Punch (7.1844)

H)4

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

asses has prevented the thousand horse-power from being made available.
Site has no paddle-boxes, and, if she had, they would be of no use to her ;
for the only way to get her out to sea, is to pull down all the docks or
half the city. There are three boilers, so that she might take in all the
washing of Bristol, and six masts, upon which the clothes might be dried
with the utmost facility.

Continuing our course we come to the celebrated rock of St. Vincent,
where the naturalist picks up Bristol stones and the mere natural drinks
the hot water. The Clifton Waters contain a quantity of gas, and this
accounts for the invalid occasionally flaring up under their influence.
The terms are 2d. a glass payable in advance, or so much a pint if taken

chapter the ninth.—of estates in severalty, joint tenancy,.
remainder, and common.

Of the four ways of holding an estate described in the title of this
chapter, the first is decidedly the best, because the holder of an estate in
severalty has it all to himself ; like the Member of Parliament who got up
to address the House, which made every one run out of it.
by the quarter. The water is bottled and sent abroad, which is about as j An estate in joint tenancy is where two or more persons have one and

THE COMIC BLACKSTONE.

good a joke as selling the Serpentine at so much a dozen, or getting rid of j the same interest, by the same conveyance, at the same time, and held by
the Thames at 2d. the tumbler. On the 1st of November, 1755, the water '
became suddenly red, and nobody could tell why. Our own opinion is,
that the fluid had a qualm of conscience for the qualms of another kind
if had occasioned, and was bleeding for the price that had been paid for it.
Going from the Hot-wells there is a beautiful walk called the Ziar-zas to

the same possession. First, they must have one interest ; though, if they
quarrel, they will probably have had a dilemma, which the wisdom of the
law does not guard against. It must come to them by one convey-
ance ; but whether that " one conveyance" shall be the Parcels' Delivery
Company, or the railroad, does not appear to signify. Joint tenants must
Ciifton Downs. Nature has made it worthy of the pencil, but cupidity is have one and the same title: but semble, that a nobleman would not
fast dooming it to the pickaxe. At every turn of the romantic pass we i refuse an estate in joint tenancy with the Lord Mayor, whose title

meet a most unromantic notice that " Stone may be cut at so much per
ton." The authorities are selling their splendid scenery at about two-pence
a hundred-weight. The beauties of nature are being rapidly carted away
to icpair the roads, and ravines are being knocked down without reserve
to the first bidder.

On the rock of St. Vincent is the Giant's Hole, which is about four feet
in height, so that the giant must either have been a very moderate-
sized phenomenon, or he must have been completely doubled up when he
occupied the hole that tradition has assigned to him. It is supposed that
the two sides of the rock were once united and were rent asunder by a
convulsion of Nature. Perhaps Nature was cutting her teeth at the time,

cannot be one and the same with that of the peer, who would nevertheless
" take," as the legal phrase characteristically expresses it. There must
also be unity of time to constitute a joint tenancy ; but it does not appear
that a mere difference in their watches would defeat the estate, nor would
one of them being in London, and the other at Bath, where there is a varia-
tion of some minutes in the clocks, prevent them from having an estate in
joint tenancy. If this rule as to time were very stringent, the property
in the parish of St. Clement's would be placed, by the irregular conduct of
its very eccentric horloge, in constant jeopardy. The joint tenants must
have one and the same possession ; or, as the law term has it, they must
be all seised at once—for the law is so very fond of " seizing," that it ap-

and if so, convulsions might have been expected. Nature is sometimes ; plies the term to the acquisition of property, and it is certainly a word
subject to fits and starts—but Mr. Vick offered "a soothing syrup " in I that expresses pretty accurately the law's own mode of acquisition,
the shape of a legacy to erect a bridge to unite the two sides of the rock, Out of joint tenancy arises the doctrine of survivorship, by which the
and thus heal the effect of Nature's convulsion. This suspension bridge | longest liver is entitled to the whole estate; but if they both die at the
is a sort of rival to the one at Hungerford, with the exception that j same moment—by shipwreck, for instance—we should like to know which
lluugerford has a man and a boy at work, while Clifton Suspension-Bridge of their two heirs would take the property. It is probable, that if the ocean
employs only an old woman. This lady takes care of the clothes-basket ! swallowed up the joint tenants, the estate itself would be gulped down
(vhich is slung on the rope, and affords the only means of transit. by the tempestuous sea of Chancery, it is an important question, how a

