The other inhabitants retained whatever rights they had previously
enjoyed not only in respect of the Devonshire Commons, but of the Forest
of Dartmoor, of which, at some early period--before the era of
perambulations, in which they were not included--those commons had no
doubt formed part. One effect of the wide extent of the right of common
was that the rule of _levant and couchant_ did not obtain here.
Naturally, when all Devonshire men were entitled to the use of the land,
it was impossible to fix a limit to the number of the beasts that might
be turned out throughout the length and breadth of the county.
Mention was made above of royal forests as occupying, in some respects,
a different position from other lands in which a right of common was
exercised. Dartmoor, although the property of the Prince of Wales as
Duke of Cornwall, may be taken as, to all intents and purposes,
answering to that description; and thus peculiar interest attaches to
the usages which prevailed, and still prevail, within its bounds.
The question of "Venville Rights on Dartmoor" is one that engaged the
attention of a very capable writer as well as an accomplished antiquary,
the late Mr. W. F. Collier; and although the subject has been handled by
other investigators, it is from him that we have derived the bulk of our
information on this very remarkable aspect of commonage. First, as to
the name. "Venville" is a provincial corruption of _fines villarum_,
each vill paying a larger or smaller sum for the right of pasturage; and
certain parishes or manors on the outskirts of the forest were said to
be "in venville.
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