It is very strange that, in his _magnum opus_,[190] Madox not only ignores, it would seem, this descent of the office with certain lands, but gives a most unsatisfactory account of those who held the office, confusing it, clearly, with the chamberlainship of England, and not distinguishing or tracing its holders. * * * * * For the different standards of payment in use at the Exchequer, our authority, of course, is the ‘Dialogus,’ but the subject, I venture to think, is still exceedingly obscure. Even Mr. Hall, who has studied so closely the ‘Dialogus,’ seems to leave it rather doubtful whether payment in ‘blank’ money meant a deduction of 6_d._ or of 12_d._ on the pound.[191] It will be best to leave the ‘Dialogus’ for the moment, and take an actual case where the charters and the rolls can be compared, and a definite result obtained. In Lans. MS. 114, at fo. 55, there is a series of extracts transcribed from a Register of Holy Trinity (or Christchurch) Priory, London, in which are comprised the royal charters relating to Queen Maud’s gift of two-thirds of the revenues (ferm) of Exeter. First, Henry I. confirms it, late in his reign,[192] as “xxv libras ad scalam,” the charter being addressed to William bishop of Exeter, and Baldwin the sheriff (_sic_). Then we have another charter from him addressed “Rogero episcopo Sar[esbiriensi] et Baronibus Scaccarii,” and witnessed, at Winchester, by Geoffrey de Clinton, in which it is “xxv libras blancas.” Stephen’s charter follows, addressed to William bishop of Exeter, and Richard son of Baldwin, the sheriff, in which again we have “xxv lib. ad scalam.” Lastly, we come to an important entry that seems to have remained unknown: In 1180, on St. Martin’s Day, king Henry issued (_fecit currere_) his new money, in the 26th year of his reign, and as the sheriff of Exeter (_Exon’_) would not pay the prior of Christchurch, for Michaelmas term, £12 16_s._ 3_d._ “_secundum pondus blancum_,” Prior Stephen obtained from the king the following writ. Then follows a writ which clearly belongs not to 1180, but to an earlier period. It is addressed “prepositis et civibus Exonie,” and directs that the canons are to enjoy their rents as in his grandfather’s time (‘Teste Manessero Biset dapifero, apud Wirecestriam’). Next comes a passage so important that it must be quoted in the original words, although, like the whole of the transcript, it seems slightly corrupt.