It is distinctly asserted, in the above passage, that the ‘firma comitatus’ only dated from this reform under Henry I.[156] This is at variance with the strong evidence set forth in my ‘Geoffrey de Mandeville,’ that Geoffrey’s grandfather, who was dead before this alleged reform, held Middlesex, Essex, and Herts at farm, the very amount of the farm due from him being mentioned. But, indeed, in Domesday itself there are hints, if not actual evidence, that the ‘firma’ was more or less in existence. In Warwickshire, for instance, “T.R.E. vicecomitatus de Warwic cum burgo et cum regalibus Maneriis reddebat lxv libras,” etc., etc. In Worcestershire, also, “vicecomes ... de Dominicis Maneriis regis reddit cxxiii lib. et iiii sol. ad pensum.” Here we have exactly that “summa summarum” of which the ‘Dialogus’ speaks as a novelty introduced under Henry I.[157] Again, in at least one passage (i. 85), we recognise a distinct allusion to the “terræ datæ” system: De hoc Manerio tenet Giso episcopus unum membrum WETMORE quod ipse tenuit de rege E. Pro eo computat Willelmus vicecomes in firma regis xii lib. unoquoque anno. Now we know the history of this manor, which had been detached from the royal demesne about a quarter of a century before, when Edward gave it to bishop Giso on his return from his visit to Rome. It follows, therefore, that £12 must have been, ever since, annually credited to the sheriff, in consideration of the Crown having alienated this manor.[158] We thus carry back to a period before the Conquest that Exchequer practice of the 12th century, which is thus alluded to in Stephen’s charter to Geoffrey earl of Essex (1141): Ita tamen quod dominica quæ de prædictis comitatibus data sunt ... a firma prædicta subtrahantur et ... ad scaccarium computabuntur.[159] I hasten to add that the Charter of Constance, the Conqueror’s daughter, quoted by Stapleton from the Cartulary of Holy Trinity, Caen, affords an exact parallel in the words: “et ei computabitur in suo redditu cum dica.” But the fact remains that we can prove the existence, under Edward the Confessor, of characteristic features of the later Exchequer system, of which one, at least, as Stapleton explained, must have been of English origin.