so many trades." Then the potter told how he had exchanged his ware with a collier, bad luck to him! and how the latter went towards the wood, crying, "Pots! pots!" "Haloo !" cried the Count, "quick to the wood, hunt it well, and bring me every one you find there." And so they liberated the collier, and again entered the forest. Eustace, however, had thrown away his pots in a marsh, and had concealed himself in the nest of a kite.

"Wistasces li escervelés
Illuecques se fist loussignol.
Bien tenoit le conte por fol.
Quant voit le conte trespasser
Wistasces commenche à crier :
'Ochi! ochi! ochi! ochi !'
Et li quens Renaus respondi:
'Je l'ocirai, par saint Richier !
Se le puis as mains baillier,'

Fier! fier!' dist Wistasces li moigne.

'Par foi!' dist li quens de Bouloigne,
'Si ferai-jou, je le ferai,
Jà en cel liu ne le tenrai.'
Wistasces r'est aséurés,
Si se r'est .ij. mos escriés ·
'Non l'ot! si ot! non l'ot! si ot!'

"Eustace the madman

There made himself a nightingale.
He held the count for a mere fool.
When he saw the count passing
Eustace begins to cry,

Ochi! ochi! ochi! ochi!' (kill)
And the Count Renaus answered,
'I will kill him, by St. Richier !
If I can lay my hands on him.'
Fier! fier!' (strike) said Eustace the
monk,
[loigne,
"By my faith!' said the Count of Bou-
'So I will do, I will strike him,
Never in this place will I preserve him.'
Eustace feels again secure,

Then again has uttered two words,
'Non l'ot! si ot! &c. (He has not! he
has!)

When the Count of Boulogne heard him,
'Truly he has,' said the Count;
'He has taken all my good horses.'
Eustace cried: 'Hui! hui!' (to-day!
to-day !)
[be to-day,
'You say right,' said the Count; it will
That I will kill him with my hands

If I can lay hold of him with my hands.'
Said the Count, He is no fool

Who trusts the counsel of a nightingale.
The nightingale has taught me well

To take vengeance on my enemies,

For the nightingale cries to me

That I must strike him and kill him.'"'

Then the Count hunted eagerly the monk Eustace. First were caught four monks, who were immediately put in prison. After them were sent to prison four pedlars and a pig; next, three men who carried fowls to sell, and two men who drove asses; then, six fishermen and their fishes; and after them four clerks and an arch-priest: so that by the end of the day there had been arrested more than forty persons, who were all taken for examination before the Count. Eustace, in the mean time, entered the town in the disguise of a woman, and succeeded in carrying away one of the Count's horses, and in publishing the news that he had not himself been taken.

Eustace afterwards came to England, and was well received by King John, who gave him thirty galleys, with which he performed as many strange actions on the sea as he had previously done on land. The King also gave him lands in England, and a palace in London; but he subsequently joined the party of the Barons, and thus merited, by his infidelity, the name of traitor, which is given him in the chronicles. The sea-fight in which he was killed is described briefly in the poem; but more details are given in the passages from the chronicles, which are all printed at the end of M. Michel's introduction.

M. Michel has also commenced, under the title of "Des Vilains," a series of publications of ancient tracts, in prose and verse, illustrative of the condition and manners of the lower orders of the people in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The first number contains a prose tract, "Des xxIII Manières de Vilains," of the twenty-three kinds of vilains, ending with a metrical prayer that all evils and misfortunes may fall upon them, for their want of courtesy. GENT. MAG. VOL. III.

