Blanch

Blanch, or BLENH HOLDING, is one of the ancient feudal tenures in the law of Scotland without service or prestation, except as a mere badge of superiority, the duty payable to the superior being in general a trifling sum, as a penny Scots, or merely illusory, as a peppercorn, 'if asked only,' or a bunch of roses, or, as in the famous case of Jock Howieson, a service of ewer and basin that the king may wash. Anciently, many estates in Scotland were held, both of the crown and other superiors, by this tenure, and by the legislation which followed on the Rebellion of 1745 all the ward-holdings or military tenures in Scotland were converted into blench; but it is now seldom adopted in the constitution of an original right of property. The tenure is subject to the same casualties of non-entry and relief as that of Feu (q.v.). See CHARTER, TENURE.