Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/579

 1922 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 571 serjeanties, was compiled for use in the exchequer, the contents of the Testa de Nevill were used very freely by the transcriber ; hence it happened that the name of the receptacle was transferred to the book. As the rolls and membranes from which it was transcribed were lost or scattered or mutilated, this book, with its striking unintelligible name, came to be regarded in some quarters as a work of record, as though it were an authoritative and systematic description of feudal England at a definite date. Its compilers and the officials who used it had, of course, no such illusions ; in their eyes it was a convenient work of reference, not of record. In 1807 it was printed from a transcript made by ' a man of the name of Simpson, who was a writer in the Exchequer '. We refer our readers to Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte for a description of this familiar folio, which, to use Mr. Round's words, has been the hunting ground and despair of topographers and genealogists for more than a century. As Sir Henry says : Considering the character of the printed Testa de Nevill, it is not surprising that students, even some of the best, have been misled by it. In default of any editorial guidance, they have been left to determine for themselves whether particular entries date from the accession of Henry III in 1216 or from any one of the succeeding years down to the death of Edward I in 1307. Some writers have referred to ' the date of the Testa de Nevill', apparently unaware that its contents range from 1198 down to 1293, nearly a whole century (p. vii). Now at last, following up the investigations of Mr. Round, the deputy- keeper and his colleagues have restored order out of this chaos. The earliest reference to the Book of Fees is an entry in the Issue Roll for 1302 regarding the payment of the transcriber of a liber defeodis in two volumes. On 9 June 1302 John of Drokensford or Droxford, keeper of the wardrobe, was debited with the sum of 4 13s., paid to William of Coshall for his work. 1 The book was bound in the same year. Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte draws the conclusion that the book was actually transcribed in 1302, and suggests that the immediate cause of the task must be sought ' in the assessment, in the year 1302, of an Aid for the marriage of the eldest daughter of Edward I ' (p. xiv). Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte may be relying upon evidence which is unknown to us, and in any case his view is a natural and likely one ; but it is not quite free from difficulties. The sixty-two peciae of which the Book of Fees was composed had left William of Coshall's hands before 9 June. We do not know how long he had the work in hand, nor when he finished it. The writs for the collection of the aid were not issued until 7 November. 2 The officials of the exchequer 1 At this time John of Drokensford was supplying the place of the treasurer, Walter Langton (Col. of Patent Bolls, 1301-7, p. 43 ; Tout, Chapters in Medieval Administrative History, i. 107). But this fact does not explain Drokensf ord's connexion with the book, for in November, when he was no longer acting for the treasurer, he was debited with the cost of the binding. Professor Tout has shown that during these years the co-operation in matters of policy between the officials of the wardrobe and the exchequer was very close (op. cit. i. 104 ff.). The aid had originally been granted in 1290 (Rot. Parl. i. 25 ; Select Charters, 9th ed., p. 472). Stubbs accepted the view that the aid granted in 1290 was on the occasion of the marriage of Joan of Acre to the earl of Gloucester, although Joan was not the king's eldest daughter (Const. Hist. ii. 126). Is it certain that the marriage of Eleanor, her eldest sister, was not in contemplation ? She married Henry of Bar in 1293.
 * Col. of Patent Rolls, 1301-7, p. 76 ; the text in Rotuli Parliamentorum, i. 266.