y the Dane _Uggiero_, or by the still
more famed _Orlando_.

Edward F. Rimbault.

* * * * *

IS THE DOMBEC THE DOMESDAY OF ALFRED?

I beg to propose the following "Query":--Is the _Dombec_, a work
referred to in the Laws of Edward the Elder, the same as what has been
called the Domesday or Winchester Book of Alfred the Great? I incline
to think that it is not, and shall be much obliged to any of your
correspondents, learned in the Anglo-Saxon period of our history, who
will give himself the trouble of resolving my doubts.

Sir Henry Spelman, in his Glossary _voce Dombec_, calls it the _Liber
Judicialis_ of the Anglo-Saxons; and says it is mentioned in the first
chapter of the laws of Edward the Elder, where the king directs his
judges to conduct themselves in their judicial proceedings as on [Old
English: thaere dom bec stand], that is, as _is enjoined in their Dome
Book_.--"Quod," he continues, "an de praecedentium Regum legibus quae
hodie extant, intelligendum sit: an de alio quopiam libro hactenus non
prodeunte, incertum est."

But this uncertainty does not seem to have attached itself to the
mind of Sir William Blackstone; for in the third section of the
Introduction prefixed to his _Commentaries on the Laws of England_, he
informs us that our antiquaries "tell us that in the time of Alfred,
the local customs of the several provinces of the kingdom were grown
so various, that he found it expedient to compile his _Dome Book_, or
_Liber Judicialis_, for the general use of the whole kingdom." This
book is said to have been extant so late as the reign of King Edward
IV., but is now unfortunately lost. It contained, we may probably
suppose, the principal maxims of the common law, the penalties for
misdemeanors, and the forms of judicial proceedings. Thus much may be
at least collected from that injunction to observe it, which we find
in the Laws of King Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred.--"_Omnibus
qui reipublicae praesunt etiam atque etiam mando, ut omnibus aequos
se praebeant judices, perinde ac in judiciali libro_ (Saxonice, [Old
English: dom bec]) _scriptum habetur: nec quidquid formident quin
jus commune_ (Saxonice, [Old English: folcrihte]) _audactes libereque
dicant._"

But notwithstanding this, it appears to me by no means conclusive,
that the _Dombec_ referred to in the Laws of Edward the Elder and the
_Liber Judicialis_ of Alfred are the same; on the contrary, Alfred's