termined and reſulted back to the lord or proprietor, to be again diſpoſed of at his pleaſure. And hence the uſual incidents to reverſions are ſaid to be fealty and rent. When no rent is reſerved on the particular eſtate, fealty however reſults of courſe, as an incident quite inſeparable, and may be demanded as a badge of tenure, or acknowlegement of ſuperiority; being frequently the only evidence that the lands are holden at all. Where rent is reſerved, it is alſo incident, though not inſeparably ſo, to the reverſion[1]. The rent may be granted away, reſerving the reverſion; and the reverſion may be granted away, reſerving the rent; by ſpecial words: but by a general grant of the reverſion, the rent will paſs with it, as incident thereunto; though by the grant of the rent generally, the reverſion will not paſs. The incident paſſes by the grant of the principal, but not e converſo: for the maxim of law is, "acceſſorium non ducit, ſed ſequitur, ſuum principale[2]."
These incidental rights of the reverſioner, and the reſpective modes of deſcent, in which remainders very frequently differ from reverſions, have occaſioned the law to be careful in diſtinguiſhing the one from the other, however inaccurately the parties themſelves may deſcribe them. For if one, ſeiſed of a paternal eſtate in fee, makes a leaſe for life, with remainder to himſelf and his heirs, this is properly a mere reverſion[3], to which rent and fealty ſhall be incident; and which ſhall only deſcend to the heirs of his father's blood, and not to his heirs general, as a remainder limited to him by a third perſon would have done[4]: for it is the old eſtate, which was originally in him, and never yet was out of him. And ſo likewiſe, if a man grants a leaſe for life to A, reſerving rent, with reverſion to B and his heirs, B hath a remainder deſcendible to his heirs general, and not a reverſion to which the rent is incident; but the grantor ſhall be intitled to the rent, during the continuance of A's eſtate[5].
