AND as it were with consecrated Flowr , and crackling grain of Salt , I offer up in Sacrifice . I am not in condition to do it with a costly Victim , or a full Censer . GREAT SIR , deign with favour to receive these scraps of Collection ; relating intirely , what they are , and as far as the present Age may be supposed to be concerned in ancient Stories and Customes , to the English-British State and Government ; and so far forth to Your most Honoured Name . Which Name of Yours , whilest I , one of the lowermost Bench , do with dazzled eye-sight look upon ( most Noble Lord , and great Support of your Country )

THOU canst not be such a Stranger to thy own Countrey , as to need my commendation of the Learned , Worthy and Famous AUTHOR of these following Sheets ; or that I should tell thee , what a Scholar , a Philologer , a Humanist , a Linguist , a Lawyer , a Critick , an Antiquary , and ( which proves him an absolute Master of all these and many other Knowledges ) what a Writer , the Great SELDEN was . Since it is liberally acknowledged by every body , that knows any thing ( not only at home , but abroad also among Foreigners ) that Europe seldom hath brought forth His Fellow for exquisite Endowments of Nature , Attainments of Study , and Accomplishments of Ingenuity , Sagacity and Industry . And indeed , to save me the labour of saying any more concerning this Non-pareil in all kinds of Learning , His own WORKS , which are now under a Review , and will e're long be made Publick in several Volumes , will sufficiently speak his Character , and be a more prevailing Argument to indear Him to thy good Opinion and firm Acquaintance , than mine or any other Words can .

My business now is only to give thee some Account of the Author's design in this little Treatise , and of those measures I took in Translating Him , that is , in restoring him to his own Native Language ; though his great Genius had made the Latin and several other Tongues , as natural and familiar to Himself , as the English was .

To speak first of the Author , I do take this Piece to have been one of his first Essays , if not the very first ; wherein he launched into the World , and did not so much try the Judgement , as deservedly gain the Approbation of the Learned : which was certainly one Reason , why , though the whole matter of the Book be of an English Complexion and Concern , yet he thought fit to put it forth in a Latin dress . That this was his first Specimen , or at least one of the first , I gather from the time of his Writing it , viz. in the Six and Twentieth year of his Age ; when I suppose he was not of any very long standing in the Temple ; I mean , in all likelihood , whilst he was on this side the Bar. For having fraught himself with all kind of Learning , which the University could afford him ( which could be , we must imagine , no small time neither ; as I may be allowed to guess from that passage of his in this Book , where he so affectionately recognizeth his Duty and Gratitude to his dear Mother OXFORD ; who , if she had no other Antiquity to boast of , is and ever will be Famous for This Her Scholar , our great Antiquary ; who hath also such a Monument to be seen in her publick Library , as will make her Glory and his Memory ever to flourish ) I say , having after some competent time taken leave of Academical Institutions , and being now engaged into the Study of Law , he thought he could not do his Profession a better service , than by looking back into former times , and making a faithful Collection of what might be Pertinent and Useful , to bring down , along through all Changes and Vicissitudes of State , the Light and Strength , the Evidence and Reputation of old Institutes and Precedents to our present Establishments under our Gracious and Happy Monarchy . May It , as it is in its Constitution to the English people Gracious ; so be ever in its Success to It self , and consequently to Us all , Happy ! Here then thou wilt find the Rights of Government through all Ages , so far as our Histories will help us ; Here thou wilt see , from the first , our KING setled in his just Power , even in his Ecclesiastical surisdiction against the Papal Usurpation ; one shrewd Instance whereof is , the forbidding Appeals to the Pope , at such a time when the Popish Religion was at its Zenith in this Island ; that is , when People in all probability were most Ignorant . Here thou wilt easily be brought to acknowledge the Antiquity and Usefulness of Parliaments ( though under other Names till after the Conquest ) when all the Barons , that is , as that Title did at first import , all Lords of Mannors , all Men of Estate assembled together for the determination of publick Affairs : which Usage , because it produced too numerous and cumbersome a confluence , was afterwards for better convenience retrenched into a popular Election by the Kings Writ to chuse some of the Chiefest to act for all the rest . And sure enough , if we in Duty keep up the Royal Prerogative , and our Kings , as ever they have done , and ever , I hope , will , in Grace and Clemency oblige the Peoples Consent in their Representatives ; we shall alwayes have such Laws , such a Government , such a Correspondence betwixt Prince and Subjects , as must ( according to the Rules of Humane Prudence , adding our Piety to it ) make this Kingdom of Great Britanny ( maugre the malice of the Devil and his Agents whatever , Jesuits or Fanaticks ) a flourishing and impregnable Kingdom .

