ON THE HISTOEY OF LEASES OF LANDS 



of England, by a very old statute, allowed tlie tenant to take 

 wood for the use of the holdmg ; and in many cases the practice 

 still exists, but probably more by tacit consent than on account 

 of the statute. Leases are now by the law very secure, so much 

 so that they are granted for long terms for the purpose of 

 mortgage and family settlement. Yearly tenure is, however, 

 l)y far the most common in England as regards agriculture, and 

 a system of compensation for meliorations in use in some dis- 

 tricts gives them a bright contrast to those in which this security 

 is withheld. A Norfolk lease of the end of the eighteenth 

 century consists of over twenty clauses, one or two of which 

 may be quoted as peculiar. Clause 5 — " Nor to take any other 

 farm, nor to purchase adjoining property, without the consent of 

 the landlord." Clause 1 1 — " Not to impair the foundations of 

 the buildings by scooping out the bottom of the yard near to 

 them, but to keep up a three-feet pathway between." The 

 authority from whom this is taken adds in parenthesis, " an 

 excellent clause." Clause 14 — " Also, in the last year, not to 

 suffer swine to go loose without being yoked or rung." A clause 

 similar to this has been seen in a Scotch lease current at the 

 present time. 



Ancic7it Scottish Lease. 



It is a common mistake to suppose that the Celtic races which 

 inhabited Scotland prior £o the Eoman invasion were altogether 

 rude and barbarous. For, apart from Cwsar informing us " that 

 on the south and east coasts they tilled the soil, kept flocks and 

 herds, and lived in hamlets for sake of mutual protection," their 

 mod — Saxon mote, or court of justice — betrays considerable civi- 

 lization. It is, too, not altogether unlikely, that from theu- 

 Aryan origin some remembrances of rural practices may have 

 been by tradition transmitted. But it is not intended to prove 

 that at this time an}i:hing of the nature of location existed ; it is 

 much more probable that custom and the decision of the chief, 

 influenced by the feelings of the majority of his people, would 

 regulate the occupation of the land. The laws and customs 

 were no doubt improved by the Eomans, for the Scottish lease 

 has unquestionably been formed on the Eoman model. The 

 form and tenor of the lease reached the Churchmen — who at 

 this time were the only conveyancers — through the Lower and 

 Middle Empires, and by them again were transmitted into Scot- 

 land. The style and clauses of the Scottish are uniform with 

 the Eoman, and in principle and conception identical. Unfor- 

 tunately, however, no connected historical account has been given 

 by Craig, Stair, or other eminent authority, and thus the Chartu- 

 laries and a collection of laws by Sir John Skene are the main 

 sources from which information relative to the lease can be obtained 



