Venville

R. E. G. inquires respecting the origin of this word, as applied to certain tenants round Dartmoor Forest. The name is peculiar to that district, and is applied chiefly to certain *vills* or villages (for the most part also parishes), and to certain tenements within them, which pay fines to the Lord of Lidford and Dartmoor, viz. the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall. The fines are supposed to be due in respect either of rights of common on the forest, or of trespasses committed by cattle on it; for the point is a *vexata quæstio* between the lord and tenants of Dartmoor and the tenants of t…