FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. 15 



loose bargaiiivS often entered into Ijy the unwary. Writing — 

 altliough the lease may be deficient in other requisites — makes it 

 good against the granter and his heirs, even for perpetuity. 

 Similarly a lease for an elusory rent, for services, or in payment 

 of a debt, afiects the heirs of the granter, but not so with a 

 singular successor. Letters accepting a written offer have been 

 held to constitute a valid lease ; but the ^vlitten offer must state 

 rent and ish, be followed by outlay on the part of the offerer, 

 and no new stij)ulation can afterwards be introduced. 



Lands alone are referred to in tlie statute ; but mills, minerals, 

 and fisliings can also be leased ; while game, services, dues, tolls, 

 ferries, and tlie mansion-house and grounds of entailed estates 

 are not considered leasable, so as to affect a singular successor. 



Possession is that known as natural — either l)y the tenant or 

 his servant, for his behoof. Possession is viewed as " the life of 

 a tack," and " the sole evidence by which purchasers and 

 creditors can determine the lessee's right." Without possession, 

 the right is only personal, and does not affect a purchaser or 

 singular successor. 



In olden times leases were of every conceivable duration, — 

 sometunes a lifetime, and sometimes with even two "nineteens " in 

 addition ; but in modern times fifteen and nineteen are the most 

 common terms. In England yearly tenancy is most common,— 

 seven, fourteen, and twenty-one years leases being known. The 

 lease, however, to be effectual, must have a definite ish or ter- 

 mination. For perpetuity is not, while a lease for 1000 years, 

 and thus having a definite ish, is good against a singular suc- 

 cessor. A lease without ish is good for one year only. 



The existence of a rent is necessary to secure a lessee against 

 a purchaser or singular successor ; and although low, must not 

 be elusory. It is presumed in law that on an entailed estate, or 

 one administered by trustees, the new rent must, if possible, 

 exceed the old one. Pent may consist of money, services, or 

 produce, or a combination of them. A grassum is valid against 

 a purchaser or singular successor if the lessor has not exceeded 

 his powers. But in the present state of legal presumption and 

 practice, grassum is not considered good administration by an 

 heir of entail ; and if questioned, the lease would most likely 

 be reduced. Eental rights — formerly granted to those either 

 real or supposed descendants of the original possessors — are a 

 species of lease altogether defunct and of no public interest. 



Uocamples of Old Leases. — Attic Lease, 345 B.C. — (Translated.) 



The demos of .^xone let on lease the Phalais to Autocles the 

 son of Anteas, and to Anteas, the son of Autocles, for forty 

 years for 152 drachmas (each drachma =: 7|d.. of our money) 

 a year, the said land to be farmed by them or planted with trees 