Having said this in General of the Author's design , I shall not descend to Particulars , which I leave to thy self , Reader , to find out , in the perusal , that may be of good Use and great Consequence to the Publick ; but fearing , thou maist think I am so much taken up with the Author , that I have forgot My self , I have two or three words to speak of that sorry subject , before I leave thee .

As to the Translator ; I confess , it is no great credit for any one to appear in that Figure ; a Remark , which I have learn't from one , who hath translated another excellent Piece of this Noble Author , ( Noble I call him , sith Nobility is rais'd by Parts and Merits , no less than continued by Birth and Descent ) it was his Mare Clausum , wherein he , I spoke of , hath acquitted himself very well , abating for his Villanous Dedication to the RUMP-Parliament , which was then setting up for a Republick ; in which Dedication of his , he hath vilely and like himself ( I speak in Charity , as to his Interest , I mean , not his Judgement or Conscience at least , if there were any ) aspersed the Royal Family with Weakness and Collusion , to have lower'd the British Renown .

I am bid by Him , who puts this into thy hands , to tell thee , that when he was embark'd into this Employ ; whatever it was , upon the coasting of it over , he was surprized to find , he had undertaken such a difficult and hazardous Voyage , and did presently conclude , That none but a Selden ( that is , a Person of omnifarious Reading ) was fit to be a Selden's Interpreter . For no other person , but one so qualified , can be Master of his Sense , Master of his Expression . His ordinary Style , where he delivers himself plainest , is as to the Matter of it , so full of Historical and Poetical Allusions , and as to the Method ( and hath that of Crabbed in it besides ) so Intricate and Perplex , that he seems , even where he pretends to Teach and Instruct , to have intended only to Amuse and Confound the Reader . In very deed , it is such a Style , as became a Learned Antiquary , which is to be Antique and Oracular ; that one would think , the very Paper , he wrote upon , was made of the Sibyll's old-worn Sheets , and that his meaning could not be fisht out without the assistance of a Delian Diver . However the Translator ( though so much Inferiour to the Undertaking , as to be almost Unacquainted with some considerable parts of it ) did presume ( whether rightly or no , must be left to thy judgement ) that he was not utterly unfurnished with those Skills and Helps , which might make the Work Intelligible and Acceptable even to Plebeians . For though it was at first designed by the Excellent Author in his Latin for such as were meerly Lawyers and Scholars ( they must be both , that mean to understand it as he wrote it ) yet now it being done into English , it was to be calculated to the Meridian of common Capacities and vulgar Understandings . Which end he hath , he hopes , in some good measure answered ; and in order to which end , he hath , to supply the defects of his Translation , at the end of the Book subjoyned some Annotations , which may serve partly to clear the Author's meaning , and partly to vindicate himself in the Interpretation . He did think once to have affixt those Annotations to the places they belong to ; but upon second and better thoughts , he consider'd , that the Authors Quotations would be enow of themselves to charge the Margin with , and a further superfoetation would but cloy and surbate the Reader ; though in the body of the Work , there are up and down many Explanations inserted , to excuse him from the trouble of having recourse to those Notes , which are added out of pure necessity , and not from any vanity of Ostentation , since the whole , if it had its due , might seem to require a perpetual Comment. In the main , which is enough for a Translator , be his Author what he will , he doth assure thee , that the meanest Subject of England may now read one of her greatest Champions and Writers ( for Learned Pens sometimes do as good and as great service as Valiant Swords do ) so understandingly , that he may edifie and learn , what duty and deference he ought to have for the Best of Governments .

