There is a marginal note in the Red Book returns for Wilts, now partially illegible, but (_sic_) which clearly records the loss of the Inquisition of several of the Hundreds of that county, while a precisely similar note is entered on the dorse of one of the original returns for Norfolk in the _Testa_ (p. ccxxiv.).[533] The view I advance at once explains and is confirmed by the remarkable allusion to this Inquest in the ‘Annals of Waverley’: (1212) Idem (rex) scripsit vicecomitibus ut _per singulos hundredos_ facerent homines jurare quæ terræ essent de dominico prædecessorum suorum regum antiquitus, et qualiter a manibus regum exierint, et qui eas modo tenent et pro quibus servitiis. There can, in my opinion, be no question whatever that this refers to the writ ordering the great Inquest of service in 1212. This is printed in the ‘Testa’ (p. 54), and as an appendix to the ‘Red Book’ (p. cclxxxv.). It is too lengthy to be quoted entire, but in it are found these words: De tenementis omnibus quæ antiquitus de nobis aut de progenitoribus nostris regibus Angliæ teneri solent, quæ sint data vel alienata ... et nomina illorum qui ea teneant et per quod servitium. The only difference is that the writ leaves the method of inquest to the sheriff’s discretion (“sicut melius inquiri poterit”) while the chronicler says it was to be made Hundred by Hundred, which, as we have seen, was probably the method adopted. In the ‘Testa’ the writ is not dated, but the copy printed by Mr. Hall is dated June 1 (1212) at Westminster. This seems but short notice for a return due on June 25, but it is remarkable that the ‘Annals of Waverley’ mention it in conjunction with a writ dated June 7, which certainly favours the statement. This latter writ directs an enquiry as to the ecclesiastical benefices held under gift of the prelates lately exiled from the realm.[534] It is remarkable that the Worcester returns to the great Inquest of service in 1212 are followed by a return made to such an enquiry: Inquisicio ecclesiarum. Maugerius episcopus dedit ecclesiam de Rippel’ Willelmo de Bosco clerico suo et vicariam ejusdem ecclesie dedit Ricardo de Sancto Paterno clerico suo. Qui Ricardus reddit predicto Willelmo x marcas de pensione. Ecclesia autem integra valet per annum L marcas. Idem episcopus dedit ecclesiam de Hambur’ juxta Wych magistro Ricardo de Cirencestra, que valet per annum x marcas (‘Testa,’ p. 44).