Au plus fort home la dorroit
Qe el reaume troueroit;
Qu’il li baillast ses citez,
Ses chasteus & ses fermetez.
Justises dede he maken newe,
Al Engelond to faren thorw.
The earliest instance produced by Dugdale of the Justices Itinerant, is in 23 Hen. II. 1176, when by the advice of the Council held at Northampton, the realm was divided into six parts, and into each were sent three Justices. Orig. Judic. p. 51. This is stated on the authority of Hoveden. Dugdale admits however the custom to have been older, and in Gervasius Dorobernensis, we find, in 1170, certain persons, called inquisitores, appointed to perambulate England. Gervase of Tilbury, or whoever was the author of the Dialogus de Scaccario, calls them deambulantes, vel perlustrantes judices. See Spelman, in voc. The office continued to the time of Edward III., when it was superseded by that of the Justices of Assize.
[280.] The kinges douther, &c. Comp. the Fr. l. 283.
Argentille,