1921 SHORT NOTICES 615 active and business-like person who can scarcely have been sixty years of age at the time, but he was so frequently absent on his country estates and so absorbed in their management that he cannot have devoted very close attention to what went on in the Abbey, in which he never resided even when he was at Westminster. Owing to an expensive system of administration and a pernicious practice of making costly presents to personages whose favour it was desired to secure, he was constantly in debt, and in 1291 retired to France for several months to escape from his creditors and live more economically. This at least is the only apparent explanation of his stay there. Among those who lent him money from time to time was Thomas Romayn, whom Dr. Pearce curiously describes as a Jew, whereas he was mayor of London in 1310 and founded chantries in two City churches. The general impression of Wenlock that one gains from the evidence presented and, we may add, from the contemporary portrait which forms the frontispiece, if it is a portrait of him, is hardly so favourable as that formed by Dr. Pearce. He does not seem to have shown either tact or shrewdness in the quarrel with the prior and his friends over the delimitation of the respective portions of abbot and convent which left a schism in the Abbey for years after his death. Yet perhaps he had a grievance in that the prior and convent had varied the old compositions while he was still only abbot elect and not in a position to resist with effect. It is surprising that Dr. Pearce does not make this point in his favour. In place-names forming part of surnames the medieval form is used in the text, but where there is a modern form it is better to use it. The index is not free from omissions. F. In three lectures on The Year Books (Cambridge : University Press, 1921) delivered in the University of London, Mr. W. C. Bolland has used bis intimate knowledge of these books to give a general introduction to their study. The first two lectures contain an account of the manuscripts and editions, with a summary of Mr. Bolland's well-known theory of the origin and purpose of the books ; the third draws attention to some of the discoveries in legal history which have resulted from modern studies in them, and gives a number of stories illustrative of medieval social life and language. G . Mr. Bolland's former contribution to the Year Books of Edward II has been so recently noticed in this Review x that there is need to do little more than record the appearance of a successor, vol. xviii (London : Quaritch, 1920), wholly devoted to pleas of Michaelmas term 8 Edward II. Its appearance shows that the Selden Society is gradually getting over the difficulties caused by the war, but if all its editors had been like Mr. Bolland, these difficulties would have been less than they have actually turned out to be. This instalment follows the usual plan and is marked by all Mr. Bplland's sterling qualities as editor. In the introduction perhaps he allows himself a little more freedom than he used to do. His excursus on jury service under Edward II is brightly written, and presents in an interesting form the expenses, labour, and sufferings of a juror summoned to Westminster from 1 Ante, xxxv. 125-7.