F

The second, edited by M. Monmerqué, a distinguished fellow-labourer in the same mine, contains a poem entitled “De l'Oustillement au Villain," of the household of a vilain, which describes very minutely his goods and chattels and tools. The third number, which has recently appeared, was edited by M. Michel, and contains a satirical treatise in prose, entitled, "La Riote du Monde;" which may, perhaps, be best translated into English by The World in Burlesque, and a metrical version of the same work under the title of "Le Roi d'Angleterre et le Jongleur d'Ely." The Riote du Monde seems to have been very popular among our Norman forefathers, and in a poem, published in the collection of Barbazan, it is alluded to as one of the most excellent performances of the minstrel and jogelour :

Before concluding, we will observe that at the same time with the books above-mentioned, was published, by the same learned editor, a contemporary Norman ballad on Hugh of Lincoln, with all the Scotch ballads on the same subject which have been published by Percy, Gilchrist, Jamieson, Pinkerton, Motherwell, and Sir Egerton Brydges; and that he has in the press, in London, two most important books, which we shall notice as soon as they are published, a collection of all the remains of the Norman romans of Tristram, and the Travels of Charlemagne to Jerusalem and Constantinople, the oldest Norman poem known to exist. Both these books will, we understand, be rendered doubly valuable, by having excellent glossaries.

THE RECORD COMMISSION.

No. V. continued.

Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum in Curia Scaccarii, one vol. 1807. THE territorial Revenue of the Kings of England during the middle ages, was of two kinds; permanent, derived from the profits of the royal demesnes, and the rents reserved upon grants of lands; and, contingent, or occasional, comprehending payments made upon the happening of certain peculiar events. Of the latter description were those singular payments incident to the old feudal tenures, termed 'aids.' These were paid to the Lord 'pur fille marier,' to furnish a marriage portion for his eldest daughter, pur faire fitz chivaler,' to make his eldest son and heir a knight; and to redeem his own person from captivity, if that disaster ever occurred. These three aids seem to have been demanded by the Lord of his Vassals as a right, but upon other occasions aids were levied rather on account of the necessities of the Lord, than of any proper obligation to pay them on the part of the tenant. The aid varied in amount, and was proportioned to the number of knights' fees held by the tenant. The king was also entitled to receive escuage, or scutage, a payment or service from each of his tenants whenever he set forth an army, and to various other peculiar, and in many cases fantastical, payments and services from those who were his tenants by serjeanty, upon the occurrence of certain previously contem

plated events, as upon the day of his coronation, his going into Wales, or Scotland, or such like. All these payments were made to the Exchequer, sometimes immediately by the tenants, and sometimes by the Sheriffs, to whom the tenants paid them. In either case, the Exchequer was the ultimate place of receipt and settlement, and it was therefore necessary that the officers of that establishment should be accurately informed as to the number of the tenants in capite, the knights' fees they held, and the nature of the tenure of such of them as held by Serjeanty.

These particulars were collected by the officers of the Exchequer, from Inquisitions and Returns, from the reports of the Justices Itinerant, from the accounts of the Sheriffs, and various other sources. Sometimes they appear to have been entered on Rolls and sometimes in books, being preserved in either case for general reference and Several miscellaneous office books of this description are in existence. The most important of them are known by the names of Liber Niger,' the Black Book; 'Liber Rubeus,' the Red Book; and 'Liber Feodorum,' the Book of Fees, or as it is more frequently, although erroneously, termed Testa de Nevill.'

use.

The principal contents of the Liber Niger' are the Dialogus de Scaccario, published by Madox, (Hist. of the Exchequer, vol. ii. 349) copies of the will of Henry II., and various Charters in his reign, and also of certain documents commonly known as Charte Baronum, the nature of which will be best explained by stating the circumstances out of which they arose. An aid was levied by Henry II. upon the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Matilda with Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony. The aid was one mark for every knight's fee, and in order to secure its due collection the tenants in capite were commanded to certify to the Exchequer how many knights' fees they held, how many of the old feoffment, that is, in the time of Henry I., and how many of the new, that is, since the time of Henry I., and by whom they were holden. The certificates, or Chartæ Baronum, were returned to the Exchequer in pursuance of these directions, and contained the prescribed particulars; they were ordered to be preserved in the Exchequer, and a place set apart for their safe custody. One, and only one of the originals is now known to be in existence, but the Liber Niger contains copies of them. They are in various forms, some extremely terse and laconic, others diffuse and full of the ordinary phrases of legal flattery. It may be worthy of remark, that in the majority of those Charta, in which the King is addressed by his titles, he is termed King of the English, Rex Anglorum, and not Rex Angliæ, although that title sometimes occurs. The principal parts of the Liber Niger, with the exception of the Dialogus de Scaccario, were published by Hearne, in 2 vols. 8vo, Oxon. 1728, and again under the Editorship of Sir John Ayloffe, in 2 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1771 and 1774. Both these publications contain, besides the Liber Niger, a Cotton MS. (Claudius C. v.) comprising a Catalogue of the Tenants of Lands in Lincolnshire, in the reign of Henry II., the Annals of William of Worcester, and much miscellaneous matter. The later Edition contains some papers not inserted in Hearne's publication, but others are omitted from it, and it is deficient in that Editorial accuracy which gives a peculiar value to all Hearne's heterogeneous publications.

