552 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



3395. Copyhold. If they are held of a superior, as part of a royalty, honour, or manor, 

 and are liable to fines, or other outgoings, on account of deaths, transfers, or other cir- 

 cumstances, they are copyhold ; and are also subject to the ancient customs of the royalty, 

 honour, or manor, of which they are respectively a part. 



3396. Leasehold. If they are held by special agreement for a definite term, whether 

 of lives or years, they are leasehold ; which admits of various distinctions ; namely. 



Long leasehold, as for a thousand years. 



Life leasehold, with a fine certain, or under certain limitations, on renewal. 



Life leasehold, with an uncertain fine, payable to a proprietor or other superior, who has merely 

 reserved a conventional rent ; the tenant having paid down a sum of money to obtain the lease and the 

 right of alienation, agreeably to the practice of the west of England. 



Life leasehold, with an uncertain tine, payable to a proprietor, who receives the full rent of the land, 

 at the time of granting the lease; the lessor having a power of alienation, according to the practice of 

 Wales and some parts of England. 



Leasehold for an ordinary term (as for less than a hundred years), with the power of alienation. 



3397. Tenure is the general term for these several holds, or rights of possession. Even 

 the lowest of them gives a sort of temporary property in the land, which is thereby 

 rendered liable to bargain and sale as property. That species of holding which is given 

 by a lease, \vithout the power of alienation or transfer, being merely the right of occupancy, 

 will be classed among other holdings of a similar nature, in treating of leases and tenancy. 

 (See Book II.) 



3398. Legal possession of landed property is gained, by grant, as from the crown ; by 

 prescription, or long usage ; by descent, as from an ancestor ; by deed of gift, or settlement ; 

 by the testament of the deceased o\\Tier ; hy forfeiture, as to a mortgagee ; hy purchase, 

 either entered on a court roll, or ratified by a deed of conveyance. 



3399. The title. Through whatever legal channel possession is obtained, the tradition, 

 record, or deed, that witnesses the fact, gives the title of the possessor ; by which he is 

 enabled to hold his lands, and legally to convey them to another. Such is the tenure of 

 lands in England. 



Sect. II. The Kinds and Temires of Landed Property in Scotland. 



3400. The kinds of landed property in Scotland are the same as in England, except that 

 manorial rights apart from the right to the soil are unknown. 



3401. The tenure of lands in Scotland differs very little from the English tenures. 

 All lands are either held allodiaUy, tliat is, independently of any superior ; or they are held 

 by feudal tenures, by which all lands are considered theoretically as belonging to the 

 crown. The different descriptions of these are termed feu-holding, blanch-holding, 

 burgage, and mortmain. There are also some local tenures, as that of Udal, Loch- 

 maben, &c. 



3402. Feu-holding. The most ancient feudal tenure in Scotland was by military 

 service ; for all vassals were at first obliged, by the nature of their grant, to serve the 

 superior in war, in such manner, and as often, as his occasions called for it. This species 

 of holding, which was known under the name of ivard-holding, is now abolished (by 

 20 Geo. 3. c. 50.), and requires no farther explanation. 



3403. Blanch-holding. Where the vassal, in place of feu-duties and personal services 

 as above described, only pays a small duty to the superior, in full of all demands, and 

 merely as an acknowledgment of his right, whether in money, as a penny Scotch, or in 

 some other article, as a pair of gilt spurs, a pound of wax, &c., it is called blanch-holding. 

 This tenure deviates, more than any other, from the original nature of feus ; but next 

 to feu, it has now become the most general species of holding. The payments are entirely 

 illusory, being never demanded. 



3404. Burgage-holding is a tenure by which royal burghs hold of the sovereign the 

 houses and lands that lie within the limits described in their several charters of erection. 

 The proprietor of the burgage lands is liable to pay the municipal taxes ; but all the 

 political rights are vested in the magistracy, or town-council of the burgh. It is very 

 limited in its extent. 



3405. Mortmain is described by Erskine as the tenure by which any feudal subjects 

 are held, which have been granted in donation to churches, monasteries, or other cor- 

 porations, for religious, charitable, or public uses. Strictly speaking, the only lands now 

 held in mortmain, are a few bursaries belonging to the universities, the tenure having 

 been declared superstitious, and the other lands held by it given to the crown. Lands 

 now destined for charitable purposes are vested in trustees, and held by feu or blanch. 



Sect. III. The Kinds and Tenures of Landed Property in Ireland. 



3406. The kinds of landed property in Ireland are limited to freehold and leasehold ; 

 there are no manorial rights apart from the soil as in England, nor feudal rights or hold- 

 ings as in Scotland. 



3407. The tenure of lands in Ireland is very simple. It is in general derived from 

 grants made by the crown on the payment of a certain quit-rent received by the excise 



