It is indispensable to a clear view of the constitutional law and governmental institutions of this country, that we should not lose sight of the distribution of landed estates among the great families, and that the rise and fall of these houses should be carefully traced and steadily borne in mind.... Amidst all the tumult and confusions of civil and foreign wars; throughout religious and political revolutions; from the days of Arminius to those of Harald; from the days of Harald to our own; the successions of the landowners and the relations arising out of these successions, are the running comment upon the events in our national history: they are at once the causes and the criteria of facts, and upon them has depended the development and settlement of principles, in laws which still survive, in institutions which we cling to with reverence, in feelings which make up the complex of our national character.[17] The paper on 'Walter Tirel and his wife' may serve to show that in this department there is still needed much labour before we can hope for a perfect record of the great houses of the Conquest. * * * * * I have to thank Mr Murray for his kind permission to make use of two of the articles I have contributed to the _Quarterly Review_. Some of the studies have previously appeared in the _English Historical Review_, and these are now republished with Messrs Longmans' consent. Lastly, I would take the opportunity afforded by this preface of acknowledging the encouragement my researches have derived from the approval not only of our supreme authority--I mean the Bishop of Oxford--but also of that eminent scholar, Dr Liebermann, whose name one is proud to associate with a work on mediaeval history. J. H. ROUND [_Note_: I have not thought it needful to include in the index names of persons or places only introduced incidentally in illustration of arguments. The prefix 'Fitz', as in _Geoffrey de Mandeville_, has been retained as a useful convention, whatever the actual name may have been.] [Footnote 1: _Table chronologique des chartes et diplômes imprimés concernant l'histoire de la Belgique._ Par Alphonse Wauters, vol. i, p. xxxi.] [Footnote 2: See pp. 198, 208, 404-5.] [Footnote 3: See p. 430.] [Footnote 4: Prof Maitland informs me that since the appearance of his _Select Pleas in Manorial Courts_, he has discovered the earlier occurrence of the word 'leet' (see p. 90).] [Footnote 5: See _Domesday Studies_.] [Footnote 6: _Fortnightly Review_, December 1894, pp. 804-5.] [Footnote 7: _Quarterly Review_, July 1892.] [Footnote 8: See _Quarterly Review_ as above. ] [Footnote 9: See pp. 263-9.] [Footnote 10: _English Historical Review_, July 1894.] [Footnote 11: _Contemporary Review_, March 1893, pp. 335-55.] [Footnote 12: _Norman Conquest_ (2nd Ed.), iii, 763-4.]