Punch (7.1844)

PUNCH. OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 41

THE COMIC BLACKSTONE.

PART IT.

CHAPTER THE THIRD—OF TENURES, OR THE MANNER IN WHICH
REAL PROPERTY MAT BE HELD.

ll rea1 property is held—and it is generally pretty
tightly held by those who possess it. This
tenacity of property is such that the thing
holden is called a tenement, the holder a
tenant, and the mode of holding a tenure.
There is another mode of holding, called
holding hard, which is frequently used in
conveyancing—by the cad of the omnibus.

Tenements are of two kinds—frank tene-
ment, or free holding, and villenage, of
which there are different degrees, including
pure -villenage and villein socage. A pure
villain is such a very low sort of villain
that he must do whatever his landlord
commands; but socage villains, or villain
Bocmen, are not such villanous villains, inasmuch a» mere is a limit to
tbeir villany, the services required of them being certain at. 1 definite.

The most honourable species of tenure was knight service, which was
to attend the King in his wars ; but sovereigns in these days instead of
fighting boldly, invariably fight shy, so that knight service or attendance
on the King in his wars is now merely nominal. There is also a tenure
by grand serjeanty, by which the tenant bound himself to do some special
service, such as acting as champion at the coronation ; hut as all improper
characters are scrupulously kept out by the police, the valour of coming
forward in a suit of armour, and offering to fight any body who disputes
the title to the crown, is rather questionable. The champion, however,
pockets the gold cup and a few other valuable coronation " properties," so
that he can afford to throw down a large theatrical gauntlet, which by-the-
by is invariably " smugged" by some subordinate as a perquisite.

Knight service eventually was found so inconvenient that the knights
gave money instead of going to battle, and thus paid themselves off, rather
than run the risk of being paid off by the enemy.

By the 12th of Charles II. all military tenures were destroyed at one
blow, for knights being of no service had long since converted knight
service into a farce of the broadest character.

Socage subsequently became the most general kind of tenure, so that
the tenants, to use the quaint notion of Glanvil, " rushed precipitately
from boots and spurs to simple socks—or socs ; which is, no doubt, the
origin of the word soc-age."

Free socage has several kinds, the chief of which are petit-serjeanty,
or little service, such as giving the King annually an arrow, or a lance ;

it having the privilege of paying no taxes, and of holding a court of
their own to try their own rights to their own—and, perhaps, other
people's—property. The villains, however, can only alienate their land
by surrender, instead of passing it by the usual conveyance ; but a recent
writer has thought it necessary to state in a note, that though the villains
may not pass their land by the usual conveyance, there is no law to
prevent them from going past their own houses in a stage-coach or
omnibus.

In addition to the lay tenures there used to be the spiritual tenure of
frankalmoign, by which religious corporations held lands on condition of
singing masses for the soul of the donor. These masses amassing too
much in the hands of the church, and weak-minded persons, attracted by
the notion of having psalms sung for them, having been let in to a very-
pretty tune, the statute of Quia emplores was passed in the 18th of
Edward I., to prohibit all such donations for the future. Many of the
parochial clergy still hold their lands by this tenure, which accounts for
a congregation being occasionally startled by a demand of their prayers
for some one who would never be thought of either by parson or people,
but for the necessity of observing the conditions by which the Church
retains possession of the deceased's property.

IN MY COTTAGE NEAR A "RAIL.

In my cottage near a "rail,"

Bliss and Betsy now are mine ;
Bliss how very like a whale.

Wedded love beside a " line ! "
Clatter, clatter, horrid row !

Puff and whistle, scream and whizz
Oh ! you can't imagine how

Disagreeable it is.

Vain the sigh, the whisper vain,

Breathed in Passion's fond excess ;
Rattling by, the thund'ring train

Burks the voice of Tenderness.
Oft at eve will Betsy dear

Sit and sing me " Alice Grey "—
But that engine, boiling near,

Always drowns my fav'rite lay.

Ever at the morning's meal,
Or the happy hour of tea,
All our cups and saucers reel,

Often spilling the bohea ;
Floors, and walls, and windows shake,
Just as though the house would fall

but it does not seem that lancing the King's gums once a year would ^47^ ,moreoJer- af e> A „

amount to petit-serjeanty-tenurein burgage, where the tenant lives in a \ Wlth the smoke> and smell> and aU-

borough, so that the S mthwark people afford a specimen of this class,— | j for some sequester'd spot,

and gavelkind, where all the sons take alike, so that when a father gives par from stokers and from steam

his boys a thrashing all round, he in fact only illustrates the good old Where we might enjoy our lot, '

principle of gavelkind. _ | Realising Love's young dream.

We now come to villenage, from which copyhold tenures are derived, Would we had not ta'en a lease-

so that any copyholder is a villain in the eye of the law ; and it is (Foolish pair, ourselves to nail !)—

perhaps on this principle that the printer's boy who carries to and fro or , Soon we'd fly, in quest of peace,

holds the copy, is termed a devil, to show the alarming state of villenage j From our cottage near a " rail."

he has fallen into.

A copyhold must always exist in a manor, which must have a court
attached to it, with a jury consisting of two tenants at least, or the
manor is lost ; so that if manners do not always make the man, it requires
two men to make the manor.

A part of the ground of a manor was called folk-land, or land for the
folks who lived upon it, who were downright slaves to the owner;

Alteration in the Style of Domestic Correspondence.

In consequence of the late disclosures, the custom has become pretty
general—with a view to prevent the whole of a letter from meeting the
and^slhe/were caTledVillains, ^iTprobabi^thatTolk^ne "w^atTone Ministerial eye-of making it evident, in the first sentence, that the

time, a very villanous neighbourhood. When the Normans came over
to this country they did not proceed to kick out the villains, but allowed
them to remain on the land, until at last the villains got a better title to
the land by custom than the lords themselves by conquest ; for the
stewards of the manors merely looking on and taking notes, the villains
referring to the copy on the rolls of the court, declared themselves copy-
holders to all intents and purposes. The essentials of a copyhold are—
1st, that the lands should be part of a manor, and consequently of right
belonging to somebody else ; 2ndly, that they have been demised by copy
of court-roll immemorially, for if any one can remember the transaction
it is bad, because the thing will not bear thinking of.

There is a fine payable on the death of the tenant or alienation of the
lands, and this fine is now in most cases limited by law ; because, says
Glanvil, " when the landlords could lay on as large a fine as they liked,
they made a very fine thing of it." The italics are Glanvil's own, so
that the joke must be given to him, though later writers, including four
of the Chittys, have made a severe struggle to obtain the merit of it.
Ancient demesne is a sort of privileged villenage, the villains who enjoy

writer is aware of its probable fate, and, therefore, unlikely to inclose a
Gunpowder Plot; as thus—"My dear Marianne,—Since Sir James
Graham and 1 last heard from you of Bobby's hooping cough, we have
been naturally anxious for more," &c. Some have even made use of a
domestic communication as a short, though indirect, method of presenting
a petition to the Home Office ; considering, that one so presented is sure
at least of being read; thus—" My dear Fanny,—If, as you say, the
admirable Minister, who at present presides at the Home Office, could
only be made aware of the extreme hardship of my case, I am convinced
that he would, without a moment's hesitation, following the dictates of an
excellent heart," &c, &c, &c. This is an ingenious course, and Punch
means to adopt it.

STATE OF HERNE-BAY.
We much regret to state that it has been found absolutely necessary to
call in an additional body of police for the government of this flourishing
watering-place. Up to the present year there has been only one
policeman ; there are now—two !

Vol. 7.

2—2