Some Singular Tenures.
SOME SINGULAR IN the "Green Bag" for October, 1890, an interesting article was published on "Strange Tenures," in which many quaint examples of old-time tenures were given. The list was, however, by no means ex hausted, and a few additions may prove acceptable to those who found enjoyment in reading the article referred to. The first thing that strikes the searcher through the title-deeds of yore is the con trast presented by their concise and often times jocular wording to the tortuous phrase ology affected by latter-day lawyers. Thus John of Gaunt gave, in a grant extending to only twenty-six words, a Bedfordshire property to one " Roger Burgoyne and the heirs of his loin" to hold "until the world's rotten; " and at Stoneycroft, in the vicinity of Liverpool, lands have been tenanted for ages by a London corporation, their lease being made out to stand good " as long as grass doth grow and water does flow." Tenants under the Crown were divided into two classes, — those who held by Grand and Petit Serjeanty, ' respectively. The former consisted of personal services to the sovereign, such as carrying his standard, lending his army, or other knightly duties requiring attendance at stated times at court or elsewhere. Tenure by Petit Serjeanty or in Escuage was the yearly rendering of a bow, an arrow, a dagger, or any other specified article appertaining to war. Lands let in Escuage were those in respect of which the occupiers had to pay a reserved rent of pro visions, articles of apparel, etc., or to do harvest work, undertake the care of cattle, hounds, or hawks, or perform other more or less menial services. Royal demesne lands in various parts of (he country furnished all manner of neces saries to the king's household. Under Kdward the Confessor, Brill, in Bucks, sup plied one hundred capons yearly to the monarch's table, and lands in Surrey and
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Sussex were at the same time held under similar conditions. In many cases these reservations were of but little importance, the stipulated supplies being but seldom called for, having only to be rendered when the king passed the estate in question in travelling through the country. In Aylesbury an estate was held on con dition of paying three eels to the king whenever he went through the town in winter, and two green geese if the visit occurred in summer. Henry I. of. lampreyloving celebrity, and several of his successors exacted from the citizens of Gloucester a huge raised lamprey pie every Christmas. The Manor of Cresswell, Berks, was held during the reign of Edward I. by the serjeanty of carrying bottles of wine for the king's breakfast. A Cornish family at Helston held a farm in return for the enjoy ment of finding a boat and nets for fishing in the lake adjacent whenever the king chose to visit that corner of his domain for the "disport of angling." The Marmions of Scrivelsby are hereditary royal champions by right of their Lincolnshire holding. The tenant for the time being has, since William the Conqueror's time, stepped forth at the coronation of the kings and queens of England to fight in single combat any person who should presume to gainsay the sovereign's right to rule. At Bares, in Essex, a person held an estate on the singular condition that he should scald the hogs of his royal landlord when called upon to do so; and the wealthy family of the Greens, of Greensnorton, North ampton, held their estate on condition that the head of the household extended his right hand toward the king on Christmas Day. In 1348 land at Bermeton, Durham, was held by the service of three grains of pepper yearly. Fifty years later, Sir William Marche died, seized of eighty acres in Finchley and Hendon, Middlesex, for which he had
