who had formerly been seneschal of the liberties of Saint Alban's. He had long ago obtained the wardenship of Mikelfeld, from John, the lord abbot, and paid a hundred marks for it to Richard, earl of Cornwall, with which he delivered that land from Judaism, and he moreover gave the same earl five and twenty marks for a store in the same place. About the same time, the countess of Kent died, full of days, and by a natural death. She was a woman of great liberality, and of very high reputation, having been formerly wife of Hubert de Burgh, formerly justiciary of England and earl of Kent, not because he had that earldom by inheritance, but because the lord the king, Henry, had kindly granted it to him as it had just then fallen into the king's hands ; so that he obtained dominion over it, retaining the name of earl, and consequently his wife obtained the name of countess. At this time, it was provided in a general parliament of the barons, which met at London, with reference to the justiciaries who were to go the circuit next month, who they should be, and into what counties each should go, with the object of making well known and establishing all the laws of this parliament, and of punishing the transgressions of those provisions which had lately been enacted, in such a way, that before the next Easter, all England should be comprised in their circuits, and that a full scrutiny should take place into all the articles now re-established. And their names, as written down in French by those barons, we have thought it well to commit to writing in another place. About the time of the feast of Saint Martin, the lord the king, with the queen, and a great multitude of nobles besides, set out on a journey towards Dover, intending to cross the sea into France, for the final settlement of the affairs going on between himself and the king of France, and their kingdoms. And having (as it was said) entrusted the guardianship of the kingdom to the archbishop of Canterbury, and to the lord Hugh Bigod the justiciary, and others of bis faithful subjects, on the Friday after the aforesaid feast he embarked at Dover, and landed, after a prosperous voyage, at Whitsande. And in reference to this passage of his, it is said that never at one and the same time had such a noble company of men and horses, and other great things, departed from England, as then disembarked at Whiteande. And many persons, too, who came to meet them in the parts beyond the sea, said the