66 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly Feb. 



VII. The Court of Claims is an ancient institution, having 

 records dating back to the reign of Richard II. In the 

 earher days the sovereign, soon after accession, issued a 

 warrant constituting the Lord High Steward sole judge 

 of the Court of Claims ; but Queen Victoria, by proclama- 

 tion, intrusted the duties of the said Court to the whole 

 of the Privy Council, or any five of its members, and this 

 precedent has been followed by the present king. 



The claims are chiefly of those persons who hold estates 

 by "grand serjeantry " — i.e., according to Littleton, "where 

 a man holds his lands or tenements of the sovereign by such 

 services as he ought to do in his own person, as to carry the 

 King's banner, or his sword before him, at the coronation, 

 or to be his carver or butler." 



On the present occasion the labours of the Court of Claims 

 are made easy by the fact that the peers who at the last 

 coronation respectively performed the functions of Earl 

 Marshal of England, Lord High Steward, the bearers of 

 the Golden Spurs, the Orb, the Custana or Sword of Mercy, 

 the Second Sword, the Third Sword, the Sceptre with 

 Dove, and King Edward the Confessor's staff, have lineal 

 descendants or representatives. There remains, therefore, 

 among the more important offices only that of carrying the 

 Sceptre with the Cross, vacant by the extinction of the 

 Dukedom of Cleveland, and the appointment of Lord 

 High Constable of England, which is not hereditary, but 

 is usually conferred upon a distinguished military officer. 

 The great Duke of Wellington was Constable at Queen 

 Victoria's coronation. 



The rival claims of the Earl of Ancaster and the Marquis 

 of Cholmondeley to the office of Lord Great Chamberlain 

 of England have been referred to the House of Lords* 

 Committee on Peerage Claims. 



In addition to the great and hereditary offices, there are 

 other claims from persons who hold manors and estates on 

 condition that they render personally some menial act at the 

 Coronation. Some of these become unnecessary, owing to 

 the King's Proclamation of June 26, 1901, dispensing with 

 the services of all persons who claim and are bound to 

 perform any service or services in Westminster, in West- 



