the Saxon, koning-staple, and to signify the
support of the king. But, as we borrowed the name as well as the
office of constable from the French, I am rather inclined to deduce
it, with sir H. Spelman and Dr Cowel, from that language, wherein it
is plainly derived from the Latin _comes stabuli_, an officer well
known in the empire; so called because, like the great constable of
France, as well as the lord high constable of England, he was to
regulate all matters of chivalry, tilts, turnaments, and feats of
arms, which were performed on horseback. This great office of lord
high constable hath been disused in England, except only upon great
and solemn occasions, as the king's coronation and the like, ever
since the attainder of Stafford duke of Buckingham under king Henry
VIII; as in France it was suppressed about a century after by an edict
of Louis XIII[u]: but from his office, says Lambard[w], this lower
constableship was at first drawn and fetched, and is as it were a very
finger of that hand. For the statute of Winchester[x], which first
appoints them, directs that, for the better keeping of the peace, two
constables in every hundred and franchise shall inspect all matters
relating to _arms_ and _armour_.

[Footnote u: Philips's life of Pole. ii. 111.]

[Footnote w: of constables, 5.]

[Footnote x: 13 Edw. I. c. 6.]

CONSTABLES are of two sorts, high constables, and petty constables.
The former were first ordained by the statute of Winchester, as
before-mentioned; and are appointed at the court leets of the
franchise or hundred over which they preside, or, in default of that,
by the justices at their quarter sessions; and are removeable by the
same authority that appoints them[y]. The petty constables are
inferior officers in every town and parish, subordinate to the high
constable of the hundred, first instituted about the reign of Edward
III[z]. These petty constables have two offices united in them; the
one antient, the other modern. Their antient office is that of
headborough, tithing-man, or borsholder; of whom we formerly spoke[a],
and who are as antient as the time of king Alfred: their more modern
office is that of constable merely; which was appointed (as was
observed) so lately as the reign of Edward III, in order to assist the
high constable[b]. And in general the antient headboroughs,
tithing-men, and borsholders, were made use of to serve as petty
constables; though not so generally, but that in ma