222 THE CERNE CARTULARY. 



D is wholly occupied with events of Henry III.'s reign : 

 mainly with those of a general character not specially affecting 

 Cerne, but on ff. 17 and 18 are entries relating to litigation 

 berween the Abbots of Cerne and Abbotsbury. The undated 

 assise of bread and beer on f. 1 8 may be later : it is not the 

 statutory assise : and it is in a different handwriting from the rest 

 of D. 



E appears to have been compiled chronologically backwards. 

 On f. 23$ we find a copy of a final judgment between the Abbot of 

 Cerne and the Prior of S. Swithin of Winchester in 33 Henry III. : 

 on f. 24.$ comes an undated note of the plea commencing the 

 action : then on f. 250 a note of an alleged inconsistency between 

 the present claim of the Prior and his claim in some previous 

 litigation: and lastly on ff. z$b-2(>b notes of the proceedings in 

 such earlier litigation (i) in the King's Courts in 4 to 7 

 Henry III. and (2) in the County Court of Dorset in 21 and 22 

 Henry III. Interspersed promiscuously with these are common 

 forms of petitions for a conge (feltre on the resignation or death of 

 an Abbot, and powers of attorney for the election, &c. It seems 

 that the compiler of E may have been either a person interested 

 in antiquarian research like ourselves : or a lawyer taking notes 

 for further litigation : and in either case jotting down any 

 interesting documents coming to his notice in the course of his 

 research ; and using for the purpose of it the blank leaves of a 

 document which already contained a copy of a long prayer of 

 S. Augustine. All this, except perhaps the prayer, cannot be 

 earlier than late in Henry III.'s reign. 



If these inferences be correct the only part of the cartulary 

 which can be earlier than Henry III. is A f. ib. But out of 

 7 entries on this, 4 are of events in the i4th century, the dates 

 being given 1311, 1318 and 1396. There remain the 3 first 

 entries relating to " T." Archbishop of Canterbury and Jocelyn 

 Bishop of Salisbury. Now Jocelyn was Bishop of Salisbury in 

 1141-1184; a period covering Theobald (1139-1161) and Thomas 

 (1162-1170) Archbishops of Canterbury. If the undated first 

 entry is of the early i2th century it must apparently relate to 



