7. Some offences are too grave for the borough or county magistrates to settle, and they have to be tried by a higher court of justice, which has greater powers than the Court of Petty Sessions, the Court of =Quarter Sessions=. The bench of this court is made up of magistrates drawn from all parts of the county, and a jury of twelve men, householders, from different parts of the county, has to be sworn to hear the evidence in the cases to be tried. The jury decides whether the man is proved to be guilty or not, when they have heard all that can be urged for and against him, and the magistrates decide what his punishment is to be, according to law. 8. There are some cases too grave or too complicated for the Court of Quarter Sessions to decide, and these have to stand over to the =Assizes=. These Assizes are held three times a year in the county town of each county, and every prisoner in the county jail must be accounted for. The court is presided over by one or more of the =king's judges=. These are trained lawyers, and they attend in the king's place, and are treated with much pomp and ceremony. =Summary.=--The Frith or Peace Guild in Norman times had lost most of its power in the towns, but it did not die out. Our _corporations_ have sprung from these. Towns were always trying to get out of the power of the overlords' reeve or the shire-reeve, and gradually many of them got the right of appointing their own reeve. That right was granted by _charter_, usually from the king. That is the beginning of our present _borough towns_. The mayor in them is the chief magistrate. In many country towns two different courts are often held in the same building: the _Borough Sessions_, at which the mayor presides, deal with offences done in the town; and _County Sessions_, at which magistrates from the country district round deal with offences outside the borough. _Quarter Sessions_ deal with graver matters four times in the year, and about three times a year one or more of the king's judges comes to the county town, and _Assizes_ are held for graver matters still. CHAPTER XXVII THE VILLAGES, MANORS, PARISHES, AND PARKS 1. We have seen that in Norman times the whole country was, so to speak, the king's. There were the great lords who held "fiefs" or possessions directly from the king, which consisted of manors in various parts of the country--sometimes a number of manors pretty close together,--often with big stretches of unoccupied land between them, over which the king had full control. Out of these unused districts the king could, and did, often make new grants of land.