14. p. 217.).--I think that I am in a
condition to throw some light on the meaning of this expression, noticed
in a former Number by "W.P.P." The tenements held in villenage of the
lord of a manor, at least where they consisted of a messuage or
dwelling-house, are often called _astra_ in our older books and
court-rolls. If the tenement was an ancient one, it was _vetus_ or
_antiquum astrum_; if a tenure of recent creation (or a new-take, as it
is called in some manors), it was _novum astrum_. The villenage tenant
of it was an _astrarius_. "W.P.P." may satisfy himself of these facts by
referring to the printed _Plautorum Abbrevietis_, fo. 282.; to Fleta,
_Comment. Juris. Anglicani_, ed. 1685, p. 217.; and to Ducange, Spelman,
and Cowel, under the words "Astrum," "Astrarius," and "Astre." In the
very locality to which "W.P.P." refers, he will find that the word
"Auster" is "Astrum" in the oldest court-rolls, and that the term is not
confined to North Curry, but is very prevalent in the eastern half of
Somerset. At the present day, an _auster_ tenement is a species of
copyhold, with all the incidents to that tenure. It is noticed in the
Journal of the Archaeological Institute, in a recent critique on Dr.
Evans's Leicestershire words, and is very familar to legal practitioners
of any experience in the district alluded to.
E. Smirke.
_Tureen_ (No.
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