LEA 
LEA 
417 
I will fing what I did Icare 
Long ago in Janiveere. W. Brown. 
To teach : 
Becaufe I did thee leare 
A lore repugnant to thy parents’ faith. Fairfax. 
LE'ARMOUTH, Northumberland, 328 miles from 
London, on the bank of the Tweed, in the barony of 
Wark. It was a handfome town, and once had a market; 
but is now reduced to a tingle farm-houfe. 
To LEARN, v.a. [leopnian. Sax.] To gain the know¬ 
ledge or (kill of.—He, in a (horter time than was thought 
pollible, learntd both to fpeak and write the Arabian 
tongue. Knolles. 
Learn, wretches; learn, the motions of the mind, 
And the great moral end of human-kind. Dryden. 
To teach. It is obfervable, that in many of the Euro¬ 
pean languages the fame word dignifies to learn and to 
teach ; to gain or impart knowledge : but this fenfe is now 
obfolete in Englith, and reckoned a vulgarifm. 
A thoufand more mifchances than this one, 
Have learn'd me how to brook this patiently. Shakefpeare. 
Haft thou not learn'd me how 
To make perfumes ? Shakefpeare's Cymbeline. 
To LEARN, v. n. To take pattern ; with of.—Take 
my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and 
lowly. Matth. xi. 29. 
LEAR'NED, adj. Verfed in fcience and literature.— 
The heft account is given of them by their own authors: 
but I truft more to the table of the learned bifliop of Bath. 
Arbuthnot on Coins. —Skilled; tkilful; knowing: with in: 
Though train’d in arms, and learn'd in martial arts. 
Thou chufeft, not to conquer men, but hearts. Glanville. 
Skilled in lcholaftic, as diftind from other, knowledge.— 
Till a man can judge whether they be truths or no, his 
underftanding is but little improved ; and thus men of 
much reading are greatly learned, but may be little know¬ 
ing. Locke. 
LEAR'NEDISH, adj. As if learned : 
And feern more learnedifh than thofe. 
That at a greater charge compote. Butler's Remains. 
LEAR'NEDLY, adv. With knowledge ; with (kill.— 
The apoftle feemed in his eyes but learnedly mad. Hooker. 
He fpoke, and learnedly, for life ; but all 
Was either pitied in him, or forgotten. Shakefpeare. 
LEAR'NER,y. One who is yet in his rudiments ; one 
who is acquiring fome new art or knowledge.—The late 
learners cannot to well take the ply, except it be in fome 
minds that have not fuffered themfelves to fix. Bacon. 
LEAR'NING,/. Literature; (kill in languages or fei- 
ences ; generally fcholaftic knowledge.— Learning hath its 
infancy, when it is almoft childifh ; then its youth, when 
luxuriant and juvenile; then its ftrength of years, when 
folid 5 and, laftly, its old age, when dry and exhauft. Bacon. 
To tongue or pudding thou haft no pretence: 
Learning thy talent is, but mine is fenfe. Prior. 
Skill in any thing, good or bad.—An art of contradiction 
by way of (corn, a learning wherewith we were long 
fithence forwarned, that the miferable times whereunto 
we are fallen lliould abound. Hooker. 
LE'ASBURG, a town of America, being the capital 
of Cafwell county, in North Carolina; containing acourt- 
houfe, gaol, and a few houfes. 
LEASE, f. [laiffer, Fr. Spelmanf A contract by which, 
in confideration of fome payment, a temporary potreftion 
is granted of houfes or lands.—I have heard a man talk 
with contempt of biftiops’ hafts , as on a worfe foot than 
the reft of his eftate. Swift. 
Lords of the world have but for life their leafe-. 
And that too, if the lelTor pleafe, mult cesfe. Denham. 
vat. xil No. *40. 
Any tenure : 
Thou, to give the world increafe, 
Short’ned haft thy own life’s leafe. Milton. 
