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ON SOME FORMS OF LAND TENURE AND THE HISTORICAL 

 ILLUSTRATIONS AFFORDED BY THEM. 



By the late Sie JOHN MACLEAN, Kt., F.S.A., F.R.S.A., &c. 

 V.P. and Past President, Royal Institution of Cornwall. 



Feoda, Feuds, Fiefs, or Fees are of great antiquity. Their 

 origin is involved in obscurity, and has been a subject of much 

 speculation and contention. They formed an element of the 

 Feudal system, which prevailed in its most complete and dis- 

 tinctive form among the Teutonic tribes, and was, probably 

 introduced by them into Europe from their native northern 

 forests. Under the G-erman organization every free man was 

 the possessor of land. He had assigned to him an Alod or ESel 

 which he held absolutely, and having no superior lord, rendered 

 no service except in acting conjointly with his fellow freemen in 

 defence of their common possessions, rights, and privileges. He 

 was, however, free from the burdens incidental to the holding 

 of a Fief. An alod differed from a Fee in this respect : the 

 latter was merely a loan or benefice, and the person to whom it 

 was granted did not become its owner, but only its tenant, 

 or holder, subject to the performance of certain services to 

 the grantor. In case of default in the execution of these con- 

 ditions, or upon the expiration of the term for which the grant 

 was made, — and the estate was never more than a life interest, 

 — the land reverted to the original owner. 



There is now no such thing as an alod in this country. The 

 greatest estate is an estate in Fee-simple, and this is based upon 

 the feudal principle. If a man possessing an estate in fee dies 

 without heirs, and without bequeathing it by will, it escheats 

 or falls back to the lord, and if there be no intermediate lord, 

 to the king. 



Some writers have attempted to trace the principles of 

 Fees to a much earlier date than the overthrow by the Germanic 

 tribes of the Roman Empire, and fancy they see a close analogy 

 between the relations of a lord and his vassals under the feudal 



