London HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD pon mona illus men. AND STEVENS AND SONS, LIMITED ΤΟ THE HISTORY OF THE LAW OF REAL PROPERTY WITH ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES BY SKENELM EDWARD DIGBY, M. A. = Permanent Under Secretary of State for the Home Department Late Vinerian Reader in English Law, and formerly Fellow of Corpus Christi College ASSISTED BY WILLIAM MONTAGU HARRISON, M.A. Of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister-at-Law; Vinerian Scholar, and FIFTH EDITION Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS LONDON: HENRY FROWDE, M.A. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, E.C. AND STEVENS & SONS, LIMITED, 119 & 120 CHANCERY LANE M DCCC XCVII PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION My object in undertaking this work was to attempt in some degree to supply a want which at present greatly impedes the study of English law at the Universities. There is no really elementary work on the English law of real property adapted for the use of students who have not and may never have any practical experience in the working of the law. Almost all elementary books have been written from the professional rather than from the educational point • of view; excellent as many of them are as introductions to a practical knowledge of law, they are scarcely available for purposes of legal education at an University. Blackstone's treatise stands almost alone in adequately satisfying both demands. It has been the fashion of late to dwell on the defects rather than on the merits of that great work, and there are obvious reasons why it fails to satisfy the requirements of the present time. Nevertheless Blackstone still remains unrivalled as an expositor of the law of his day. Throughout the following pages his work is referred to as at once the most available, and the most trustworthy authority of the law of the eighteenth century. In considering the mode in which the elementary principles of the important branch of English law, which is the subject of this treatise, can best be dealt with, there can be little question that it is necessary to begin by sketching the history |