And now , Reader , excuse me in a Digression , and do not impute it as a Levity to me , that I follow my Grave Author . It is my Duty so to do ; it is my Happiness , if I can : He doth not despair , now he appears in English , to have Female-Readers too , to court him so far at least as to peruse his Translation , who hath so highly courted them with Noble Caresses in that Chapter , wherein he hath so learnedly pleaded the Excellencies and Rights of that Angelical Sex , ( if Angels have any Sex ) to the abashment and overthrow of the Salick Law . To what purpose did the Author write so much in their Commendation , if they were not to know it ? which , if the poor Translator hath any Obligations upon the Sex , he hopes they will own this as an Addition : not to mention that other Chapter of his , where , like a Gentleman and a Lawyer both , he maintains that freedom peculiar to our English Ladies , and which with Lawyers leave , I may call The Courtesie of England , in receiving of Salutes , against the censure of Rudeness on the one hand , and the suspicion of Wantonness on the other . Though I must confess also , that some of his Citations in that defence , are so free , that I thought fit rather to leave them as I found them , than by putting them into English , to expose the Modesty of the Sex .

I have no more to say , Reader , but to beg thy Excuse , for any thing , wherein I may appear to have come short of the Weighty and Abstruse Senses of our Great and Worthy Author , and that I may detain thee no longer from his Conversation , to bid thee Farewell .

AND that the Tutelar or Guardian of my threshold may not entertain thee with unlucky or ill-boding terms , he doth freely bespeak thee Health and Greeting , whoever thou art , Dear Reader . Moreover , he is in the humour to declare both the Occasion of drawing the first Furrow of this Enterprize , and also the Model and Frame of the whole Work , what it is , finished and compleated . It is a long while ago , considering how young a man I am , since from the first I have made it my hearty wish , that the ancient Original and Procedure of our Civil Law might more fairly and clearly be made out ; as far , I mean , as the thing will bear , and as what store we have of publick Records affords assistance .

