It served to unite all the inferior districts with one another, and those with the private jurisdiction of the thanes.

This court had no fixed place.

The alderman of the shire appointed it.

Hither came to account for their own conduct, and that of those beneath them, the bailiffs of hundreds and tithings and boroughs, with their people,--the thanes of either rank, with their dependants,--a vast concourse of the clergy of all orders: in a word, of all who sought or distributed justice.

In this mixed assembly the obligations contracted in the inferior courts were renewed, a general oath of allegiance to the king was taken, and all debates between the several inferior cooerdinate jurisdictions, as well as the causes of too much weight for them, finally determined.