Odger's English Common Law

24
PRIVATE RIGHTS.
but they may neither use nor enjoy it. They must account
to the legatees for all money which passes through their
hands.
We turn next to leaseholds. A leasehold is a possessory
interest in land. It arises out of a contract, usually reduced
into a written lease or agreement, by which the landlord
agrees to let certain premises to the tenant for a fixed period
(called the term), and the tenant agrees in return to pay him
rent and to perform certain covenants in relation to the pro-
perty. But it is more than a contract; for the tenant has
the right at once to enter on the premises, and as soon as
he does so he has a real right over the property of his land-
lord—a right, namely, to remain in exclusive possession of
the premises till the end of the term, so long as he pays his
rent and keeps the covenants in his lease. And the landlord
in his turn has a right, though not a possessory one, over the
things of the tenant. If a tenant fails to pay his rent at the
proper time, his landlord has a right to distrain practically
all the goods of the tenant, and in many cases also the goods
of a third person if any such be then upon the premises, and
after certain formalities he may proceed to sell them. This
right to seize the goods is by law inherent in the relation of
landlord and tenant.
There are also important rights over the land of another,
which are known as easements. An easement is a right which
the owner of one piece of land has over an adjoining piece of
land—such as a right to walk over it, to pour water on to
it, or to carry a pipe through it for the conveyance of gas or
water. But the right is not vested in the owner of the first
piece of land personally, but only in him as the owner of that
land and so long as he owns it. If he sells that piece of land,
the right will pass along with it to the purchaser and may no
longer be exercised by the former owner. It is' " appurtenant '
to the land and " runs with it." The land to which the right
is thus attached is called the " dominant tenement ; " the land
over which the easement is exercised is called the " servient
tenement." Should these two tenements subsequently become
the property of the same owner, the easement disappears.
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