under the direction of the deputy-keeper, is
_Inquisitions and Assessments relating to Feudal Aids_, 1284-1431, of
which three volumes, dealing in alphabetical order with the shires from
Bedford to Norfolk, are published Cheshire and Durham are entirely
omitted and Lancashire very scantily dealt with as exceptional
jurisdictions. The work is based upon the various lay records
enumerated above and other analogous inquests. Ancient compilations of
miscellaneous documents by officials of the Exchequer are exemplified
in _Liber Niger Scaccarii_ (ed. Hearne, 2 vols., 1774), and in the _Red
Book of the Exchequer_ (ed. H. Hall, 3 vols., Rolls ser., 1896).

The records of the common law courts, the King's Bench and the Court of
Common Pleas, are of less direct historical value than those of the
Chancery and the Exchequer. Extraordinarily bulky, they require a good
deal of sifting to sort the wheat from the chaff. As yet a very small
proportion of them has been printed, and few have even been calendared.
A brief index of them has been compiled in the useful _List of Plea
Rolls_ (1894, _P.R.O. Lists and Indexes_, No. iv.). Of the various
types of these records the FEET OF FINES have been largely used by the
topographer and genealogist, and the feet of fines for many counties
during this period have been calendared, summarised, excerpted, and
printed, wholly or in part, by local archaeological societies, as for
example, W. FARRER'S _Lancashire Final Concords till 1307_ (Rec. Soc.
for Lancashire and Cheshire, 1899), and many others. The PLEA ROLLS are
of wider importance. For the days of Henry III. _Placita Coram Rege_
(_i.e._, of the King's Bench) and the _Placita de Banco_ (_i.e._, of
the Common Pleas in later phrase) are classified as _Rotuli Curiae
Regis_, while the rolls of the local eyres for the same period are
called _Assize Rolls_. Separate series for each court begin with Edward
I. Specimens of most of these types have been printed. _Placitorum
Abbreviatio Ric. I.--Edw. II._ (Rec. Com., fol., 1811) is a careless
seventeenth century abstract. _Placita de Quo Warranto_, Edward I. to
Edward III. (Rec. Com., fol., 1818), is a record of local eyres of
particular importance for the reign of Edward I. as the corollary of
the Hundred Rolls and the attack on the local franchises. HUNTER'S
_Rotuli Selecti_ (Rec. Com., 1834) contains pleas of the reign of Henry
III. A typical year's pleadings of the King's Bench for 1297 is given
i