Chapter the fifth.
Of the antient ENGLISH TENURES.
IN this chapter we ſhall take a ſhort view of the antient tenures of our Engliſh eſtates, or the manner in which lands, tenements, and hereditaments might have been holden; as the ſame flood in force, till the middle of the laſt century. In which we ſhall eaſily perceive, that all the particularities, all the ſeeming and real hardſhips, that attended thoſe tenures, were to be accounted for upon feodal principles and no other; being fruits of, and deduced from, the feodal policy.
Almost all the real property of this kingdom is by the policy of our laws ſuppoſed to be granted by, dependent upon, and holden of ſome ſuperior lord, by and in conſideration of certain ſervices to be rendered to the lord by the tenant or poſſeſſor of this property. The thing holden is therefore ſtiled a tenement, the poſſeſſors thereof tenants, and the manner of their poſſeſſion a tenure. Thus all the land in the kingdom is ſuppoſed to be holden, mediately or immediately, of the king; who is ſtiled the lord paramount, or above all. Such tenants as held under the king immediately, when they granted out portions of their lands to inferior perſons, became alſo lords with reſpect to thoſe inferior perſons, as they were ſtill tenants with reſpect to the king; and, thus partaking of a middle nature, were called meſne, or middle, lords. So that if the king granted a manor to A, and he granted a portion of the land to B, now B was ſaid to hold
