I7BESIT7] 

 INTB0DUCTI0N 



The four treatises which are brought together in this 

 volume are of interest from many points of view. A work 

 attributed to Robert Grosseteste deserves to be rescued 

 from oblivion, and the peculiarities of the dialect in which 

 these writings were composed may attract the attention of 

 students of early French. Others may, however, be led to 

 examine them from an interest in the subject-matter of 

 which they treat, and this has been the primary considera- 

 tion in planning the present edition. The work of an 

 author who is only known through this book, and two 

 anonymous treatises, have been placed alongside the maxims 

 which were laid down by the great Bishop of Lincoln, for 

 they deal, and deal at greater length, with the management 

 of estates. Public attention has been called to the treatise 

 of Walter of Henley by Professor Thorold Eogers, who has 

 made frequent reference to it in the earlier volumes of 

 his great work on Agriculture and Prices, and it is most 

 desirable that the first-hand evidence on this important 

 side of the life of our forefathers should be rendered gene- 

 rally accessible to students of English History. This is 

 more especially the case, as the various treatises, in so far 

 as they have been printed already, have been curiously 

 mangled ; it has been an interesting task to try and disen- 

 tangle the confusion into which they have been thrown, and 

 present them as nearly as possible in their original form, 

 while at the same time the whole of the interpolated matter 

 has also been retained. The student has now access to 