The Liber Rubeus has never been published, and may therefore be noticed more particularly. Great part of it was compiled by Alexander de Swereford, Archdeacon of Shrewsbury, one of the Clerks, and afterwards one of the Barons of the Exchequer in the reign of Henry III. The entries are of a very miscellaneous character, but consist principally of copies of Royal Charters of Liberties and other instruments of a legislative character; ordinances for the regulation of the Mint and the Exchequer, Memoranda of Scutages collected from the 2d Henry II. to the 13th John; Chartæ Baronum, being transcripts similar to those in the Liber Niger; Serjeanties in several counties in the time of King John, with a Summary of the In

quisitions taken in the same reign, concerning the tenants in capite; pleadings in Parliament in the reign of Edward I.; transcripts of various Papal Bulls and Grants of Sovereigns and other persons; the Sentence of Excommunication pronounced in Westminster Hall in the 37th Henry III. against the Transgressors of the Charters; the Oaths of the Officers of the Exchequer, and of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, taken by them when presented in that Court; various memoranda calculated to be of use in the transaction of the Exchequer business, and especially a table of the dates of the commencement of the reigns of various English Monarchs, which has lately been frequently referred to, in order to settle the doubts which long existed, as to the ancient mode of reckoning the regnal years of our Sovereigns. The Liber Rubeus also contains a Copy of the Dialogus de Scaccario. Many of the entries in this volume are of considerable interest and importance. Some of them have been published in various works-in Ryley's Plac. Parliamentaria; in Wilkins's Leges AngloSaxonicæ; in Spelman's Glossary; in the Statutes; in the Foedera; in the Record Report; in Cooper on Records; by Hearne; and in Gale's Quindecim Scriptores; but many are quite unknown, and any antiquary who has or can procure access to the volume, would do good service in giving the world a detailed account of it, with Copies of its unprinted portions.

The Liber Feodorum, or Testa de Nevill, refers to a late period, but is of a somewhat similar character to the two preceding works. It consists of two volumes, which are preserved in the King's Remembrancer's office. On the cover of each of them is written the following memorandum, in an ancient hand, Contenta pro Evidenciis habeantur hic in S'cc'io et non pro recordo!' These books' appear to have been compiled near the close of the reign of Edward II., or the commencement of that of Edward III., partly from Inquests taken [in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I.] on the presentments of Jurors of Hundreds before the Justices Itinerant, and partly from Inquisitions upon writs awarded to the Sheriffs for collecting of Scutages, aids, &c.' (Introduction to the Testa de Nevill). The name " Testa de Nevill' is quite inapplicable to this work. That title properly belonged to a roll containing the names of tenants in capite, a part of which is still extant in the Chapter House, and many quotations from which occur in the present volume; but these quotations form a very trifling part of the whole work, and ought not by any means to have given it their name. The Roll properly called Testa de Nevill, is conjectured to have been compiled either by Ralph de Nevill, or Jollan de Nevill, legal officers in the reign of Henry III., who are mentioned in the Liber Feodorum, as we shall in future term the volume before us, and not Testa de Nevill. At p.16 b. is mention of the widow of Jollan de Neville; she is said to have held lands in the wapentake of Turgarton, in the honour of Richmond, and to have been worth ten marks per annum, but the jurors, it is added, ' do not know whether she is in the gift of the King or of the Earl of Chester.'

