a name given to certain linen cloth, thus called, because the thread used to weave them has been half blanched or bleached before it was used. They are manufactured in Normandy, particularly in the places which are in the district or under the jurisdiction of Pont-Audemer, Bernay, and Lisieux.

BLANCH-FERME, or Blank farm, a white farm, that is, where the rent was to be paid in silver, not in cattle. In ancient times, the crown rents were many times referred to be paid in libris albis, called blancs firmes: in which case the buyer was holden deblanc firmam, viz. his base money or coin, worse than standard, was melted down in the exchequer, and reduced to the fineness of standard silver; or instead thereof to be paid to the king 12 d. in the pound by way of addition.

BLANCH-Holding, in law, a tenure by which the vassal is only bound to pay an arbitrary yearly duty to his superior merely as an acknowledgment of his right. See Law, Part III. No clxv. 3.