Old Auster Tenement

I think that I am in a condition to throw some light on the meaning of this expression, noticed in a former Number by "W.P.P." The tenements held in villenage of the lord of a manor, at least where they consisted of a messuage or dwelling-house, are often called *astra* in our older books and court-rolls. If the tenement was an ancient one, it was *vetus* or *antiquum astrum*; if a tenure of recent creation (or a new-take, as it is called in some manors), it was *novum astrum*. The villenage tenant of it was an *astrarius*. "W.P.P." may satisfy himself of these facts by referring to the printe…