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , For several men with several things are pleas'd , as said Archilochus of old ; Senec. controv . and I do own for my self , what Seneca the Declaimer saith , that I take pleasure in going back to Studies of Antiquity , and in looking behind me to our Grand-sires better times . Which , to say truth , they who do too much , slight , Ardua dum metuunt , ●ucret . l. 1. amittunt vera viai . that is , Whilst lofty passes they do fear , through sloth They lose the certain tracks and paths of troth . And , so may the Muses alway favour me , they are such things as are — Anteiqua , Enn. Annal. l. 7. sepolta , vetusta , Quai faciunt mores veterésque novosque tenentem Moltarum veterum Legum , Divômque Hominumque Prudentem . — as saith another old Latin Poet ; that is , such stories as are Antique , buried in rubbish , old and musty , Which make one verst in customs old and new , And of Laws , Gods and Men giving a view , Render the careful Student skill'd and trusty . Some spare hours have been spent by me in reading over Historians , Chronologers , Antiquaries , Foreigners and our own Countrey-men , those of Ancient date and the more polite of the Modern sort : those especially who seem'd to make out the quickest course to that Goal and design I spoke of . I have carefully cull'd out whatsoever I met with , that lookt like the Orders and Decisions of Praetors or Lord Chief Justices , and whatsoever concerns the Civil or Prophane Law . ( Prophane I call that , which is not held by the Religion of the Church ; as ●●xtus Pompeius hath taught me . ) I did judge that there were a great many things in those Writers worth the knowing , and which might deserve to be digested into a kind of Volume according to order of Chronology , I did in the first place advise , and took that special order with my self , that as to this undertaking , I might with the greater ease have my Attendants ready at hand to wait upon my Studies . I went about to 〈…〉 and cement , such as it is , ( i. e. some method and connexion ) to the scattered and disjointed bulk , and I brought it to a conclusion ; and assoon as it came into my mind to publish it , I endeavoured according to that meanness , which it appears in , to finish it ( that I may make use of a Mathematick term ) with its Complement . I have set the model and frame upon a sure account ( not upon mine own credit neither , who am too apt to take on trust things suspected ) and in a compendious way : I have writ my self compendiously and succinctly ; I have transcribed out of others faithfully . I do on set purpose vouch the credit , I go upon , to be none of mine , but the Authors , I have taken out of , that I may not be accused of false dealing by unskilful or careless Readers . I have applyed my self not only to the meaning of the Writers , or to their historical account , but even to the very words and syllables , which they spoke , and have inserted them printed in a different character ; those , I confess , unless it be from them of the middle age , many times sufficiently barbarous , that miserably want polishing , such as Criticks cannot away with , and do very well agree with the Records and Reports of Law , which we converse with . However I would not have thee disdain in the mean time brimful and wholsome draughts of liquor , because the Bowl was not made in a Potters shop of Colias a place in Athens , or in cold Winter to slight a garment which is not made of Attick Wooll ; Plutar. de audiend● . as Plutarch hath admonished the hearers of Philosophy . Let young Ladies speak finically with their golden Flower-amours , and let them , who have store and leave at once , court the graces of words and beauties of expression . 'T is true , the care of exact speaking , is a thing befits the Muses , yet how the most abstruse Mysteries even of the highest Urania , of Divinity it self , are laid open without it , the Thomists , the Scotists , and what other Sects and Parties of School-men there are , know well enough . And there are some others also , that think they know ; I mean the inquirers into Heavenly Calculations ( Astrologers ) and the Weather-wise-men ( Almanack-makers ) who in good deed for the most part rely too much upon the trifling stories of their Masters . Now they , and not without good reason , have preferred the Arab Writers barbarously translated , and slovenly Bonatus before Julius Firmicus and modern Pontanus , as spruce as they are . These two may rather be termed Grammarians , than Astrologers . Nor do Aristotle's crabbed Lectures of natural P●●losophy discourage Interpreters or procure to themselves any discredit , ●y reason of the affected obscurity of speech , they are delivered in : and as to neatness of Poetry , Plutar. lib. orac . Pyth. Apollo himself hath been out-done by Sappho , Homer , Hesiod . Though the Matter doth often surpass the Workmanship ; yet who is there is so rigid or so fond a Censurer , as to disparage and debase the Matter upon the account of the Workmanship ? Which I would not have be said only of those passages , which I have brought into this Piece out of those fore-mentioned Authors , but also of the whole Body of our Common-Law . I have , I hope , not unluckily begun with the very first Inhabitants of this Isle , as far as we can come to the knowledge of them . Those Authors , whom I have followed in the original of Story , I have , as it was meet , set down and remark'd , adding the Judgement and Censure of the Learned . Afterward , besides Caesar and Tacitus there are but few that afford us any help , and that ●ut in few things too . For the name of Brittany was known but of late to the Greeks , but of late to the Romans ; and the Britans were truly for a long while divided from all the world besides . But among ●●reigners the latter Ages have enquired after them . I speak of Strabo , Pliny , Ptolomy , others ; and a certain Writer of Asia , Marcianus Heracl●otes , not y●t , that I know of , turned into Latin , saith thus , Albion the Brittish Isle hath in it Thirty Three Nations , 〈…〉 Fifty Nine remarkable Cities ; and then he sub●●us other things concerning the number of Rivers , Promontories , Havens and Creeks or Bays . I have stretched out this Piece to the death of King Henry the Son of Mawd the Empress by Jeoffrey the Count of Angers in France . In whose time , or near thereabout , are the first beginnings of our Law , as our Lawyers now account . There come in by the way Richard called Coeur de Lion and King John ; but there is scarce any thing in that interim to our purpose . I have on purpose passed by Mr. Lambard's Archaeonomia ( or Antiquites of Law ) without medling with it at all , only when some obvious accasion did sometimes suggest it for the explaining of what is set down by us . I have divided the whole into two Books ; the first closes with the Saxons ; the second begins with the Norman Conquest , the most famous Aera or Date of the English Government in the reckonings of time .

