556 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



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 im- 

 provements required to be made, a lease, though the tenant pay a full rent, becomes an 

 obstacle to the purchase. 



3437. 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 estimated to be worth : an allowance which, in 

 some cases, as on corn-land estates, foi-ms 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. 



3438. 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 pays 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 variable in different 

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

 less liable to local uncertainty, and are consequently less entitled to enquiry from a 

 valuist. 



3439. Fixed payments, or rent charges, such as chief rents, quit rents, annuities, en- 

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

 also 



3440. Repairs of public works, buildings, roads, &c. incumbent on the estate on sale, 

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

 And, moreover, 



3441. The hazard, or risk, 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, of course, 

 a fair deduction. 



3442. Appurtenant to an expensive estate, there are generally other valuable considerations, 

 besides the purchase value of the lands. These are, 



3443. Minerals and fossils, whether metals, fuels, calcareosities, or grosser earths. 



3444. Waters, whether they are valuable for fisheries, decoys, mills, domestic purposes, 

 or the irrigation of lands. 



3445. Timber, of woods and hedgerows. 



3446. 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 belonging 

 to landed property. 



3447. The estimated value of evident improvements. 



3448. The abstract rights which arise out of appropriated lands, or their appurte- 

 nances ; as 



3449. The right of commonage, 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. 



3450. 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: besides the trouble, vexation, private quarrels, and lawsuits 

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

 at the 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 instances, even their origin, and much more the circumstances attending it, are difficult or 

 impossible to trace. But, surely, a man of a liberal turn of mind, who has no interest in legal contests, 

 and who prefers solid gold to a trinket, would not hesitate to collect these scattered wrecks of property,^ 

 and to convert them to a more civilised, rational, and profitable purpose. On the other hand, any man of 

 an independent spirit would pay more than a fair price would pay hberally to be exonerated from so 

 base a burthen. If, however, a vassal's chains sit easy upon him, let him wear them. What is here meant 

 to be intimated is, that he ought to have, in liberality, if not in law, a fair opportunity of throwing 

 them off. 



3451. The rights of feudality, or manorial rights, are at present, if not in their origm, very different 

 from those last mentioned. In the day of their establishment, they appear to have been founded in wisdom 

 and a degree of political necessity ; and, by the correcting hand of time, they arrived at a high degree of 



