Such distinct jurisdictions were very frequent in England.  Thus, for example, the Tower of London was not supposed to be situated in any county; that is to say, that legally it was considered to be in air.  The Tower recognized no authority of jurisdiction except in its own constable, who was qualified as custos turris.  The Tower had its jurisdiction, its church, its court of justice, and its government apart.  The authority of its custos, or constable, extended, beyond London, over twenty-one hamlets.  As in Great Britain legal singularities engraft one upon another the office of the master gunner of England was derived from the Tower of London.  Other legal customs seem still more whimsical.  Thus, the English Court of Admiralty consults and applies the laws of Rhodes and of Oleron, a French island which was once English.

The sheriff of a county was a person of high consideration.  He was always an esquire, and sometimes a knight.  He was called spectabilis in the old deeds, “a man to be looked at”—­kind of intermediate title between illustris and clarissimus; less than the first, more than the second.  Long ago the sheriffs of the counties were chosen by the people; but Edward II., and after him Henry VI., having claimed their nomination for the crown, the office of sheriff became a royal emanation.

They all received their commissions from majesty, except the sheriff of Westmoreland, whose office was hereditary, and the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, who were elected by the livery in the common hall.  Sheriffs of Wales and Chester possessed certain fiscal prerogatives.  These appointments are all still in existence in England, but, subjected little by little to the friction of manners and ideas, they have lost their old aspects.  It was the duty of the sheriff of the county to escort and protect the judges on circuit.  As we have two arms, he had two officers; his right arm the under-sheriff, his left arm the justice of the quorum.  The justice of the quorum, assisted by the bailiff of the hundred, termed the wapentake, apprehended, examined, and, under the responsibility of the sheriff, imprisoned, for trial by the judges of circuit, thieves, murderers, rebels, vagabonds, and all sorts of felons.

The shade of difference between the under-sheriff and the justice of the quorum, in their hierarchical service towards the sheriff, was that the under-sheriff accompanied and the justice of the quorum assisted.

The sheriff held two courts—­one fixed and central, the county court; and a movable court, the sheriff’s turn.  He thus represented both unity and ubiquity.  He might as judge be aided and informed on legal questions by the serjeant of the coif, called sergens coifae, who is a serjeant-at-law, and who wears under his black skull-cap a fillet of white Cambray lawn.