RAGMAN ROLLS  , the name given to the collection of

instruments by which the nobility and gentry of Scotland were compelled to subscribe allegiance to Edward I. of England between the conference of Norham in May 1291 and the final award in favour of Baliol in November 1292, and again in 1296 . Of the former of these records two copies were preservedin the chapter-house at Westminster (now in the Record Office, London), and it has been printed by Rymer (Foedera, ii . 542) . Another copy, preserved originally in the Tower of London, is now also in the Record Office . The latter record, containing the various acts of homage and fealty extorted by Edward from Baliol and others in the course of his progress through Scotland in the summer of 1296 and in August at the parliament of Berwick, was published by Prynne from the copy in the Tower and now in the Record Office . Both records were printed by the Bannatyne Club in 1834 . The derivation of the word " ragman " has never been satisfactorily explained, but various guesses as to its meaning and a list of examples of its use for legal instruments both in England and Scotland will be found in the preface to the Bannatyne Club's volume, and in Jamieson's Scottisk Dictionary, s.v . " Ragman." The name " ragman roll " survives in the colloquial " rigmarole," a rambling, incoherent statement . The name of " Ragman " has been sometimes confined to the 'record of 1296, of which an account is given in Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland preserved in the Public Record Office, London (1884), vol. ii., Introd., p. xxiv; and as to the seals see p. lii and appendix . RAG-STONE (probably equivalent to " ragged " stone), a name given by some architectural writers to work done with stones which are quarried in thin pieces, such as the Horsham sandstone, Yorkshire stone, the slate stones, &c.; but this is more properly flag or slab work . By rag-stone, near London, is meant an excellent material from the neighbourhood of Maidstone . It is a very hard limestone of bluish-grey colour, and peculiarly suited for medieval work .

It is often laid as uncoursed work, or

random work (see RANDOM), sometimes as random coursed work and sometimes as regular ashlar . The first method, however, is the more picturesque .