Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 4, Page 189

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Volume 4, Page 189

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If the plea has been adjourned from the county court to the great court and there is a dispute as to the view had in the county.

[002] When the plea has been transferred from the county court to the great court, and
[003] when view had¹ in the county court is objected against him in the great court,
[004] which [he denies], let the demandant be asked whether he wishes to put himself on
[005] the record of the county court, which has record in this matter, or does not. If he
[006] wishes to do so, let a record be made² by the county and come before the justices.
[007] But it is only occasionally that the demandant³ chooses this way, to the postponement
[008] of his plea, since it is better for him to grant the view again than to proceed
[009] to an inquest by the county as to whether the view was had.

How the demandant ought to designate the thing claimed to the tenant, that he may know whether he holds it or not.

[011] In making the view to the tenant the demandant ought to designate the thing
[012] claimed in every way he can before those brought together for the purpose, both in
[013] the body of the thing and in its appurtenances, since it is difficult to give a certain
[014] judgment with respect to an uncertain thing. The designation ought to be⁴ such,
[015] [as where it is said ‘I claim such a manor by these metes and bounds and such appurtenances,’]
[016] that it may be drawn from it whether the tenant holds the whole
[017] manor with the appurtenances, or part of it or nothing. It suffices if he claims a
[018] manor with the appurtenances by certain boundaries,⁵ it is not necessary to circumambulate
[019] all the fields,⁶ nor will the writ fall if there is someone who holds land
[020] within the body of the manor, of which the tenant has nothing in service nor in
[021] demesne,⁷ provided a protestation is made by the demandant that he claims
[022] nothing therein, neither in demesne nor in service.

If there is disagreement as to the amount of land put in view, a wager is sometimes made as to that.

[024] Since a disagreement sometimes arises between the parties as to the view made, as
[025] where the tenant says that the demandant put more (or less) in his view than is
[026] contained in the writ, as [in the roll] of Michaelmas term in the fourteenth and the
[027] beginning of the fifteenth years of king Henry, near the beginning of the roll,⁸ let
[028] an inquest be held as to the truth subject to the risk of loss, [And as may be found in
[029] the roll of Trinity term in the second year of king Henry after the war in the county of
[030] Wilton, [the case] of Galfrid of Childewike,⁹ [where] the parties put themselves on an
[031] inquest of the country.] [if the parties] have freely [so] put themselves upon certain
[032] persons, four or six, together with some who were present at the view.¹⁰

Notes

1. ‘habitum’

2. ‘fiat’

3. ‘petens’

4. ‘debet esse’

5. Portion in brackets above belongs here

6. Supra ii, 125; D. 42.2.3.1

7. Supra 180

8. B.N.B., no. 456; C.R.R., xiv, no. 693; infra 190, n. 1

9. Not in B.N.B.; no roll extant

10. Om: ‘tune veniat . . . tale breve’