The Land Laws

THE LAND LAWS SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION object of this book, as I formerly defined it, is to make the principles and the leading features of the English law of real property intelligible to a reader who is without legal training, but is willing to take some little pains to understand. It does not aim at being a practical manual, and therefore many things that take an important place in counsels chambers and the solicitors office, such as the Conveyancing Acts and the Settled Land Acts, are purposely treated with great brevity. Collateral topics such as local taxation, death duties, and game laws, were and are omitted simply because there was no room for them. Eesearch has done much to the history of the law, and legislation to the modern law itself, in the eight years that have passed since the second edition was issued. The present revision is, for divers reasons, less thoroughgoing than I could have wished but I trust that few serious errors remain, and that no recent statutes of general importance have been overlooked. I have found it necessary to rewrite a good deal of the chapter on early customary law, to alter much of the Appendix, and to add a wholly new note on the Origins viii THE LAND LAWS of the Manor, in order to keep tho antiquarian part abreast of the present state of scholarship. Perhaps we do not know much more about the Anglo-Saxon period than we did a dozen years ago except that on some points we really know less than we supposed but of the Anglo-Norman and Angevin periods thanks to Mr. Seebohm, Mr. Vinogradoff, Mr. Maitland, Mr. Round, and Dr. Liebermanii we do know a good deal more both positively and negatively. At some points I have nowventured to refer for proofs or details to the History of English Law before the Time of Edward ., lately published by Mr. Mait land and myself. The dedication to the Bishop of Oxford remains in its original form in memory of the too short time for which I had the honour to bo his colleague as a professor in the University. F. P. LINCOLNS INN, December 1895. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAOE INTRODUCTORY ..... 1 CHAPTER II THE OLD ENGLISH CUSTOMARY LAWS . 19 CHAPTER III THE MEDIEVAL SYSTEM . . . .53 CHAPTER IV LEGISLATION AND TRANSFORMATION . .80 CHAPTER V DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN LAW . .110 x THE LAND LAWS CHAPTER VI LANDLORD AND TENANT . . . .139 CHAPTER VII MODERN REFORMS AND PROSPECTS . .164 APPENDIX NOTE A. THE GERMANIC LAND SYSTEM . .197 NOTE B. SYMBOLIC TRANSFER IN EARLY ENGLISH CUSTOMS . . . .199 NOTE C. THE ORIGINS OF THE MANOR . . 2OO NOTE D. VILLKNAGE, VILLEIN TENURE, AND COPY HOLDS ..... 208 NOTE E. PRIMOGENITURE IN SOCAGE LANDS . 219 NOTE F. CESTUI QUE USE AT COMMON LAW . 222 NOTE G. SETTLEMENTS AND PERPETUITY . .223 NOTE H. RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON LAND TRANSFER 228 INDEX ...... 231 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY THE laws and usages which govern the tenure of land in England are, as a whole, unique. Our land system is commonly called feudal, sometimes by persons who use the word as a disparaging epithet without any clear notion of what it means. This is not in itself wrong, but it conveys a most imperfect notion of the number ami variety of the influences that have made our land laws what they are. The statement and the belief implied in it are so inadequate as to be misleading...