INTRODUCTION. 



One question of chief interest respecting the volume here 

 printed is — who was the author? We know that his name 

 was "Mayster Fitzherbarde " (see p. 125), and the question 

 that has to be settled is simply this — may we identify him 

 with Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, judge of the Common Pleas, 

 the author of the Grand Abridgment of the Common Law, 

 the New Natura Brevium, and other legal works ? 



The question has been frequently discussed, and, as far as 

 I have been able to discover, the more usual verdict of the 

 critics is in favour of the supposed identity ; and certainly all 

 the evidence tends very strongly in that direction, as will, I 

 think, presently appear. 



Indeed, when we come to investigate the grounds on which 

 the objections to the usually received theory rest, they appear 

 to be exceedingly trivial ; nor have I been very successful 

 in discovering the opposers' arguments. Bohn's edition of 

 Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual merely tells us that "the 

 treatises on Husbandry and Surveying are by some attributed 

 to the famous lawyer Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, by others to 

 his brother John Fitzherbert." 



In the Catalogue of the Huth Library, we find this note : 

 " The Rev. Joseph Hunter was the first person to point out 

 that the author of this work [Fitzherbert's Husbandry] and 

 the book on Surveying was a different person from the judge 

 of the same name." It will be at once observed that this 



