| n. | 1. | Originally, the ground near a royal forest, which, having been unlawfully added to the forest, was afterwards severed from it, and disafforested so as to remit to the former owners their rights. |
| 2. | Hence, the outer portion of any place; an adjacent district; environs; neighborhood. |
PURLIEU, Eng. law. A space of land near a forest, known by certain
boundaries, which was formerly part of a forest, but which has been
separated from it.
2. The history of purlieus is this. Henry III., on taking possession of
the throne, manifested so great a taste for forests that he enlarged the old
ones wherever he could, and by this means enclosed many estates, which had
no outlet to the public roads, and things increased in this way until the
reign of King John, when the public reclamations were so great that much of
this land was disforested; that is, no longer had the privileges of the
forests, and the land thus separated bore the name of purlieu.