The oldest certain account of turf in the middle ages with which I am at present acquainted, is that pointed out by Trotz[583], who says that it occurs in a letter of donation of the year 1113. He has given the words in the Dutch language, as if they had stood so in the original. But he has quoted his authority in so careless a manner, that I have not been able to conjecture what kind of book he meant. I have however found a Latin copy of the letter of donation in a work pointed out to me by Professor Reuss[584]. An abbot Ludolph, in the year 1113, permitted a nunnery near Utrecht to dig _cespites_ for its own use in a part of his _venæ_, but at the same time he retained the property of these _venæ_. Now there can be no doubt that _vena_ signifies a turf bog, and _cespites_ turf. The former is the same word as _Fenne_ or _Venne_, which occurs in the old Frisic and the present _Veen_[585] of the Dutch. The nuns also could make no other use of the turf but employ it as fuel. This passage however proves nothing; though Trotz says that a great trade was carried on with turf in the twelfth century, and that the abbot wished to interdict the nuns from using it. It is worthy of remark that the words _turba_, _turbo_, _turbæ ad focum_, _turfa_, occur for turf, in the years 1190, 1191, 1201 and 1210, as is proved by the instances quoted by Du Cange. _Turbaria_ for a turf-moor is found in Matthew Paris, who died in 1259; _Turbagium_, in a diploma of Philip the Fair in the year 1308, signifies the right of digging turf, as _turbare_ does to dig up turf. The word _mor_ also is found in a document of the year 1246, quoted by Du Cange; who however has not introduced it into his dictionary[586]. It seems to be the same as _mariscus_ and _marescus_. Brito, who lived about 1223, describing the productions of Flanders, says, “Arida gleba foco siccis incisa marescis[587].” That the last of these words signifies a turf-bog is proved by a passage of Lambert, who lived at Ardres about the year 1200: “Quendam similiter mariscum, ut aiunt, proprium perfodi fecit, et in turbas dissecari.” The assertion of Winsem and others, that the practice of digging turf first became common after the year 1215, is undoubtedly founded on information obtained from Sibrand Leo’s Vitæ Abbatum Horti Divæ Virginis seu Mariengard[588]; but this writer died in 1588, and can by no means be adduced as an evidence: he even says himself that turf-digging in 1212 was a new occupation. The conjecture that the Netherlanders, who in the twelfth century established themselves as colonists in some districts of Germany, and particularly Lower Saxony, first made known there the preparation and use of this kind of fuel is improbable, or at any rate not proved[589]. It is improbable, because the Chauci, the oldest inhabitants of that country, burnt turf before that period.