A table of contents is prefixed, but several items contained therein (viz. list of abbots of Glouc., justices of peace in 1689, commissions of array) have never been included in this volume. May not this MS. therefore be only a transcript from another of a little earlier date, which was contained (as noted above) in the collection of Sir J. Jekyll and lord Somers?

The original compiler appears to have been a gentleman of Berkshire, there being on fol. 20 a note of "the charges for the Lent Assizes at my father's shrievalty" in that county in 1663. The names of the Sheriffs in that year, and in several years preceding and subsequent, are not to be found in Ashmole's list.