In Beckwith's edition of Blount's "Fragmenta Antiquitatis," the following tenure is inserted from the "Black Book of Hereford."--"The tenants at Hampton Bishop, in the county of Hereford, were to get yearly six horse loads of rods or wattels, in the Hay Wood, near Hereford, and bring them to Hereford to make booths (or hurdles to pen sheep in) at the fair when they should be required; and for every load of the said rods they were to be allowed a halfpenny at the fairs." This tenure would appear to relate to one particular fair only, and not to all the fairs formerly held at Hereford. The particular fair is supposed to have been the one beginning on May 19th, and commonly called the nine-days' fair, from the circumstance of its continuing for that length of time. From time immemorial this fair was proclaimed, with certain formalities, by the Bishop of Hereford's bailiff, or his deputy, the tolls of the fair belonging to one or both of these officers. During the continuance of the fair, the Bishop's bailiff superseded the Mayor of Hereford as acting magistrate, the fair being held in a street opposite the Bishop's palace. Brienston, in Dorsetshire, was held in grand serjeanty by a curious jocular tenure, viz.:--by finding a man to go before the king's army for forty days when he should make war in Scotland (some records say in Wales) bareheaded and bare-footed, in his shirt, and linen drawers, holding in one hand a bow, and in the other an arrow without feathers.[6] The Dukes of Athol hold the Blair Athol estate by the tenure of presenting a white rose to the sovereign whenever he visits them there. Land was frequently held by the tenure of protecting the church property in times of war. Scott tells us how the Bishop of Durham gave lands to the Danish Count, Witikind, to be held by this tenure. The story is not true, but the tenure is; Broad lands he gave him on Tyne and Wear, To be held of the Church by bridle and spear; Part of Monkwearmouth, of Tynedale part, To better his will and soften his heart. _Harold the Dauntless._ Canto i., IV. The tenure of ancient demesne exists in those manors, and in those only, which belonged to the crown in the reigns of Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror, and in Domesday Book are called _Terroe Regis Edwardi_. The tenants are freeholders and possessed certain privileges, the chief of which was a right to sue and be sued only in their lord's court.