But however to refer the original of our English Laws to that Conquest ( as some make bold to do ) is a huge mistake ; Philip. Honor . Thes. politic . Lat. & Ital. Machiavell in Principe & comment . ad ●iv . l. 1. c. 25. & 26. Cujacius . Alber. Gentil . l. 3. c. 11. de jure bell . forasmuch as they are of a far more ancient Date . For it is a remark amongst Statesmen , That new acquired Empires , do run some hazard by attempting to make new Laws : and the Norman did warily provide against this danger , by bestowing upon the yielding conquered Nation the requital of their ancient Law : a requital , I say , but more , as it should seem , for shew than use ; and rather to curry favour with the people at the present , than in good deed for the advantage of the English Name . Wherein he in some measure followed well near the practice of Alaricus , who having conquered the Romans , and finding that they took it in dudgeon to be bound up by the Laws of the Goths , though in other things they were compliant enough , restored to them the Roman Laws , but by sly interpretations against the sense and meaning of the Roman Laws he drew these Laws back again to the Gothish . For the times on this side the Normans entrance , are so full of new Laws , especially such as belong to the right of Tenancy or Vassalage ; though other Laws have been carefully enough kept up from the time of the Saxons , and perhaps from an earlier date . For neither did the gliding Decrees of that Blazing-Star , which appeared in the Easter of that year , so well known for this Victory , prognosticate , as the change of the Kingdom ( a thing which Astrologers affirm ) so the abolition of our Laws ; and yet in some sense peradventure an alteration of them both ; at that rate , I mean , as Jerom 〈…〉 , that the Comet in the year 1533. H. Cardan . in Prolem . l. 2. judic . astron . text . 54. which appeared in Aries ( to which Sign , our Island according to Ptolomies doctrine is lyable ) under the North side of the Milky Way , being of a Jovial , Martial and Mercurial force and efficacy , was the fore-teller or fore-runner of the change of Religion ; which happened three years after in Henry the Eighth's time . But whatever may be thought in other cases , Christianity is exempt from the Laws and over-ruling power of the Stars , and I do but too well perceive , that Cardan's piety is wanting in this and in other instances , and particularly in casting our Saviours Nativity . And why do I too much besides my purpose , trouble my self about these things here ? Go thy wayes to our Janus , ( for thou canst hardly chuse but own him having two faces ) where to speak of our English Brittish Law ( 't is no Treason I trow so to call it ) Nobilitas nec origo later , Stat. 1. Silv. sed luce sequente Vincitur . — That is , It 's noble rise doth not lye hid , but light Attending makes it far more clear and bright . For , Si nobilitas cunctis exordia pandit Laudibus , Claudian . in laud. Serenae u●or . Stili● . atque omnes redeunt in semina causae . That is , If nobleness doth first commence all praise , And all things from their feeds do themselves raise . However it does not at all boast of its Rom●lus's , L. 2. Sect. 2. omnia . C. de vet. jur . enuel . its Numa's , its Decemviri , it s 2000. Books , it s 4000. and 4000. and 4000. Verses ; and the like ; which having been digested long since ( as it were — non hos quaesitum munus in usus , Virg. Aen. 1. That is , A boon not purchas'd for such use as this ) do far and near bear sway in Courts of Law throughout all Europe ; yet is not the rise and original of our Laws also less to be regarded ; nor is it perchance for distance of time further from Iapetus than they . But go thy wayes , I say , and see that thou dost not undertake without reason and good advice , to fit any thing to the present Age , otherwise than the changes , the repeals and cancelling parts of Laws , and new emergencies and vicissitudes of affairs , which were frequent , will give thee leave . Remember Lucretius in this case alike as in others .

