LEAVES FROM AN ENGLISH SOLICITOR'S NOTE BOOK. IX. THE LADY OF THE MAN'OR. BY BAXTER BORRET. (Registered at Ottawa in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act.)
KADERS of The Green Bag will prob-Tv ably have read in English text-books on real property something about the curious old feudal tenure of copyhold; but no one who has not had personal experience of hold ing manorial courts, and searching the an cient rolls of manors, can appreciate what a store of interesting information is to be gathered in the process. For in manors whose records are properly kept, ancient fam ily pedigrees, and the changes of ownership of distinct parcels of land can be traced back for centuries; and many a strange glimpse is afforded of local customs in the towns and counties of England. In theory a well kept manorial roll should provide the two great desiderata of real property law reformers, a register of land and of title in one. But the rapacity for fees shown by stewards who have the custody of the rolls, and through whom alone devolutions of property, and changes of ownership can be transacted and recorded, and the diversity of customs of manors as to fines and heriots, and free bench (which cor responds to widows' dower) all have com bined to make tenants desirous of enfranchis ing their holdings, so that copyhold tenure is slowly but surely dying out. In every point of view it is an anachronism in the present day, and, no doubt, another generation will see the complete abolition of this very inter esting old tenure. Part of the duty of the steward of a manor, who is usually a solicitor, is to hold period ical courts, at which heirs and devisees, and purchasers of copyhold parcels are admitted by livery of seizin after surrender to the steward as representative of the lord or lady
of the manor. At these courts a homage, or jury of copyholders, is sworn and they find facts, such as the death of a tenant, and the heirship of his customary heir, or the right of a widow to her free bench, all of which findings are duly recorded by the steward in his minutes of the court, and subsequently entered by him on the rolls of the manor. The court usually concludes with a dinner given by the lord or lady to the tenants, at which the steward presides. And here the fun, which has by no means been lacking during the holding of the court, really begins in earnest. Here are to be seen in all their glory the bailiff, the pound-keeper, the aletaster, the crier, and other office-holders of the court, as also the small tenant-farmer, the oldest inhabitant, the youngest country yokel, and, as the feast closes, all ingloriously drunk. Here the student of ancient folk lore, of county history, of local minstrelsy, can revel at pleasure, and pick up scraps for future development into county history. I well remember being asked by my old chief, to whom I served my articles in Lin coln Inn, to accompany him one day into Berkshire, to assist him in holding a court, and entering up the minutes of the findings of the homage. The holding of this court had been rendered necessary, if I remember rightly, by the death of the lord, who had by will devised the manor to his widow; and, according to the custom of that particular manor, a fine had become payable by every tenant in respect of each parcel of his hold ing, as an acknowledgment of fealty to the lady. I must not, even after the lapse of so many years, write a word which would betray
