Odger's English Common Law

CUSTOMS OF A MANOR. 83
tenants of the manor holding under the lord ; for without two
such tenants a court baron could not be held. 1 But many
continued to be manors for all intents and purposes after all
their freeholders had disappeared, though strictly they were
only " reputed manors." Other portions of the manor were
allotted by the lord to copyhold tenants, who held them at
his will in return for services which were uncertain in their
character and were therefore considered as of a baser kind,
such as ploughing the land or tending the lord's cattle. A
large part of the manor the lord retained for his own occupa-
tion. This was called the " demesne." Around all these
spread the wastes of the manor, which were usually moor-
land or forest.
A manor, then, consists of
—
(a) demesne lands, which are in the occupation of the lord
of the manor ;
(b) freehold tenements held of the lord, over which he has
certain seignorial rights
;
(c) copyhold tenements, the freehold of which is still in
the lord, though the copyholders practically own them
(d) the wastes of the manor, which are also the freehold
of the lord.
It was over these wastes of the manor that the copyholders
gradually, by the indulgence of the lord, acquired certain
rights which were formerly of little value, but which in
modern times are often of great importance. Such were, for
instance, rights of common of estovers, to cut such an amount
of wood as is reasonably necessary for faggots to burn in the
house, or to repair fences or instruments of husbandry;
rights of pasture, to place horses, cows, geese, &c, on the
common ; rights of turbary, to cut turves ; rights of pannage,
to send a pig into the forest to eat acorns, &c. These rights
are really personal profits d prendre. But they were never
expressly granted by the lord ;
there were no circumstances
from which a grant could be implied ; and, just as a tenant
for a term of years cannot prescribe against his landlord, so a
copyholder cannot prescribe against his lord. Against strangers
1 As to this court, see pod, p. 973.
;