Odger's English Common Law

Chapter XIII.
DISTURBANCE OF EASEMENTS AND OTHER RIGHTS OVER
LAND AND WATER.
There are many cases in which one man has rights over
the land of another, or a' right to the flow of water or to the
access of light to his own land from across the land of another.
For any disturbance or obstruction of these rights an action
lay at common law. Such a disturbance or obstruction is
really a private nuisance, and might, therefore, have been
dealt with in Chapter VIII. But as these rights present
many special features of their own, we have thought it best
to discuss their characteristics in a separate chapter.
There are five different classes of these rights :
I. Easements.
II. Profits a Prendre.
III. Personal Licences.
IV. Customary Eights.
V. Natural Eights.
We have already defined the first four classes of these
rights and stated the main distinctions between them. 1 But
a brief recapitulation may not be out of place.
I. 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. The right is
not vested in the owner of the first piece of land personally,
1 See ante, pp. 24—27, 76—86.
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