Now, all this might, I think, be explained if we took the so-called second volume to be really a first attempt at the codification of the returns. Its unsatisfactory character must have demonstrated the need for a better system, which, indeed, its unwieldy proportions must have rendered imperative. So drastic and so successful, on this hypothesis, was the reform, that while these three counties had needed a volume of 450 folios, the rest of England that was surveyed--some thirty counties--was compressed into a single volume of 382 folios, and on a system which rendered consultation easier and more rapid. In every respect the first volume is a wonderful improvement on the second, but the authorities may have shrunk from ordering the latter to have been compiled _de novo_, when the work, though unsatisfactory, had once been done. This, it must of course be remembered, is all hypothesis, a hypothesis suggested by the facts. If it were proved that at the time when the Ely return was made, the 'second' volume had been compiled, and the 'first' had not, I should have established my case. But it might be urged that the 'first' volume did exist at the time, and that the Ely scribes used the returns instead, because they contained fuller information. To this I reply, so far as the details of the estates are concerned, that neither the terms of the writ nor the heading of the _Inquisitio_ involved the inclusion of such details as Domesday Book omitted. If the scribes inserted them, it must have been merely because they inserted everything they found in the records from which they copied. It might still be urged that they went to the returns for the names of the _juratores_; but why, if so, did they not do so for the three eastern counties? It certainly seems to me to be the most satisfactory explanation that the materials supplied for compiling this return, as being the recognized official records, were the so-called 'second' volume of Domesday, and (for the rest) the original returns. XIX. FIRST MENTION OF DOMESDAY BOOK No one nowadays should require to be told that the pseudo-Ingulf's dealings with Domesday are devoid of all authority. Some, however, may still believe in the tale found in that 'Continuatio' of his chronicle which is fathered on Peter of Blois. It is there that Ellis found (putting Ingulf aside) the only case of an appeal to its witness before the reign of John.[253] With the 'Continuatio' I shall deal below,[254] but I would observe, while on the subject, that the 'pseudo-Ingulf' (charters and all) was, I believe, largely concocted by the help of hints gathered from Domesday Book. The absence of any authoritative mention, in its early days, of our great record gives a special importance to an entry in the _Chronicle of Abingdon_ (ii. 115-6), where we read that Abbot Faritius was impleaded by certain men: