38 SHAFTESBUtlV. 



formerly in the cliapter-house of the monastery, circa 880, aud 

 probably after destruction by the Danes ; and the foundation by 

 the same monarch a few years later, in 888, of a convent of nuns, 

 under the Benedictine rule, presided over by Alfred's daughter, 

 the lady /Etlielgifn. Hither was brought for honourable interment, 

 20th Feb., 980, Edward, King and Martyr, slain at Coife Castle, 

 18tli March, 978, and unceremoniously buried at Warehani, from 

 which circumstance this town was frequently named " Burgus 

 Sancti Edwardi " and " P^dwardstow." Here was buried Ealdgyth, 

 the wife of Edmund Ironside, and here breathed his last, on the 

 12th November, 1035, the famous King Cnut, though he was 

 not buried here, but at Winchester. These are the chief events of 

 the Saxon time. When Edward the Confessor reigned there were 

 257 houses in Shaftesbury, many more than in Dorchester and 

 Bridport, and only 28 less than at Wareham. Avhile in 108G 

 Shaftesbury took the lead in this respect of all the royal burghs in 

 Dorset. It would be hardly too much to say that from that time 

 till now Shaftesbury has been the scene of no events of a very 

 stirring character, though the churches or chapelries, about 12 in 

 number, testify to its general prosperity. The chief interest 

 centred in the Monastery, greatly frequented by pilgrims to S. 

 Edward's tomb. The Norman period saw the rebuilding of the 

 Abbey Church, as demonstrated by its foundations, laid bare in 

 1861. In 1313 Elizabeth, the wife of Kobert Bruce, King of 

 Scotland, was conducted from Carrick to Shaftesbury for conhne- 

 ment in the Abbey. This religious house gradually increased in 

 prosperity, so that it was commonly reported that if the Abbot of 

 Glaston might wed the Abbess of Shaston their heir would have 

 more land than the King of England. The Abbess, like her sisters 

 of Barking, Wilton, and Winchester, held her lands by an entire 

 barony, and if only ladies had attained their rights in those days, 

 would have been accommodated with a seat in the Upper House. 

 The municipal chest still contains a bundle of rolls of her baronial 

 court, "curia feodorum baronie" of the year 1453, when Edith 

 Bonham was the Lady Abbess. At length came the fatal hour of 



