thirlage laws, since the income of the miller was based on that portion of the tenants' grain that the miller was legally entitled to take for the act of milling the grain. The legal term 'astricted' was applied to a tenant who was thirled or bonded to a particular mill. The term outsucken was applied to a mill which ground corn from outside its sucken for whatever reason. Multure Multure (or mulcture), pronounced 'mooter', was the name for the mill toll: a fixed proportion of the tenant's grain, paid to the miller by the suckener to grind the corn. The term 'dry multure' was often used, indicating the multure that a tenant had to pay, whether the grain was to be ground or not. Failure to take grain to the thirled mill was termed 'abstracted multure' and could result in the suckener being fined. The term 'bannock' denoted the payment to a miller's servant amounting to a handful of meal, in addition to that given as knaveship, this being a handful of cereal from each load milled. After the abolition of thirlage the term 'lick of goodwill' or 'lock' was the term for the miller's payment for grinding the cereal, etc. Aiton records in 1811 that barley, wheat, peas, beans, and every form of green crop were exempt from multure. Grassum This was the payment, amounting to a year's rent, for a miller to enter into rights under the law of thirlage. This was a significant sum, and the miller was often forced to insist on his rights of multure to make a reasonable living. By 1811 grassum was almost unknown in Ayrshire. Dishonesty The Scots term mill-bitch was used for a bag hung near the millstones into which a dishonest miller would slip a handful of meal now and then. The 'mill-ring' is the space between the millstones and the wooden frame. This space inevitably collected meal and was enlarged by unscrupulous millers to increase the amount that accumulated to their benefit. The term 'ring the mill' was used in common discourse to mean a 'cheat'. Quern-stones The legal requirement in Scotland for tenants to use the baron's mill meant that early leases of mills gave to the miller the legal right to break quern-stones which were being used in defiance of thirlage agreements. Many quern-stones are found in a broken condition, maybe having been broken purposely according to