That is , What was in price , at last hath no esteem ; Whilst somewhat else starts up , and gains repute , And every day grows more in vogue and brute , And mortals strangely do it highly deem . According to what that other , and the greatest Philosopher among the Poets saith , Multa dies , Virg. l. 11. Aeneld . variusque labor mutabilis aevi Rettulit in melius . — That is , Time and the various toyl of changing age Many things betters , and reforms the Stage . And the Greek sentence , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For time to Laws themselves gives Law full oft . without a world of rubs in the way and slips or distances of years , I saw I was not able to put upon the work the face of a History , and to muster up all things that are wanting . Very many things are so effaced by injury of time , several things have been lost through neglect , nor is the Learned World under a small discontent , or at small variance by reason of this loss . These remains , which are left us , to be handled upon occasion , I have alwayes accounted pleasant researches : I , and perhaps one may say , that those Learned Pieces , which Pomponius , Rivallius , Zasius , Oldendorp , Brissonius , and others , have published concerning the Twelve Tables , and the Laws written upon Oaken Planks , upon Elephants Skins , and in former Ages upon Brass , are not of more use and advantage for the City Spire in Germany , than these Collections may be for Westminster-Hall amongst us . We have said enough and to spare , concerning the model and frame of the Work . For me now to beg the Readers pardon , that I may speak a little concerning my self , seeing it was at my own choice , whether I would give him trouble or no , would be silly . I so be that any one shall shew himself more busie or pragmatical in these Writings of mine , than becomes him ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Aristoph . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Not knowing ( as we say ) a Pig from a Dog . I would not have him ignorant , that I value it no more than a rush , to be lashed with the flouts of prattle-boxes or tittle-tatlers , and sch creatures as carry the Goddess Nemesis on pickpack . Nor does any one that is in his wits , when an Ass kicks and flings at him to little or no purpose , regard an idle oafish affront so as to requite it . I paint upon my weather-boards Averrunca , i.e. God forefend , ( as they did of old Arse verse upon houses , to preserve them from fire . ) May Intercedona , Pilumnus , and Deverra , drive away Silvanus , and keep him off from doing this tender Infant any harm . Well! let Asses and silly Animals commend , find fault , tune their pipes , how they will : let the envious and ill natured with their sneerings , prate and talk ; let snotty nosed Fellows and Clowns , that feed upon cockle bread , approve what I write , or let them flout and fleer , or let them play Jack of both sides ; it 's all fiddle faddle to me , nor would I put a straw between . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Hegesand . Delphus ap. Athen. dipnos 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Brow-benders , making Nose and Chin to meet , With dangling Beards like sacks down to your feet . Ye rigid Cato's and severe Criticks , do ye take in good part , what I have done ; nor let me be altogether slighted , if by chance ye shall vouchsafe to look this way , nor with your skew looks fore-speak my harvest in the blade . I shall readily and willingly yield the conquest to him that fairly gets it , and rightfully corrects me . But whoever thou art of that sort of men , Per meos fines & aprica rura Lenis incedas , Horat. Carm. 3. Od. 18. abeasque parvis Aequus alumnis . O're my bounds and sunny plain Take a gentle walk or twain ; Then depart with friendly mind , To me and my Lambkins kind . You , Plin. epist. ad Nat. Hist. that are candid and courteous , know , that 't is a very hard matter to brighten things that are grown out of use , to furnish things obscure with light , to set off things that are disdained , with credit , to make things doubtful pass for probable , to assign to every thing it s own nature , and every thing to its own nature ; and that it is a very brave and gallant thing , as he sayes , for those that have not attained their design , yet to have endeavoured it ; when the Will ( as we say ) is accepted for the Deed. But I know too , that every Cone or point of vision in the Opticks differs from a right angle ; Senec. praf . ad controver. and I know how odious a thing a Train or solemn Procession is in the publick Games . Therefore , dear Reader , I bid thee heartily farewel ; and with a fortunate endeavour , fetch out hence , what may make for thy turn . Why do I delay all this while to let thee in ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Go thy wayes in , o' Gods name .

Laudamus veteres , sed nostris utimur annis : Ovid. Fast. 1. Mos tamen est aeque dignus uterque coli . We praise old times , but make use of our own ; And yet 't is fit they both alike be known . Go in and welcome heartily ; and be not unkind to thy Entertainer .