A Digest of the Law of Uses and Profits of Land

LONDON:

PRINTED BY C. F. ROWORTH, GREAT NEW STREET, FETTER LANE, E.C.

PREFACE.

THE present work forms the third Part of a Digest of the Law of Property in Land, of which the two preceding Parts have been already published in a separate volume. In the Introduction to that volume the plan of the whole work, and the position in it of the present Part, was fully explained. It is therefore sufficient here to repeat that, according to the arrangement there proposed, Part I. treats of the Sources of the law of property in land; Part II. treats of the various Estates and Limitations of interest in land; Part III., contained in the present volume, treats of the beneficial Uses and Profits of which land is legally capable, and the appropriation of them to the various estates and interests which may be held in land; Part IV. is intended to treat of the Transfer of Property in land in all its branches; and the concluding Part V. is intended to explain the modifications of all the preceding law required by reason of the various conditions and capacities of Persons.

The first Part of the present volume, under the title of "Uses and Profits of Land," contains the law relating to land in general, as regards the terms of description, the identification and the boundaries of property; and the general doctrines of the possessory rights and liabilities of tenants of limited estates, with special reference to the law of Waste and Repair. It then gives the application of the law to the specific products of land, namely, Timber, Crops, Minerals, Game; also to things connected with land, namely, Houses and Buildings,

Fixtures, Title Deeds, and Heirlooms. It then gives separately the law relating to Waters, namely, Inland waters, standing and flowing; the Sea and Tidal waters; the Sea shore; and Fisheries.-The second Part, under the title of "Uses and Profits in Land of Another," contains the law of Easements, in general and in detailed application to Ways, Lights, Water, Support, and Fences; including the general law of Prescription. It treats separately the law of Profits à prendre, in application to Commons, Mining, and other profitable rights; and the law of Rents, Annuities, and the Tithe Rentcharge, with their attendant remedies, including the law of Distress.-There is added, lastly, under the title of Public Uses of land, the law of Highways and Bridges, and of Local Customary uses of land.

The several matters above specified are, for the most part, to be found treated in separate works, with fuller explanation and illustration than is here given. But it is conceived that some advantage may be offered, both to the student and to the practitioner, by treating them collectively, in due relation to one another and to the rest of the law of real property; and in this view it is hoped that the present volume will be found a useful compendium of kindred matters, which have not hitherto been presented in a collected form.

Mr. Robert Marshall Middleton, of the Inner Temple and the South-Eastern Circuit, has assisted in carrying this volume through the press, by carefully revising the proof sheets, examining and verifying the authorities, and compiling the copious index; services which have greatly improved the work in accuracy and usefulness; and which the author desires here thankfully to acknowledge.

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