4. Common of eſtovers (from eſtoffer, to furniſh) is a liberty of taking neceſſary wood, for the uſe or furniture of a houſe or farm, from off another's eſtate. The Saxon word, bote, is of the ſame ſignification with the French eſtovers; and therefore houſe-bote is a ſufficient allowance of wood, to repair, or to burn in, the houſe; which latter is ſometimes called fire-bote: plough-bote and cart-bote are wood to be employed in making and repairing all inſtruments of huſbandry: and hay-bote or hedge-bote is wood for repairing of hays, hedges, or fences. Theſe botes or eſtovers muſt be reaſonable ones; and ſuch any tenant or leſſee may take off the land let or demiſed to him, without waiting for any leave, aſſignment, or appointment of the leſſor, unleſs he be reſtrained by ſpecial covenant to the contrary[1].
These ſeveral ſpecies of commons do all originally reſult from the ſame neceſſity as common of paſture; viz. for the maintenance and carrying on of huſbandry: common of piſcary being given for the ſuſtenance of the tenant's family; common of turbary and fire-bote for his fuel; and houſe-bote, plough-bote, cart-bote, and hedge-bote, for repairing his houſe, his inſtruments of tillage, and the neceſſary fences of his grounds.
IV. A fourth ſpecies of incorporeal hereditaments is that of ways; or the right of going over another man's ground, I ſpeak not here of the king's highways, which lead from town to town; nor yet of common ways, leading from a village into the fields; but of private ways, in which a particular man may have an intereſt and a right, though another be owner of the ſoil. This may be grounded on a ſpecial permiſſion; as when the owner of the land grants to another a liberty of paſſing over his grounds, to go to church, to market, or the like: in which caſe the gift or grant is particular, and confined to the grantee alone; it dies with the perſon; and, if the grantee leaves the country, he cannot aſſign over his right to any other; nor can he juſtify
- ↑ Co. Litt. 41.
