indeed, might have been added, but only at the risk of defeating the object of the book, which is to convey a sense of historical development, and not to serve as a work of reference. The mere recital of historical data is not enough, and so a limited field, treated with careful exposition, seemed more likely to interest those who are just embarking upon their legal education, than a more comprehensive (and therefore less intimate) treatment of a larger field. The increase of size in this edition is very slight, and is attributable principally to the amplification of expository passages, and not to the introduction of new subjects for treatment.
Everyone who is interested in the history of the law is under an immense debt to the writings of Pollock, Maitland and Holdsworth in England, and of Holmes, Thayer and Ames in America. Were it not for the thirteen masterly volumes of the Vinerian Professor, neither this nor any other short history of English law could be written with any degree of confidence. The stately series of the Selden Society’s publications has provided a rich harvest of original materials which adds immensely to the vividness of legal history whenever teachers and students make use of them. The even longer series of many of our county historical societies afford rich illustration of our legal history, and the grateful thanks of legal historians are due to these bodies, and especially to the enlightened bands of subscribers who make it possible to continue the work of publication, even in these inauspicious days. The footnotes to this history have been designed to place illustrative cases and statutes easily within the reach of readers. The Council of the Selden Society have kindly allowed me to reproduce a lengthy extract from one of their publications, and I hope that readers will be tempted to explore these and the other sources cited.
It should be explained that the text and pagination of this fifth edition correspond entirely, both in the English issue by Messrs. Butterworth, and in the American issue by Messrs. Little, Brown and Company.
My thanks are due once again to many friends who have discussed legal history and its teaching with me in a very helpful way, and to many English and American teachers who used the earlier editions and were kind enough to send me valuable suggestions. I am once again particularly grateful to Professor H. A. Hollond of Cambridge and Professor A. D. Hargreaves of Birmingham for their learned criticisms and interest, to Mr. K. Howard Drake for the Index, and to Messrs. Butterworth for their constant and sympathetic care in the production of this volume, and in the preparation of the Tables.
T. F. T. P.
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS,
July, 1956.
SELECT CIVIL PLEAS (Selden Society):
no. 1 (1200) 721
no. 8 (1200) 477
no. 17 (1200) 402
no. 56 (1200) 529
no. 59 (1200) 362
no. 65 (1200) 722
no. 76 (1201) 400
no. 148 (1203) 540
no. 167 (1203) 527
no. 179 (1202) 417
no. 183 (post 1205) 489
no. 194 (1201?) 718
CURIA REGIS ROLLS:
ii. 181-182 (1203) 159, 477
vii. 136, 179 (1214) 150, 677
332 (1221) 166
SELECT PLEAS OF THE CROWN
(Selden Society):
no. 28 (1202) 677
no. 91 (1203) 144
no. 115 (1214) 428
no. 126 (n.d.) 476
no. 157 (1221) 124
no. 169 (1221) 453
no. 170 (1221) 124
LINCS. & WORCS. EYRE ROLLS
(Selden Society, vol. 53):
no. 908 (1219) 569
GLOUCS., WARW. & SALOP. EYRE ROLLS
(Selden Society, vol. 59):
no. 77 (1221) 678
no. 85 (1221) 472
no. 100a (1221) 551
no. 102 (1221) 571
no. 127 (1221) 573
no. 173 (1221) 540
no. 187 (1221) 722
no. 200 (1221) 577
no. 227 (1221) 91
no. 232 (1221) 423, 465, 718, 722
no. 257 (1221) 567, 577
no. 272 (1221) 573
no. 290 (1221) 737
no. 474 (1221) 360, 678
no. 559 (1221) 569
no. 560 (1221) 716
no. 715 (1221) 166
no. 728 (1221) 124
no. 751 (1221) 120
no. 767 (1221) 124
no. 822 (1221) 120
no. 832 (1221) 453
