marriages 
and deaths of Kings, the accessions and deaths of popes and abbots 
of the monastery are always chronicled ; the same remarks holds as a 
rule with respect to the Earls of Derby and the bishops of the diocese. 
From your acquaintance with history you know that subsequently 
there was a great monastic revival : this is borne witness to by such 
entries as ‘1576 Abbey of Croxden is founded.” Looking at the 
entries previous to the reign of Henry III you get the impression that 
they were inserted at some subsequent time, at a time when the 
changes mentioned above had developed into a permanent settlement. 
From the internal evidence I would say that the whole was compiled 
during the latter years of the reign of Henry II] and for the following 
reasons. ‘There are hardly any documents relating to the reigns of 
the kings preceding Henry, whereas for the reign of Henry the 
number of documents is exceedingly large. In monasteries there was 
usually a scriptorium and important documents were often sent 
round to the monasteries or exchanged between monasteries and 
copied by the monks, and I take it that these had grown up to such 
a number in the time of Abbot Lawrence that he determined to make 
a chronological collection of them, to bind them together with the 
small fragments of what was known of local and general events and 
in order to give the story an appearance of completeness, it was made 
to embrace all the events generally known at the Abbey from the 
time of its foundation. In order te add to its value and to supply 
information which was otherwise not forthcoming a portion of Roger 
of Hoveden was inserted in the chronicle. That in the early portion 
the entries were made subsequent to the time when they occured is 
evident from the fact that in mentioning the deaths of Edward the 
Confessor and of Becket the one is described as Saint Edward and the 
other as “‘ Gloriosus Becket,’ and they were not of course canonised 
till some time after their death. It appears to me that the Annals 
were compiled between the years 1246 and 1262 (the date of the last 
entry) for Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury was canonised 
in 1246, and he is described as St. Edmund in an entry opposite the 
year 1234. St. Louis the King of France, one of the leading figures of 
