[155] Feudal England, pp. 109–110.
[156] After the above passage, the author proceeds: “De summa vero summarum quæ ex omnibus fundis surgebant in uno comitatu, constituerunt vicecomitem illius comitatus ad scaccarium teneri” (i. 7).
[157] A Devonshire manor (i. 100 b) is entered as rendering “in firma regis x solidos ad pensum.” This “firma” can only be a collective ferm from the royal manors.
[158] I do not wish to press the point further than the entry proves, and consequently I leave undetermined the question whether the ‘firma regis’ was that of the whole shire, or merely that of the head manor to which Wedmore belonged.
[159] Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 142.
[160] History and Antiquities of the Exchequer, p. 63.
[161] It was vehemently asserted by Mr. Hubert Hall, in his earlier papers on the Exchequer, that the table was only divided into columns, and that the chequered table was a delusion. He has subsequently himself accepted the “chequered table” (see my ‘Studies on the Red Book,’ p. 76), but Sir James Ramsay (ii. 324) has been misled by his original assertion.
[162] “Sciendum vero quod per hanc taleam combustionis dealbatur firma vicecomitis; unde in testimonium hujus rei semper majori taleæ appensa cohæret” (‘Dialogus’).
[163] pp. 523–4.
[164] p. 105.