A leafe is properly a conveyance of any lands or tene¬ 
ments, ufually in confideration of rent, or other annual 
recompence, made for life, for years, or at will; but al¬ 
ways for a lefs time than the leftor hath in the premifes ; 
for, if it be for the whole intereft, it is more properly an 
affignment than a leafe. He that letteth is called the leffor, 
and he to whom the lands, &c. are let, is called the lejfee. 
A leafe for years is thus defined : A contract between 
leffor and leflee for the poffeffion and profit of lands, &c. 
on the one fide, and a recompence for rent or other in¬ 
come on the other. Bac. Abr. title Leafes. This word is 
alfo fometimes, though improperly, applied to the eftate, 
i. e. the title, time, or intereft, the leffee hath in the thing 
demifed ; and then it is rather referred to the thing taken 
or had, and the intereft of the taker therein ; but it is 
more accurately applied rather to the manner or means of 
attaining or coming to the thing letten. 
The ufual words of operation in a leafe are,. “ Demife, 
grant, and to farm let.” Farm, or fcorme, is an old Saxon 
word lignifying provifions. And it came to be ufed in- 
ftead of rent, or render, becaufe anciently the greater part 
of rents were referved in provifions; in corn, in poultry, 
and the like ; till the ufeof money became more frequent; 
to that a farmer , firmarius, was one who held his lands 
upon payment of a rent, o rfeorme ; though at prelent, by' 
a gradual departure from the original fenfe, the word farm. 
is brought to fignify the very eftate or lands fo held upon 
farm or rent. By this conveyance, an eftate for life, for 
years, or at will, may be created either in corporeal or in¬ 
corporeal hereditaments ; though livery of feifin is indeed 
incident and neceffary to one fpecies of leafes, viz. leafes 
for life of corporeal hereditaments, but to no other. 
A leafe may be made either in writing or by word of 
mouth ; but moll frequently by writing, called a leafe by 
indenture ; when by word of mouth, without any writing, 
it is called a leafc-parol. Sheph. Touchjl. c. 14. But, by the 
ftatute of frauds, leafes of lands mult be in writing, and 
figned by the parties themfelves, or their agents duly au¬ 
thorized, otherwife they w ill operate only as leafes at will; 
except leafes not exceeding three years. 29 Car. II. c. 14. 
A parol agreement to leafe lands for four years creates 
only a tenancy at will. 4 Term Rep. 680. But fee 8 Term- 
Rep. 3, that a leafe by parol enures as a tenancy from 
year to year; the meaning of the ftatute of frauds being 
that fuch an agreement fliould not operate as a term. 
A leafe may be made by all the ways above mentioned, 
either for life, for years, or at will. For life ; as for life 
of the leflee, or another, or both. For years, i. e. for a 
certain number of years, as 10, 100, 1000, or 10,000 years, 
months, weeks, or days, as the ieft’or and leflee do agree. 
And then the eftate is properly called a term for years ; 
for the word term doth not only fignify the limits and li¬ 
mitation of time, but alfo the eftate and intereft that doth 
pals for that time. Leafes for years do fome of them 
commence in prafenti, and fome in futuro at a day to come ; 
and the leafe that is to begin in futuro is called an intereffe 
termini, or future intereft. At will-, i. e. when a. leafe is 
made of land to be held at the will and pleafure of the 
leffor and leflee together; and fuch a leafe may be made 
by word of moutb, as well as the former. Sheph. Touchjl, 
c. 14. 
It the leafe be but for half a year, or a quarter, or sny 
lefs time, this leflee is refpeCted as a tenant for years, and 
is llylsd lo in fome legal proceedings; a year being the 
fliorteft term which the law in this cafe takes notice of. 
Lit. § 58. 
Tliefe eftates for years were originally granted to mere 
farmers or huibandmen, who every year rendered fome 
equivalent in money, provifions, or other rent, to the left- 
fors or landlords ; but, in order to encourage them to ma¬ 
nure and cultivate the ground, they had a permanent in.- 
5 O * tereft 