In speaking of the Suspension-Bridge we must not pass over the ferry, I joint tenancy may be severed or destroyed, for joint tenants may wish to
and nobody who has passed over it once will be in a hurry to do so a j part, and one may make the other very disagreeable. For instance,
second time. The ferry is church property, and the craft is the most j suppose two people are joint tenants in a house, and they both want to
horrible specimen of priestcraft that can possibly be imagined. The ferry- j live in it. As it belongs equally to both, neither could prevent the other ;
boat is a sort of coal barge cut down nearly to the water's edge, but there j and if both wanted to occupy the best room, or both insisted on putting

are no divisions in it, and consequently a horse and cart occasionally trot
in amongst a crowd of passengers. The crew of the ferry-boat cousists
sometimes of one man and sometimes of nobody, for when the tide is low,

up their feet on the bars of the same fireplace, endless litigation would be
the consequence.

The law, foreseeing this sort of thing, provides that there may be a writ

people are left to scramble across as they can ; the captain of the ferry- j of partition, and the jointure may be dissolved ; " for Chancery," saith
boat merely stopping them to take the toll from them, as if they had been | Coke, " can dissolve, that is to say, it can swallow and digest, melt 01
towed across, instead of having walked it. The regulations of the ferry- i otherwise make away, with anything."

boat are very lax, and the passage is generally made amidst swearing, > Estates in coparcenary are such as descend to two or more persons,

smoking, and squeezing—none of which are prohibited

Nevertheless, Clifton is a very charming place, and it is to be regretted

is, where a man's next heirs are females, the estate goes to them all, an
u-rangement the law delights in, because it is probable that handing an

that in the struggle between Nature and the Town Council, Nature seems j estate over to the ladies is almost equivalent to making it immediately the
to be getting decidedly the worst of it. The romantic rocks are having j subject of litigation. Coparceners have not the benefit of survivorship,
several dreadful digs in the side, and the Town Council ought to be well j which is, perhaps, a rule made out of consideration to the fair sex, who
blown up themselves, for allowing the stone to be blown up by relentless I could not enjoy an estate, if living to grow old were one oi the conditions
saltpetre. j of getting it.

Tenants in common are such as have different interests in the same
estate, as in the celebrated case of the oyster, where the clients came in
for the shells, and the lawyer took the fish. Here they were all tenant*
in common of the native, but the oyster was a sort of separate interest
carved out of the shells, which the clients held as long as they found it
convenient.

It may be as well, before concluding this chapter, to remark that the
illustration of the oyster is not taken from the well-known rule in Shelley's
case; but to seize the fish, and give the shell, is the rule in almost every
ease where it can possibly be acted on.

SONNET BY A PSEUDO-SCOTCHMAN.

I stood upon Ben Primrose. It was morn —
The wind was westerly ; the day was fine.
Far in the distance gleamed Loch Serpentine,
Like patent-leather boot beneath the sun ;
Hard by thy chesnut groves, Glen Kensington ;
Before me, like a giant steep'd in wine,
Or Kraken, slumb'ring on the Norway brine,
Enormous London lay. There was I born ;
Ay, there, within the echoes of Bow Bells ,
And when I gaze upon thy dome, Saint Paul,
And think of Clapham, Islington, and all,
With patriotic pride my bosom swells,
And I exclaim, with lip serenely curled,
" There's not a place like London in the world •"

Wit at the Palace.

In consequence of the fortunate convalescence of her Majesty, Dr. Lo-
cock and Dr. Ferguson left their apartments in the Lancaster Tower (, QF harm.s way.

last week. An acquaintance of the latter doctor, not having been aware .
of Ins departure, called to inquire after him, and one of the palace domes- After the late exhibition of bad firing at Tangusrs, we should say t m,

tics (a wag) has since written on the door of the vacated apartment, « Dr. in the event of a naval engagement with trance, the salest place
Vkuguson don't lodge here any longer." i English ships would be in Iront oi the trench guns.

Military Intelligence.

Corporal J. Silk Buckingham is in the Isle of Wight, recruiting for
the service of the British and Foreign Destitute. Volunteers are very
scarce, as he offers no gratuity, and the rations and pay of the service are
not at all liked. Pressing, too, has been tried on a large scale, but not a
single raw member caught. The Corporal returns to town in a few days,
as there have been several deserters in his absence from the Destitute
ilepot in Hanover Square.