The contents of the Liber Feodorum consist principally of lists of the tenants in capite in the several counties, and of the actual terre-tenants; serjeanties; accounts of Scutages, and of the collectors of the aid granted to Henry III., to marry his sister to the Emperor, and that of the prelates upon occasion of the same King's passage into Gascony; lists of wards in the King's gift; extracts from Inquisitions shewing the occupiers of lands at various periods, and frequently their descents; together with quotations from the Testa de Nevill before mentioned. Such particulars are of evident use to the genealogist and topographer; they enable the one to trace the course of many a noble family, and the other to throw a faint light upon the varying occupancy and condition of lands. The enumerations of Serjeanties contain many curious particulars illustrative of the state of manners, and of the nature of the ancient legal tenures, and as these passages are likely to be the

quiry, which was held at Gloucester in the 6th year of the reign, appears to have been founded upon the return of the Commissioners. It enacted that the Sheriffs should cause it to be commonly 'cried' throughout their Bailiwicks, that all those who claimed to have any franchises by the Charters of the King's predecessors, or in any other manner, should come before the King, or before the Justices in Eyre, at a certain day and place, to show what sort of franchises they claimed to have, and by what warrant. And if the parties did not appear, the Sheriff was to take the franchises into the King's hand, as a distress, in order to compel appearance; and no one was to refuse to answer, upon the ground of the want of an original writ, according to the ordinary course of proceedings at the Common Law, except where it appeared that the ancestor of the tenant died seised of the franchise in question, in which case an original writ was to be issued, in a new form prescribed by the Statute. (Authentic Edition of the Statutes, I. p. 45.) Upon the authority of this Statute, and assisted by the information obtained upon the previous inquiry, various proceedings in quo warranto were instituted against persons who were supposed to have usurped the Royal franchises. The rolls of pleadings in these cases, and in other similar cases, in the reigns of the two succeeding Monarchs, constitute the records published in the Placita de quo Warranto. In many instances these proceedings were at once submitted to; in others, in which they were contested, advantage was occasionally taken on behalf of the Crown, of the loss of charters, and the absence of other evidence ; and long standing possession was found insufficient to atone for the want of some ancient and forgotten document, even although the land was in the possession of the descendant of him by whose sword it had originally been won. Cases of this description aroused the public feeling, and produced a loud and general discontent. At length the King desisted, and by an Ordinance, or Statute, made in the 18th year of his reign, established the same limitation in proceedings by quo warranto, which by the Statute of Westminster primer, 3d Edward I. c. 39, had been previously made the time of limitation in a writ of right. The Statute of 18th Edward I. declared that all those which claimed to have quiet possession of any franchise before the time of King Richard, without interruption, and could show the same by a lawful inquest, should well enjoy their possession; and in case that such possession should be demanded for cause reasonable, the King should confirm it by title; and those that had old Charters of franchise should have the same Charters adjudged, according to their tenor and form.' (Authentic Edition of Statutes, I. p. 107.) The time of legal prescription thus settled, remained unaltered, notwithstanding the lapse of so many intervening centuries, up to the reign of his present Majesty, when by the recommendation of the Law Commissioners, the period of prescription was properly settled at sixty years; a time which, 300 years ago, was judged sufficient in the case of a writ of right. (Stat. 32 H. VIII. c. 2. Authentic Edition, vol. III. p. 747.)

A survey so comprehensive as that taken by the Special Commissioners, could not fail to contain many circumstances of very curious and often important information. It is true it extended only to the Royal domains, and such matters as the King was interested in as conservator of the public peace, and protector of the commonalty against the oppressions of his officers, but these topics opened many points of inquiry highly illustrative of the modes of transacting business and the general manners and practices of the times; the state of the law, the venality of its ministers and the severities practised by them; the condition of towns, the tenures of property, and the persons in whom the possession of lands was vested. Topographers do not appear to be at all generally aware of the contents of these volumes, which, although a mine of information more useful, perhaps, to them than to any other description of inquirers, have been permitted to remain almost unnoticed. For twenty years these and many others of the record publications have been in our libraries and upon