But what was the 'Liber de Thesauro'? I contend that it was Domesday Book, and can have been nothing else. For, passing now to the _Dialogus de Scaccario_ (_circa_ 1177), we there read in reply to an inquiry as to the nature of Domesday Book (which 'in thesauro servatur et inde non recedit'): '_liber ille_ de quo quæris sigilli regii comes est individuus _in thesauro_' (I. XV.). The connection of the Book with the Treasury is brought out strongly in the _Dialogus_, and leads to the presumption, as Mr Hall perceived, that the Treasury being originally at Winchester, the Book was there also--as indeed we see it was under Henry I.[256] On the date of its removal to Westminster, there has been much discussion between my friend Mr Hall and myself.[257] Mr Hall relies mainly on the _Dialogus de Scaccario_, and on the inferences he draws from it, for the early removal of Domesday to Westminster, and the establishment there of the royal Treasury. For myself, I claim for the Winchester Treasury greater importance and continuity than he is willing to admit. The leading records, of course, were stored there as well as treasure. We find William Rufus speaking of 'meis brevibus ... qui sunt in thesauro mea Wyntoniæ';[258] and we read that, on his father's death, 'pergens apud Wincestre thesaurum patris sui ... divisit: erant autem in thesauro illo lx. m[ille] libræ argenti excepto auro et gemmis et vasis et palliis.'[259] Heming's Cartulary describes the Domesday returns as stored 'in thesauro regali', and Henry of Huntingdon states that 'inter thesauros reposita usque hodie servantur'.[260] Now, as the Treasury was in Winchester Castle at the time of the above suit, and as it had been in 1100[261] and 1087, so it was still at the accession of Stephen in 1135, and at the triumph of Matilda in 1141. This is absolutely certain from the Chronicles, nor do they ever mention any other Treasury. Moreover, the contents of this Treasury in 1135--'erant et vasa tam aurea quam argentea'--correspond with those described by the _Dialogus_ forty years later: 'vasa diversi generis aurea et argentea'. Lastly, there is a piece of evidence which has not yet been adduced, namely, that in his _Expugnatio Hibernica_ (1188), Giraldus, speaking of that ring and letters which John of Salisbury declared had been brought by him from the Pope, and were 'still stored in the Royal Treasury', writes of Annulum aureum in investituræ signum ... qui statim simul cum privilegio _in archivis Wintoniae_ repositus fuerat. Giraldus certainly must have looked on the Royal Treasury at Winchester as the only recognized repository for all such objects as these.