The curious and evidently archaic institution of the _firma unius noctis_ was clearly connected with the problem of hidation. In Somerset the formula for a Manor contributing to this _firma_ was: Nunquam geldavit nec scitur quot hidæ sint ibi (i. 85). In Dorset it ran: Nescitur quot hidæ sint ibi quia non geldabat T.R.E. (i. 75). In Wiltshire we read: Nunquam geldavit nec hidata fuit, _or_ nunquam geldavit: ideo nescitur quot hidæ sint ibi.[200] In all these entries the 'hide' is recognized as merely a measure of assessment quite independent of area. Hampshire affords us, in a group of Manors, a peculiarly good instance in point. Of Basingstoke, Kingsclere, and 'Esseborne', we read: Rex tenet in dominio _Basingestoches_. Regale manerium fuit semper. Numquam geldum dedit, nec hida ibi distributa fuit.... _Clere_ tenet rex in dominio. De firma Regis Edwardi fuit, et pertinet ad firmam diei de Basingestoches. Numerum hidarum nescierunt.... _Esseborne_ tenet rex in dominio. De firma Regis Edwardi fuit. Numerum hidarum non habent.... Hæc tria maneria, Basingestoches, Clere, Esseborne, reddunt firmam unius diei (39). Other Manors are found about the county displaying the same peculiarity. Ipse rex tenet _Bertune_. De firmâ Regis E. fuit, et dimidiam diem firmæ reddidit in omnibus rebus.... Nunquam in hid(is) numeratum fuit.... Numerum hidarum non dixerunt. Ipse rex tenet _Edlinges_ in dominio. Hoc manerium reddidit dimidiam diem firmæ tempore Regis E. Numerum hidarum nesciunt (38). Manors, such as Andover, not hidated, clearly belonged to the same system, though neither their value nor their render is given. Thus, then, within the limits of Wessex, in the four adjacent counties of Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, and Hants, we find surviving, at the time of the Conquest, an archaic but uniform system of provision for the needs of the Crown by the assignment of certain estates or groups of estates, the render of which was expressed in terms of the 'firma noctis' or 'firma diei', and which, unlike the country around them, had never been assessed in 'hides'. Mr Seebohm hints slightly at this _firma_ system,[201] but only speaks of it as existing in Dorset. Nor does he allude to the significant fact of such Manors having never been hidated. It would lead us far afield to speculate on the origin of this system, or to trace its possible connection with the Welsh _gwestva_.[202] Nor can we here concern ourselves with the few scattered traces of it that we meet with elsewhere in Domesday. Its existence in four adjacent counties, with non-hidation as a common feature, is the point I wish to emphasize.