A lord’s chief manor place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor’s own use
Oft of one wide expanse had I been toldThat deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;.
A lord's chief manor place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor's own use
Manorial lands reserved exclusively for the Lord of the Manor's own use Prior to the mid 14th century the Lord's villeins would cultivate this land for him but subsequently it was found more profitable to lease the land out After enclosure the grouping together of these land holdings created the common Home Farm concept
Those parts of the land and rights of a manor that the lord retained for himself as distinct from that held by his tenants In the modern parlance it was equivalent to "the home farm" In it's widest sense it applied to land held by people other than freehold tenants i e villeins or copyhold tenants In a narrower sense it excluded land held by villeins or copyholders and applied only to land actually used by the lord himself
In this context: the private property of the Crown, Crown-lands [Article 25] Possession (of real estate) as if ones own This applied either to the absolute ownership of the king, or to the tenure of the person who held land to his own use, mediately or immediately from the king In opposition was the notion of to hold in service (tenere in servitio)