23 
unpublished. There were no Calendars to the Rolls except 
the imperfect manuscript ones. Such documents as Testa de 
Nevill were only accessible in the same form. Hearne had not 
issued Leland’s Itinerary. Robert of Gloucester, Fordun, and 
other writers were still unpublished. These and similar facts 
lend additional credit to the achievement of our author. 
Reference has been made to Drake’s acknowledged indebted¬ 
ness to Widdrington. Without detracting from Drake, and 
without giving to Widdrington praise which is not his due, it 
may be said that Widdrington’s collection is the basis of 
Drake’s masterpiece. I have read and compared the two 
books for years, and I have been confirmed in this opinion at 
almost every point. 
I have been surprised to find that sometimes Widdrington is 
more correct than Drake, though Drake had the opportunity 
of revising Widdrington’s work. As an example of what I 
mean, I will refer to a quotation from the Charter Roils. 
Drake transfers this list (with two additions) to his Eboracum, 
p. 2ii. On comparing the two lists, it will be found that 
Drake differs from Widdrington. In each instance it is Drake 
who is incorrect. 
Reference might be made to other inaccuracies in Drake. 1 
The time has arrived when a revised and extended edition of 
Drake’s monumental work would be of immense advantage. 
1 Whilst referring to these errors, I will mention another matter to which 
the late Canon Raine directed my attention, viz., that there was no Mayor of 
York until the reign of Henry III (1216—72). I find a digest of the information 
given me by Canon Raine in his York (Historic Town Series), pp. 193-4. He 
says (the italics being mine) :— 
“ King John, by deed dated March 25, 1200, confirmed to the citizens their 
Merchant Guild and their houses in England and Normandy, and their lastage, 
as freely as they had them in the time of Henry his grandfather, and as they are 
specified in the charters of Henry his father and Richard his brother. When 
John specified this charter, York was still under the rule of a praepositus, or 
reeve ; the claim which Drake makes to its having a mayor at an earlier- period being 
quite unfounded. We learn from evidences preserved at Durham that whilst 
Robert Wallensis was sheriff of Yorkshire (1206-11), Gerard, the bell-founder, 
was praepositus or reeve of the city, and that William Fairfax was holding that 
office about the same time. In 1217 we fi n( t a mayor in the place of the praepositus, 
and, no doubt, there were bailiffs as well. In that year the king orders the 
sheriff of Yorkshire to give to Hugh de Selby, mayor of York, the house which 
belonged to Leonard the Jew.” 
