264 Ancient History of Shaftesbury. 



for all who laboured under any infirmity were healed." I find 

 however no mention made of these miracles in the Saxon chronicle, 

 which is probably a contemporary record. Such tales seem the 

 exaggerations, if not the inventions, of a later age. The cures, 

 attributed to the virtue of King Edward's bones, might perhaps 

 more truly be ascribed to the medical skill and good nursing of the 

 pious and gentle sisters. William of Malmesbury writing in the 

 reign of, King Stephen, about A.D. 1140, thus speaks of them. 

 "At Shaftesbury there is a numerous choir of women dedi- 

 cated to God enlightening those parts with the blaze of their 



religion. There reside sacred virgins, there continent widows, 



ignorant of a second flame, in all whose manners, graceful 



modesty is so blended with chastened elegance, that nothing can 

 exceed it. Indeed it is matter of doubt which to applaud most, 

 their assiduity in the service of God, or their affability in the con- 

 verse of men." On the translation of the body of Edward the 

 Martyr to the Abbey Church, his name was added to that of the 

 blessed Virgin, and henceforth the church was known, as the church 

 of S. Mary the Virgin and S. Edward the Martyr ; and the town 

 was often called "Burgus Sancti Edwardi," and " Edwardstow." The 

 Saxon chronicle records the death of Herelufu, Abbess of Shaftes- 

 bury, A.D. 982. King Ethelred, 1 by charter dated 1001, gave to 

 the church of S. Edward, the monastery and vill of Bradford, to 

 be always subject to the Abbey of Shaftesbury, " that the nuns of 

 Bradford might have a safe refuge against the Danes, and on the 

 restoring of peace return to their former place." 



King Canute died at Shaftesbury, November 12th 1035 ; his body 

 was however removed to Winchester for burial. 



I know of no other important mention of Shaftesbury till the 

 Domesday Survey, in which reference is made to its condition in 

 the reigns of Edward the Confessor and of William I, both pro- 

 bably periods of depression. The royal favour in which it had 

 basked during the reigns of Alfred and some of his successors, had 

 declined. Harold had robbed the Abbey of several of its possessions, 



1 Dugdale. 



