Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/374

 278 ON CERTAIN OBSCURE WORDS Cilia, during which time they are to be " in defense," that is, the common rights are to be sus})ended. With regard to the moor of Penhalward, in which rights of common are also granted, the donor gives np his right " in dicta mora pratnm vel blesta- riam facere in postcrmn." (Monasticon Dioc. Exon., p. 42, 43.) In another grant, ap})arently of the 1 2th century, to the alien priory of Talcarn in Cornwall, the donor conveys certain lands in the northern part of the county, with the addition of "pannagium de bosco, &c., et c(mmunem pascuam, &c., et omnia necessaria ad ignem suum de blastario meo ubicunque voluerint." {lb., p. 64.) Some local knowledge enables rae to say with confidence that in the vicinity of all the lands specified in the above instruments, there must still be tracts of peat and turbary ground, supplying a fuel much employed on and near the moors in Cornwall. The last charter plainly points out this meaning of the word " blestaria ;" and the first is quite con- sistent with it. It is singular that the Avord is not in the Glossaries ; but the word blesta or blestia, from which it is formed, is found both in Spelman and Ducange. Spehnan assigns to it exactly the sense which it seeius to bear hi the above charters, and Ducange makes it synonymous with " gleba." " Bleta" is also another form, in which it is used in com})any with turbary by the brethren of St. Robert of Knaresborough in a petition to the king in parliament, 35 Edward I."' I have not fallen in with the word in a Devonsliire charter ;. though I should expect to find it in deeds relating to the Dartmoor district, where there is i)eat in abundance. It is in- deed inserted in a charter professing to grant Gidley manor, which was dignified by an inspeximus or innotescimus under the great seal of Henry VIII., and still figures among the muni- ments of a gentleman whose title is certainly too sound to re- quire the sapjiort, or even to be damaged by the aid, of so clumsy a fiction ". The instrument is set forth in the MS. copies of Westcote's Devonshire, and is referred to by Risdon. ™ " Fodenmt turvas et bletasin foresta." mission. The main difficulties in it are 1 Rot. Pari. 2. The pass;i^e is cited l)y that one Martin, duke of Cornwall and earl (^)vvel. (^otgravc also has the word. oi' Moriain, who never existed, is therein " Perhaps I underrate the meriis of the made to grant to one Egidius de Gidley docnment ; for it is said to have been re- a variel}' of lands, some of which are wholly ccntly produced vvitli great success on a inuiginary, and lujue of which any duke of question of boundary before the Tithe Com- Cornwall ever had to give.