The new chronicler prepared himself for his task by studying the contents of the royal archives and by traveling around the kingdom examining monastic and other records, looking at epitaphs and familiarizing himself with the topography of towns and battlefields.
Monastic customaries, or daily records, often include comments like, " 'Oh, we had such a hard time with the kids today -- they were running all over the classroom,' " she said.
Outside of occasional references in documents concerned with other matters, they amount to a handful of burgh records and monastic and episcopal registers.
Among the Anglo-Saxons there were similar bardic pedigrees recorded by monastic scribes, and many of these might have survived but for the destruction of the Old English ruling class during the Norman Conquest.
The same study shows little evidence that he despoiled his episcopal estates, although the record towards monastic houses is more suspect.
Despite being known as "The Priory", or "Stoke sub Hamdon Priory", the building has never been used as a priory, and there is no record of a monastic house in Stoke sub Hamdon.
The crucifixes given to Ely, Bury and Winchester all appear to have had about life-size figures of Christ with matching figures of the Virgin and John the Evangelist, as is recorded in the monastic histories, and were probably permanently mounted over the altar or elsewhere.
They seem to draw on local customs, but are recorded in a monastic collection of medical remedies (in London, British Library, Harley MS 585).
A granary was recorded in a survey conducted in 1293 4 and a further survey of 1324 recorded the existence of a monastic grange in addition to the granary.
They possibly were recorded in expanded form by a monastic colleague and attributed to Macarius after his death.
