1921 'ADVENTUS VICECOMITUM', 1258-72 485 deals with the sheriffs' activities in the year Michaelmas 39 Henry III to Michaelmas 40 Henry III ; it was made up on the other hand during the hearing of the sheriffs' accounts between Michaelmas 40 Henry III and the end of Trinity term 41 Henry III. This point, though apparently small, is of importance later in showing the connexion between the break- down at the exchequer and the political history of this period. The Memoranda Rolls for both years contain entries concerning this account i the first records the instructions sent to the sheriff with regard to the collection of revenue and other administrative details which arose during his year of office ; on the second are found details relating to the hearing of the account. The normal counties in the middle of the thirteenth century were, then, thirty -four in number, and these were arranged in twenty-four administrative areas, each under a sheriff, except London and Middlesex, which had two. These officers answered annually at the exchequer for the revenue which they had collected in the previous year and for any expenditure which they had incurred on the king's behalf. Their account might be taken at any time between Michaelmas and the end of June following their year of office. Finally, the Memoranda Rolls do not cover the same period as the corresponding Pipe Rolls, but deal with the accounts of at least two years, and may also be, and usually are, concerned with the collection of arrears extending over a much longer period. 1 We are now in a position to examine in detail the Adventus Vicecomitum and the companion summaries to which reference has already been made. The tables have been compiled for twenty-five years, that is, for five periods of five years each. The first of these is for the five years immediately before the issue of the Provisions of Oxford, the next three cover the years 1258-72, and the last contains the first five years of Edward I's reign. The points considered fall into three main divisions : (1) the attendance of the sheriffs at the exchequer of audit, (2) at the exchequer of receipt, and (3) the amount of money actually paid in by them there. These particulars have been tabulated year by year and county by county, in order to estimate the nature of the fluctua- tions during the period between the promulgation of the Provisions of Oxford and the accession of Edward I. As the figures are based in every case on the Memoranda Roll summaries 2 referred to above, it is only necessary to add (1) that in the first set of tables the Compoti Comitatuum have been checked in all doubtful 1 King's Remembrancer's Memoranda Roll 21 Edw. I, m. 33, ' De terminis con- cessis de hominibus de Kynggeston ', illustrates this point. The sum of £519 lis. 6%d. stated to be owing in this entry is made up of a number of debts, most of which were contracted in Henry IIPs reign. 8 The King's Remembrancer's Memoranda Rolls are used throughout this article.
