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a manor. Its original intention was to view the frank pledges of 
the freemen, the preservation of the peace, and the chastisement 
of small offenders. All freeholders within the limits were obliged 
to attend these courts. It was also the custom at these courts to 
present by the jury all crimes which had happened within their 
jurisdiction. There is no Court Leet either here or at Hawkshead, 
but there is one at Kendal and another at Dalton. The Court of 
Pie Poudre, or Pie Powder, as it is commonly called, was so named 
either from the dusty feet of the suitors, or because justice was 
done so quickly that the dust had not time to fall from their feet, 
and was a court incident to every fair and market. If I remember 
right, you had power to hold one at Ambleside on the occasion of 
your annual fairs. The owner of the market tolls was the judge, 
and his jurisdiction extended to all commercial injuries done in 
that very fair or market, so that the injury must be done, com- 
plained of, heard and determined within the compass of one and 
the same day, unless the fair continued longer. 
CUSTOMARY FREEHOLDS. 
And now as to customs which are the very essence, as it were 
of customary freeholds. A custom is an unwritten law established 
by long usage. The difference between a custom and prescription 
is that the former is local, as prevailing in a certain county, 
hundred, manor, &c., and the latter personal, being applicable to 
a certain person and his ancestors, or to a body politic and their 
predecessors. A prescription presupposes a grant as the origin of 
it, but a custom does not. A custom to be legal must have been 
used time out of mind, and four properties are essential to its 
existence, viz., a reasonable commencement, to be certain, to have 
continuance, and not to be against the king’s prerogative. Now, 
the first custom to which I shall draw your attention is the mode 
of conveying property in these manors. Freehold land is conveyed 
to a man and his heirs by a single deed, which deed in itself is 
evidence of his title, and shews that he has, what lawyers call, the 
legal estate in him. Copyholds are first surrendered to the lord of 
the manor, and then re-granted by him to the purchaser, who then 
ee 
