the sheer necessity of redressing grievances occasioned by the
omissions or commissions of the regularly constituted tribunals.
Interference on the part of the chancellor, which started as a matter
of special favor in unusual cases, became gradually an established
practice, and, contrary to the original intention, there was brought
into existence a body of definite and separate rules of equity which
by the seventeenth century acquired systematic character, and likewise
a court of chancery in which these rules were at all times
enforceable. Reports of equity cases became continuous, and lawyers of
eminence began to specialize in equity procedure. The rules of equity
thus developed partake largely of the nature of the Common Law, of
which, indeed, they are to be considered, in effect, a supplement or
appendix; and practically, though not theoretically, they prevail as
against any provisions of the ordinary Common Law with which they may
be inconsistent. Their general purpose is to afford means of
safeguarding rights which exist in morals, but which the Common Law
courts cannot or will not protect. Until 1875 they were administered
by tribunals separate from the ordinary courts. Nowadays they are not
separately administered, but they preserve, none the less, their
highly distinctive character.[241]

[Footnote 241: Two monumental works dealing with
the earlier portions of English legal development
are F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland, History of
English Law to the Time of Edward I., 2 vols.
(Cambridge, 1898) and W. S. Holdsworth, History of
English Law, 3 vols. (London, 1903-1909). The first
volume of Holdsworth contains a history of English
courts from the Norman Conquest to the present day;
the other volumes deal exhaustively with the growth
of the law itself. Books of value include H.
Brunner, The Sources of the Law of England, trans.
by W. Hastie (Edinburgh, 1888); R. K. Wilson,
History of Modern English Law (London, 1875). J. F.
Stephen, History of the Criminal Law of England, 3
vols. (London, 1883); Ibid., Commentaries on the
Laws of England, 4 vols. (London, 1908); O. W.
Holmes, The Common Law (Boston,