Leslie Stephen was the first serious critic of the novel, and he was also editor of the great Dictionary of National Biography from its beginning in 1882 until 1891. In 1859 he was ordained a minister. As a tutor at Cambridge his philosophical readings led him to skepticism, and later he relinquished his holy orders. He wrote several essays defending his agnostic position. Throughout his life Stephen was a prominent athlete and mountaineer. Virginia Woolf was the younger of his two daughters by his second wife. His first wife was Harriet Marian Thackeray, daughter of the novelist. This book...

'Constitutional history should, to my mind, be a history not of parties but of institutions, not of struggles but of results ...' F. W. Maitland's remarkable course of lectures provides the basic framework of English constitutional history in a brief, but original, scholarly and very readable form. His method is to take five crucial periods and to present in each a panoramic view of the processes of law and government; his attention is always fixed on the constitution as a growing fabric, as something devised and employed by live human beings. And in this work, as in all he subsequently...

Henry of Bracton (or Bratton) (c. 1210 1268) was a jurist who worked as a Justice of Assize in the south-west of England, and was the author of the first systematic discussion of English common law. The manuscripts which form Bracton's Note Book were discovered in the British Museum in 1884 by Vinogradoff, and were edited in three volumes in 1887 by Maitland. These volumes contain a collection of over 2,000 lawsuits from the thirteenth century, each with a description of how the law should be applied to the particular circumstances of each case. This is the first example of case law in...

Henry of Bracton (or Bratton) (c. 1210 1268) was a jurist who worked as a Justice of Assize in the south-west of England, and was the author of the first systematic discussion of English common law. The manuscripts which form Bracton's Note Book were discovered in the British Museum in 1884 by Vinogradoff, and were edited in three volumes in 1887 by Maitland. These volumes contain a collection of over 2,000 law cases from the thirteenth century, each with a description of how the law should be applied to the particular circumstances of each case. This is the first example of case law in...

Henry of Bracton (or Bratton) (c. 1210 1268) was a jurist who worked as a Justice of Assize in the south-west of England, and was the author of the first systematic discussion of English common law. The manuscripts which form Bracton's Note Book were discovered in the British Museum in 1884 by Vinogradoff, and were edited in three volumes in 1887 by Maitland. These volumes contain a collection of over 2,000 lawsuits from the thirteenth century, each with a description of how the law should be applied to the particular circumstances of each case. This is the first example of case law in...

A transcript and translation of the royal charters issued to the borough of Cambridge between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries.

As the Downing Professor of the Laws of England, F. W. Maitland lectured on equity at Cambridge for 18 years, ending in 1906. The lectures were first published in 1909 under the editorship of A. H. Chaytor and W. J. Whittaker. They were reprinted seven times before being published in 1936 in a second edition edited by J. Brunyate, who added some notes to Maitland's lectures. This edition is replicated here. Equity is an important aspect of English law. Its rules grew up to supplement Common Law and largely concern such matters as wills and trusts.

Leslie Stephen (1832 1904), the founding Editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, was one of the leading literary figures of the nineteenth century. Stephen, the father of artist Vanessa Bell and writer Virginia Woolf, began his career writing for London publications before being appointed Editor of The Cornhill Magazine in 1881. The magazine's proprietor approached him with the idea for the Dictionary, and the first volume appeared in 1885 to much acclaim but by 1889 Stephen had collapsed from overwork and finally stepped down from his editorial role in 1891. However, he continued to...

Frederic William Maitland (1850 1906) was a pioneering English legal historian. Originally published in 1911, this book forms one of three volumes of Maitland's collected papers. Taken together the texts cover a broad range of areas, with some philosophical and biographical subject matter, but for the most part they relate to the spheres of legal and social history. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in legal history and Maitland's contribution to it."

Frederic William Maitland (1850 1906) was a pioneering English legal historian. Originally published in 1911, this book forms one of three volumes of Maitland's collected papers. Taken together the texts cover a broad range of areas, with some philosophical and biographical subject matter, but for the most part they relate to the spheres of legal and social history. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in legal history and Maitland's contribution to it."