118 DORSET AND KING JOUN. 



from the Pipe Rolls, supplemented and illustrated by extracts from 

 the Close and Patent Rolls, of the same period. 



The Close and Patent Rolls of John's reign have been printed in 

 facsimile type by the Record Commissioners, and though out of 

 print they are accessible, and in their modern garb they present no 

 unusual difficulties to the reader. In the Close Rolls, though the 

 letters relating to this reign number some thousands, there is little 

 difficulty in finding what relates to the county, but there is a 

 distinct difficulty in making a selection from the Patent Rolls. In 

 the first place you cannot, as you generally can with a Close letter, 

 see from the first words of a Patent letter whether it contains 

 information relating to the county and likely to be useful ; so all 

 letters patent have to be looked through, and to look through some 

 thousands of such letters in abbreviated Latin takes time, and as 

 the reader ought whilst reading them to bear in mind the names 

 mentioned in the Pipe Rolls so as to recognise them again in the 

 Patent Rolls, it will be seen that serious omissions are very likely 

 to occur. 



The extracts I have made from the original Pipe Rolls with a 

 translation will be found in the Museum. They are too voluminous 

 to be reproduced in their entirety here ; the notes upon them 

 which follow here are necessarily disjointed and fragmentary, and 

 should be regarded as a contribution of material towards a future 

 history of the county in King John's reign. 



The movements of that most restless of kings, King John, have 

 been traced and an Itinerary compiled by Sir T. D. Hardy. The 

 Itinerary may be accepted as absolutely reliable. " The authority 

 for assuming the King was present in person at the several places 

 specified in the Itinerary is derived — first, from his attestations to 

 the Charters and letters which are registered on the Patent, Charter, 

 and Close Rolls ; secondly, from the movements of the Court 

 exhibited in the Rotuli misarum, or Wardrobe accounts, and in 

 the Preestita Rolls ; and thirdly, from the internal evidence 

 afforded by the records," says Sir T. Hardy of his compilation. As 

 it will be useful to us I will give extracts from the Itinerary, show- 



