60 THE ANNALS OF BURTON ABBEY 
hold a fair or market, for the dues and customs derived from them 
were often very valuable. 
In pleasing contrast to many other chronicles there is an almost 
complete absence of miraculous events in the chronicle, unless what 
is described as ‘‘ the remarkable meteor seen at Alvaston” be so 
considered. As the phenomenon is stated to have lasted some time 
it looks as if it were an electrical phenomenon and not a meteor. 
Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury during the early years of 
the reign of Henry III went into exile at the little village of 
Portigny in Burgundy where there is a very fine Abbey. After his 
death miracles were performed at his tomb and Portigny became a 
great place of pilgrimage: both Henry III and his wife made a 
pilgrimage here and there is a good account of it in the Annals. St. 
Edmund has many votaries even at the present time and the back of 
the high Altar in the Abbey Church is covered with votive tablets from 
grateful supplicants; here are two gathered recently (1) Succés 
d’examens, le dernier obtenu le jour de la féte de St. Edme. 16 
Novembre 1892 (2) Voce exaucé 1870-71. 
Monk’s bridge at Egginton was built by John of Stretton, Prior 
of Burton Abbey, ‘‘a man of great authority and eminent learning ” 
for the benefit of the souls of his father and mother. During his 
lifetime he kept the bridge in repair : after his death the inhabitants 
of Egginton asserted that the Abbey of Burton should repair the 
bridge, but Abbot Lawrence denied the responsibility and procured 
a brief from the King directing the Sheriff of Stafford to find out 
whose duty it was to repair it. So twelve men from Staffordshire and 
twelve from Derbyshire were appointed to make enquiries and their 
report was that nobody was responsible for the repairs. The names 
of these men are interesting as they show that surnames had not 
then become common. Five of the Staffordshire men have surnames 
the others have names of the types ‘* Willelmus de Tatenhalle,” or 
“ Ricardus de Astone,” and “ Ricardus filius Rogeri de Haselower.” 
The bulk of the Annals is made up, as I have said, of important 
documents and although the chronicler himself gives you next to 
nothing of the history of the period, the reading of these documents 
cannot fail to give any one a very illuminating and correct picture 
of the times, especially of the condition of the Church, of the struggle 
between the Pope and the Emperor and of the Sicilian project— 
