Displaying 1 glossary term starting with M
Diplomatic Anatomy
Latin / Old English
Metae / Landgemære (Vernacular Bounds)
Lat. metae ('landmarks, boundaries') / OE landgemære ('estate border-landmarks')
A detailed perambulation of the granted estate's perimeter, almost universally recorded in Old English rather than Latin to ensure local comprehensibility by rustic boundaries men.
Boundary clauses trace streams, ancient dykes, tumuli (*hlæwas*), boundary trees (*har hoar-trees*), crossways, and wolf-pits (*wulf-pyttas*), providing an invaluable topographical record of the pre-Conquest English landscape.
“Ærest of tham burnan andlang mearce to tham haran stane, swa thonan on butan tham clife oth hit cymth eft into tham burnan…”
S 342 — King Alfred's Grant of Woodyates to Shaftesbury Abbey
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