The records of the common law courts, the King’s Bench and the Court of Common Pleas, are of less direct historical value than those of the Chancery and the Exchequer.  Extraordinarily bulky, they require a good deal of sifting to sort the wheat from the chaff.  As yet a very small proportion of them has been printed, and few have even been calendared.  A brief index of them has been compiled in the useful List of Plea Rolls (1894, P.R.O.  Lists and Indexes, No. iv.).  Of the various types of these records the FEET OF FINES have been largely used by the topographer and genealogist, and the feet of fines for many counties during this period have been calendared, summarised, excerpted, and printed, wholly or in part, by local archaeological societies, as for example, W. FARRER’S Lancashire Final Concords till 1307 (Rec.  Soc. for Lancashire and Cheshire, 1899), and many others.  The PLEA ROLLS are of wider importance.  For the days of Henry III. Placita Coram Rege (i.e., of the King’s Bench) and the Placita de Banco (i.e., of the Common Pleas in later phrase) are classified as Rotuli Curiae Regis, while the rolls of the local eyres for the same period are called Assize Rolls.  Separate series for each court begin with Edward I. Specimens of most of these types have been printed. Placitorum Abbreviatio Ric.  I.—­Edw.  II. (Rec.  Com., fol., 1811) is a careless seventeenth century abstract. Placita de Quo Warranto, Edward I. to Edward III. (Rec.  Com., fol., 1818), is a record of local eyres of particular importance for the reign of Edward I. as the corollary of the Hundred Rolls and the attack on the local franchises.  HUNTER’S Rotuli Selecti (Rec.  Com., 1834) contains pleas of the reign of Henry III.  A typical year’s pleadings of the King’s Bench for 1297 is given in full in PHILLIMORE’s Placita coram rege, 25 Edward I. (1898, British Rec.  Soc.).  Selections from the proceedings of the commission appointed by Edward I. in 1289 to hear complaints against judges and officials will shortly be published by Miss Hilda Johnstone and myself for the Royal Historical Society.  Of special importance are the plea rolls issued by the Selden Society, which include for our period F.W.  MAITLAND’S Select Pleas of the Crown, 1200-1225; BAILDON’S Select Chancery Pleas, 1364-1471; J.M.  RIGG’S Select Pleas of the Jewish Exchequer; and G.J.  TURNER’S Select Pleas of the Forest; all have translations and introductions, of which those of Professor Maitland are of exceptional value.