Introduction

Summary

This Book has been known in the Registry for a long time as The Book. Grace Book A. Its proper title is Registra Procuratorum, 1454—1488. A note of its purchase for the sum of 2/- may be seen on page 2, below. It is a quarto book of about 175 paper folios, some of which are blank: others have been used for the insertion of extraneous matter. One such entry, the diary of John Meers, Esquire Bedel, for the year 1533—4, has been thought to be of sufficient interest to be printed in the text. The binding is not original. The latter part of the book has been much disarranged in the binding. I have endeavoured to restore the proper order in printing. The water-marks indicate that folios 143—151 have been displaced. The water-mark on these folios is different from that of the chief part of the book, but the same as that of the blank pages at the end. I have no reason to believe that anything has been bound in the book which does not belong to it. On the other hand several folios have been cut out, and others have been torn or damaged.