'A short review cannot do justice to the scope and value of this book. … essential reading not only for those interested in land law but also for all converned with the history of English landed society.' Oxford Academic Journals

• Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations and abbreviated citations; Introduction; Part I. Fee Tails Before De Donis: 1. Grants in fee tail; 2. The transformation of maritagium; 3. Maritagium and fee tails in the King's court: the development of the formedon writs; Part II. The Growth of the 'Perpetual' Entail: 4. Reading De Donis; 5. The statutory restraint on alienation and the descender writ; 6. The duration of entails for reversions and remainders; Part III. Living with Entails: 7. The change from maritagium to jointure; 8. The frequency and use of entails; Part IV. Barring the Enforcement Entails other than by Common Recovery: 9. The doctrine of assets by descent; 10. The doctrine of collateral warranty; 11. Barring entails by judgment; Part V. The Origin and Development of the Common Recovery: 12. The origin and growth of common recoveries; 13. Development of procedure and doctrine; 14. The double voucher recovery; Part VI. The Common Recovery in Operation: 15. The uses of recoveries; 16. Social acceptance of the common recovery; Appendix to Part VI; Bibliography; Subject and selected persons index; Index to persons and places in appendix to Part VI.