a prompt codification of the English law so simplified ('The Making of the German Civil Code,' 1906, in Coll. Papers). 'Strenuous endeavours to improve the law,' he wrote, 'are not hindered but forwarded by a zealous study of legal history.'
Maitland found relief from his literary researches in varied recreation. He was devoted to music. He rowed and walked and was an Alpine mountaineer. In 1881 he became secretary of the 'Sunday Tramps,' a body of pedestrians organised by (Sir) Leslie Stephen [q. v. Suppl. II], with whom he formed a close friendship. In 1897 he delivered the Ford lectures at Oxford on 'Township and Borough.' Next year his health, which had always been delicate, was weakened by pleurisy. Thenceforward he wintered abroad, passing the colder months with his family in the Grand Canary, where with the help of MSS. or photographs of MSS. he steadily pursued literary work. His reputation grew rapidly in his last years at home and abroad. He was made hon. D.C.L. of Oxford in 1899, as well as LL.D. of Glasgow, Cracow, and Moscow Universities. He was a corresponding member of Royal Prussian Academy and Royal Bavarian Academy. In 1901 he delivered the Rede lecture at Cambridge. In 1902 he was chosen an original fellow of the British Academy, a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and also an honorary fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. On his last voyage to the Grand Canary in Nov. 1906 he was attacked by pneumonia, and died at Quiney's Hotel, Las Palmas, on 19 Dec. 1906. He is buried in the English cemetery there. At Cambridge there was founded in 1907 'The F. W. Maitland Memorial Fund,' for the promotion of research and instruction in the history of law and legal language and institutions. At Oxford, 'the Maitland Library' of legal and social history acquired his own copy of Domesday Book and other favourite volumes. A portrait painted by Miss Beatrice Lock (now Mrs. Leopold Fripp) in August 1906 is in the possession of the present writer; it was reproduced in photogravure in vol. 22 of the Selden Society's publications; a replica painted after Maitland's death hangs in the hall of Downing College. A posthumous bust, executed in bronze by Mr. S. Nicholson Babb for the Maitland Memorial fund, was presented to the university of Cambridge, and is placed in the Squire law library.
Maitland married on 20 July 1886 Florence Henrietta, eldest daughter of Herbert Fisher, the last judge of the Court of Stannaries for the Duchy of Cornwall, and niece of Julia Prinsep, second wife of (Sir) Leslie Stephen [q. v.]; he had issue two daughters, born in 1887 and 1889. His widow and daughters survive him,
Maitland published:
- 'Pleas of the Crown for the County of Gloucester, 1221,' 1884.
- 'Justice and Police,' 'English Citizens' series, 1885.
- 'Bracton's Notebook,' 3 vols. 1887.
- 'Select Pleas of the Crown, 1200-1225,' Selden Society, vol. i. 1888.
- 'Select Pleas in Manorial and other Seignorial Courts, Henry III and Edward I,' Selden Society, vol. 2, 1889.
- 'Three Rolls of the King's Court, 1194-5,' Pipe Roll Society, vol. 4, 1891.
- . 'The Court Baron' (jointly with W. P. Baildon), Selden Society, vol. 4, 1891.
- 'Records of the Parliament holden at Westminster, 28 Feb. 1305,' Rolls series, 98, 1893.
- 'The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I ' (jointly with F. Pollock), 2 vols. 1895; 2nd edit. 1898.
- 'The Mirror of Justices' (jointly with W. J. Whittaker), Selden Society, vol. 7, 1895.
- 'Bracton and Azo,' Selden Society, vol. 8, 1895.
- 'Domesday Book and Beyond, Three Essays,' 1897.
- 'Township and Borough, the Ford Lectures of 1897,' 1898.
- 'Roman Canon Law in the Church of England, Six Essays,' 1898.
- 'Political Theories of the Middle Ages, by Dr. Otto Gierke,' translation and introduction, 1900.
- 'The Charters of the Borough of Cambridge' (jointly with Mary Bateson), 1901.
- 'English Law and the Renaissance,' Rede lecture, 1901.
- 'Year Books of Edward II, vol. i. 1307-9,' Selden Society, vol. 17, 1903.
- 'Year Books of Edward II, vol. ii. 1308-9-10,' Selden Society, vol. 19, 1904.
- 'Year Books of Edward II, vol. iii. 1309-10,' Selden Society, vol. 20, 1905. 24. 'Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen,' 1906.
Many essays, articles, and reviews from 1872 to 1906 were collected by his brother-in law, H. A. L. Fisher, and reprinted as 'The Collected Works of Frederic William Maitland' (1911). Other works posthumously published are 'Year Books of Edward II, vol. iv. 1309-11,' Selden Society, vol. 22, 1907 (completed by G. J. Turner, and containing a memoir and photogravure); 'The Constitutional History of England' (being lectures delivered at Cambridge, 1887-8, edited by H. A. L. Fisher), 1908; and 'Equity and the Forms of Action at Common Law' (lectures delivered at Cambridge, edited by A. H. Chaytor and W. J. Whit--