Wilton." The entry seems to refer to a trial of 47 Henry III., which, however, took place not before W. de Wilton, but before Middleton and Brewes (transcribed in a Coram Rege Roll of Michaelmas, 7-8 Edward I.; cf. Placitor. Abbrev. 270)'. Unfortunately so many of the original rolls have been lost and the indications of the British Museum MS. are so general that it was impossible to trace out most cases in the way of such direct comparison.

But there were other channels. The Patent Rolls give the appointment of justiciaries to try particular assizes, and the Fine Rolls record payments received for such appointments by the Exchequer. These documents give the approximate time of another marginal case. Fol. 276 a has the following entry opposite a Yorkshire assize of Martin of Pateshull: "Na casum Hugonis filii Wymund de Ralegh primogenitum et postnatum qui fuit infra etatem de concordia inter eos facta, coram H. de Bratton." Wymund of Ralegh was still alive in 1256, as is shown by a final concord between him and Warin of Ralegh in the King's Bench (Feet of Fines, Devon, Henry III., N. 492). In 1259 Bracton is appointed to try an assize of mort d'ancestor between Hugh and Warin of Ralegh, and that is most probably the case hinted at in our MS. (Patent Roll, 43 Henry III., membr. 13, dorso). In most instances the connexion could not be so clearly ascertained. Still, the examination of the Patent Rolls is instructive even where it does not lead to the absolute identification of particular cases, because it narrows the range of possible identification to a very small area in space and time. To put it briefly, they point to Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall as the counties, to Henry of Bratton as the judge, and to the years 42-46 of Henry III. as the time with which the cases of Ralph of Arundell, Corbyn, and the heirs of Hokesham, mentioned in the note-book, are connected. Of course, there is evidence to show that the earlier parts of Bracton's treatise were composed before 42 Henry III., but the work as it presents itself does not look at all like a completed one, and nothing shows that it was not in process of elaboration in some of its parts as late as 46 Henry III., and even later.

Last, but not least, there is a definite trace left by the marginal cases of the note-book in one of the most important

MSS. of Bracton's treatise. It may have struck many students of the author that parallel to the carefully arranged quotations from early rolls there runs a string of irregular references to later cases. A trial is mentioned, for instance, to which the heirs of John of Munmuth were parties. Now the said John died immediately before 1259' (Roberts, 'Calendarium Genealogicum,' i. 73), and so the casual illustration has been taken from a case fresh in the remembrance of the author when he composed the corresponding part of the treatise. The case Roger de Regni v. Robert de Shute, entered as a heading to one of the paragraphs in the editions, is nothing but a similar side reference to a trial which may be still read at the Record Office on an assize roll of Bracton for 1254 (Coram Rege, Henry III., N. 96, m. 4). And so in the work itself we have the like marginal illustrations as in the note-book, and a careful collation of the MSS. of Bracton would bring them easily out in their original character of side-notes. Now, one of the most interesting among the Bracton MSS., Digby 222 in the Bodleian Library, of which that wondrous production called Sir Travers Twiss's edition of Bracton does not take the slightest notice, gives as marginal references two of the most conspicuous illustrative instances of the note-book, the Corbyn case on the subject of warranty and the Ralph of Arundell case.

Summarizing briefly the evidence in respect of Bracton's connexion with the note-book in the British Museum, I lay again stress on the following points: 1. The abstracts from rolls in the Add. MS. and the rolls which served as material for the drawing up of the treatise are substantially the same. 2. There are passages in the treatise which even in their wording connect themselves with notes in the Add. MS. 3. The illustrative references in the Add. MS. can be traced in some instances to Bracton's own practice, and in two cases are found to recur in MSS. of Bracton's work.

My paper has grown to such an inordinate length already that I do not venture to hint at the importance of the matter collected in the British Museum MS. It seems sufficient for the present to say that the note-book gives a copious and careful selection of cases from the early practice of Henry III.'s time, and that many of the rolls from which it was compiled have been 1 Corr. 1257. See below, p. 38, note 7.

lost since. I intend to discuss some of the material questions arising from the study of these abstracts in the new quarterly which the Oxford Law School is going to start next year'; but even now I think it may be said without fear of going wrong that the integral publication of the MS. would afford the most fitting sequel to Palgrave's editions of Richard I.'s and John's rolls.

I must not omit before concluding to thank Mr W. Selby, of the Record Office, for the kind and valuable help which I had from him on several occasions during my inquiry.

PAUL VINOGRADOFF.

1 Law Quarterly Review, vol. 1. p. 189.

NOTE ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE EXTANT

PLEA ROLLS.

The yet extant Plea Rolls of Henry the Third's reign are arranged at the Public Record Office in three classes, (1) Coram Rege Rolls, (2) Assize Rolls, (3) Tower Assize Rolls or Tower Coram Rege Rolls. This arrangement has been determined partly by the fact that in time past some of the rolls were preserved in the Tower and some at Westminster. That a roll is now found in a particular class, is by no means a sure indication of its real nature, for instance, it may happen that one of two duplicate rolls will be among the Coram Rege Rolls and the other among the Assize Rolls. Therefore in citing a roll as Coram Rege Roll No. 91, Assize Roll M. 2, 3, 1, or Tower Roll No. 4, I imply nothing as to the character of the roll, but merely give the reader a name whereby he may obtain the document to which I refer. In citing a particular membrane of a roll, I refer to the figures which have been set upon its membranes by a modern pencil.

MSS. OF BRACTON'S TREATISE.

NOTE :--The following MSS. of Bracton's treatise I have occasionally consulted, and some of them are referred to in my Introduction by means of the letters here assigned to them. It should be understood however that the order in which they are here mentioned, is not an order of merit or of date, also that at least twelve other MSS. are known to exist, at seven of which, those in Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Temple and Trinity College, Cambridge, I have glanced.

INTRODUCTION.

§ 1. Of Bracton his times and his work. Generalities.

book marks

THAT Bracton's book on the laws of England is a good Bracton's and a great book very worthy of careful study, is no novel and makes opinion, but rather an old tradition which has stood the test and received the sanction of modern scholarship.

an epoch.

freedom of king's court under

Henry III.

In truth that book both marks and makes a critical moment in the history of English law, and therefore in the essential history of the English people. About the middle of the thirteenth century, the time when Bracton was at work, our common law, the law which was to be common to Power and England and vast lands of which he never dreamt, was rapidly and definitely assuming the shape that it was to keep but little changed for long ages. Yet a little while and Parliament would have come into being as the one proper organ of all legislation, hampering by its masterful but fragmentary and intermittent statutes any further development of unenacted law, jealous of the royal power, jealous lest new writs, new forms of procedure, should mean new laws made without its approval. At latest before the death of Edward the First the main outlines of the common law would, we may say, be drawn once and for all; an intricate superstructure might yet be reared, the ground plan could no longer be changed. But during the first part of the reign of Edward's father, the king's judges must have enjoyed such an opportunity of moulding a powerful, practical scheme of law as has rarely been given to men. Past history, the Norman conquest, the vigour of king after king, the ill success of

M. I.

1