I 190 ] 



To every manor belonged a manfion with more 

 or lefs land in denaefne inclofed near it, always fuf- 

 ficient for the maintenance of the family, without 

 the lord's being under the necelTity of intercom- 

 moning with his tenants; and this is the only reafon 

 that can be adduced why the manor-houfes are at 

 this day precluded all intereft and advantage arifing 

 from the multiplicity of new inclofures under dif- 

 ferent adls of parliament for that purpofe. The 

 demefne feems to have been the only land iden- 

 tified, except the old aufier^ tenements and their 



veiy foon became univerfally abollfiied. But this libidinous privilege 

 of the lords of fome manors had taken fuch deep root in the mind* 

 of fome of their vaflals, that they had their younger fons preferred 

 before the elder, — a borough Englifh practice that is ftill kept up in 

 many parts of England, particularly about thirty parilhes in Somer- 

 fetlhire, lying in the hundred of Taunton-Dean, the culloms of which 

 I fometime fince publiflied, price 2s. 



• Aujler being a provincial term, not intelligible by gentlemen at 

 a diftance, it may not be amifs to acquaint them that it is peculiarly 

 applied to fome parts of this flat country. The term itfelf is differ- 

 ently fpelt in different grants ; whence the learned have given us many 

 different conje<Slures of its derivation, moft of whom believe it purely 

 Saxon ; but whether fo or not, its true original import fignified an 

 oven, for want' of which a hearth or fire-place, but of fuch a conftruc- 

 tion that it muft be capable of baking bread. All fuch villanes who in 

 early times would venture to live on thofe marfhy lands, and ered^ed a 

 cot of fuch confequence as to have a hearth or oven that would bake 

 their own bread, had a privilege of unlimited intercommoning, pro- 

 vided they poffeffed themfelves of one ox, and cultivated a fufficient 

 quantity of ground to find themfelves and families in corn. 



homefteds, 



