GRASS WEEK - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

GRASS WEEKAuthored

The Law Mind • 682 words

Definition

An archaic term for Rogation Week — the week preceding Ascension Day in the Christian liturgical calendar — as used historically within the Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery in England. During this period, the commons (communal meals served in the Inns) were said to consist chiefly of sallets (salads), hard eggs, green sauce, and other seasonal fare associated with spring vegetation, giving the week its colloquial name. The term had no operative legal significance; it was a customary descriptor for an administrative and social period within the life of the Inns.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No standard entry. "Grass" in common usage refers to low-growing vegetation, the plant family Poaceae, or informally to marijuana or an informant (British slang).

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Grass" — herbage; the common plants clothing the surface of the ground; green plants generally.

The legal use here is neither technical nor doctrinally significant. The connection to common meaning is direct but incidental: the term derives from the seasonal greenery associated with spring — salads, herbs, and fresh vegetables served at commons during Rogation Week — not from any legal concept. Researchers encountering this term in historical Inns of Court records should not search for doctrinal content; it is a calendar and household term, not a legal category.

Common Confusion

GRASS WEEK and GANG-WEEK are related terms for the same period and appear cross-referenced in Bouvier's. Gang-Week (from the Anglo-Saxon "gang," meaning "going" or procession) likewise denotes Rogation Week, reflecting the custom of processional parish boundary-walking (ganging the bounds) during those days. The two terms are synonyms for the same week from different naming traditions — one drawn from the seasonal food served at the Inns, the other from the religious procession custom. Neither carries distinct legal meaning beyond identifying the same calendar period.

Why It Matters in Research

Grass Week appears infrequently and only in historical sources. Researchers working through records of the Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery — admission registers, term records, accounts of commons, or administrative correspondence — may encounter references to this week as a temporal marker. It functions like a term name: it locates an event or document within the Inns' internal calendar.

The key navigational point is that the Inns of Court historically organized their year around term periods and customary observances that do not map cleanly onto either the common law legal terms (Hilary, Easter, Trinity, Michaelmas) or the modern legal calendar. Grass Week falls within Trinity Term broadly but is a sub-period defined by liturgical, not judicial, rhythm. Do not conflate it with a formal legal term of court.

In the Law Mind corpus, this term is most likely to surface in historical treatises on Inns of Court customs, antiquarian legal histories, or glossaries appended to older practice manuals. It will not appear in case law, statutes, or modern secondary sources.

Historical Dictionary Support

All three source dictionaries agree on the core identification: Grass Week equals Rogation Week as used in the Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery. Black's (both editions) gives a one-line identification. Bouvier's is the most informative, supplying the explanatory note attributed to Byrne — that the commons of that week "consist chiefly of sallets, with hard eggs, green sauce, etc." — which explains the name's derivation and gives researchers a more complete cultural context.

None of the historical dictionaries assign legal doctrine to this term. Its presence in law dictionaries reflects those works' broader mission of capturing the full vocabulary of legal life, including Inns of Court customs and antiquarian usage, not merely operative legal concepts. Researchers should treat it accordingly: a term of legal culture and institutional history, not legal doctrine.

Jurisdictional Note

This term is specific to English legal history and the Inns of Court and Chancery. It has no American legal counterpart or usage.

GRASS WEEKmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

eric term, applicable to the transfer of all classes of real property. 3 Washb. Real Prop- 181. As distinguished from a mere license, a grant passes some estate or interest, corporeal or incor- poreal, in the lands which it embraces; can only be made by an instrument in writing, under seal; and is irrevocable, when made, unless an express power of revocation is reserved. A license is a mere authority; passes no estate or interest what- ever; may be made by parol; is revocable at will; and, when revoked, the protection which it gave ceases to exist. 3 Duer, 255, 258. The term "grant," in Scotland, is used in reference (1) to original dispositions of land, as when a lord makes grants of land among tenants; (2) to gratuitous deeds. Paterson. In such case, the superior or donor is said to to grant the deed; an expression totally un- known in English law. Mozley & Whitley. By the word "grant,” in a treaty, is meant not only a formal grant, but any concession, warrant, order, or permission to survey, pos- sess, or settle, whether written or parol, ex- press, or presumed from possession. Such a grant may be made by law, as well as by a patent pursuant to a law. 12 Pet. 410. See 9 Adol. & E. 532; 5 Mass. 472; 9 Pick. 80. "GRANT, BARGAIN, AND SELL." Operative words in conveyances of real es- tate.