Blue Diary, Page 4, William Blackstone

"Commentaries of on Cm. Law Subject of Real Estates"

William Blackstone (1723-1780) was an English judge and politician of the late eighteenth century who published the first of a four volume Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769) in 1765. Woods is here likely referring to the second of these volumes, Book the Second: Of the Rights of Things on property rights. Despite having been published almost a century before, Blackstone’s works continued to serve as reference material for lawyers such as Woods until the 1870s. For a digital copy of Blackstone’s works, see Project Gutenburg or Yale Law School’s website.