Book I. VALUATION OF LANDED PROPERTY. 499 



whole into a suitable state of occupation. And the same principle of valuation holds good in ordinary 

 purchases. 



3192. Deductions, encumbrances, and outgoings are leases, tithes, taxes, fixed pay- 

 ments, repairs, and risks. 



3193. Leases. In considering the nature of leasehold tenures, it appears that, by a 

 long lease, the fee-simple value of an estate may be, in effect, annihilated. Even a lease 

 for lives, with a mere conventional rent, may reduce it to nearly one third of its fee- 

 simple value. And every other kind of lease, if the rent payable be not equal to the 

 fair rental value at the time of sale, is an encumbrance ; even to a purchaser who has no 

 other object in view than that of securing his property on land, and receiving interest, 

 in rent, for the money laid out. If personal convenience be immediately wanted, or 

 improvements required to be done, a lease, though the tenant pay a full rent, becomes 

 an obstacle to the purchase. 



31 94. Tithes. If in valuing lands they are considered as tithe free, the tithe, or modus, 

 if any, requires to be deducted as an encumbrance ; and seeing the great variation in the 

 values of tithes and moduses, according to customs and plans of occupation, it is the 

 plainest way of proceeding to value all lands, as free of tithe, and afterward to make 

 an allowance for whatever they may be estim%ited to be worth : an allowance wliich, in 

 some cases, as on corn-land estates, forms a considerable portion of the fee-simple value 

 of the lands ; while on grass-land estates, especially such as are pastured by cattle, this 

 encumbrance, so galling to the corn-grower, is in great part avoided. 



3195. Taxes. Although it may be called the custom of England for proprietors to 

 pay the land tax, and the occupier all other taxes, yet this is not the universal practice. 

 Nor is it, in valuing an estate on sale, and to be let at will, a matter to be enquired 

 into. The annual amount of the payable taxes and other outgoings is the fact to be 

 ascertained. For whosoever discharges them, they come as a burthen upon the gross 

 value of the lands, out of which they are payable ; for if a tenant pay them, his rent 

 is, or ought to be, estimated and fixed accordingly. If, however, an estate, on sale, is 

 already let under lease for a term to come, it is highly requisite to ascertain what parts 

 of the annual outgoings and repairs are discharged by the tenants, and what the pro- 

 prietor will be liable to, during the term to run. The land tax, where it still exists, is 

 extremely uncertain as to its value, and the poor tax is equally varying in different 

 situations. The church, highways, and county rates are, taking them on a par of years, 

 less liable to local uncertainty, and are consequently less entitled to enquiry, by a valuist. 



3196. Fixed pai/ments, or rent charges, such as chief rents, quit rents, annuities, 

 endowments, schoolmasters' salaries, charitable donations, &c. to which an estate is liable ; 

 also 



3197. Repairs of public works, buildings, roads, &c. incumbent on the estate on sale, 

 are subjects of inquiry and estimation ; as well as the ordinary repairs above noticed. 

 And moreover, 



3198. The hazard or risky which naturally, or fortuitously, attends the lands under 

 valuation ; as that of their being liable to be inundated in summer, or to be torn away 

 by floods, at any season ; is entitled to mature consideration. For although these evils 

 may generally be remedied, by river breaks and embankments, the erecting of these is 

 mostly attended with great expense; and the estimated value of this becomes, in course, 

 a fair deduction. 



3199. Appurtenant to an expensive estate, there are generally other valuable consider- 

 ations, besides the purchase value of the lands. These are, 



3200. Minerals and fossils, whether metals, fuels, calcareosities, or grosser earths. 



3201. Waters, whether they are valuable for fisheries, decoys, mills, domestic pur- 

 poses, or the irrigation of lands. 



3202. Timber, of woods and hedgerows. 



3203. Buildings that are not let with the farms ; but which bear rent, independent of 

 the lands ; yet which, when scattered over an estate, may well be considered as belong- 

 ing to landed property. 



3204. The estimated vnlue of evident improvements. 



3205. The abstract rights which arise out of appropriated lands, or their appur- 

 tenances ; as 



3206. The right of co7nmonnge, which is generally of some value, even when commons lie open, and 

 may be of more, when they shall be enclosed ; provided the cost of enclosure do not turn out to be more 

 than the extra value of the appropriated lands, above that of the common right in their open state. 



3207. The right of seigniority to fee-farm rents, or other chief rents, payable to the possessor of the 

 lands on sale, out "of the lands of other proprietors. These rents, though small, are of certain value in 

 themselves; and the idea of superiority which they convey to some men's minds, may be worth more 

 than the pecuniary value; which, indeed, where the sums are very small, (as is often the case) is much 

 lowered by the expense of collecting them : beside the trouble, vexation, private quarrels, and lawsuits 

 they are Hableto excite, when, through neglect, they are half forgotten, and the vassal is willing to catch 

 at !he circumstance, to try to get rid of the teazing and humiliating encumbrance. This, however,, may 

 serve to account for their having been handed down with reverential care, through a succession of ages ; 

 until, in many i/utaoces, even their origin, and much more the circumstances attending it, are difficult or 



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