AN

ELEMENTARY COMPENDIUM

OF

THE LAW

OF

REAL PROPERTY.

BY WALTER HENRY BURTON, Esq.

ONE OF THE FELLOWS ON MR. VINER'S FOUNDATION
FOR THE STUDY OF THE COMMON LAW

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

LONDON:

J. & W. T. CLARKE,

LAW BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS,
PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN.

Luke Hansard & Sons,

near Lincoln's-Inn Fields, London.

TO THE

CHANCELLOR, MASTERS, AND SCHOLARS

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,

THIS WORK

IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,

BY THEIR

MUCH OBLIGED SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

THE Production, at this day, of a new elementary work on the Law of Real Property, may be thought to require some apology. And this, if it were the Author's design or wish to supersede any of the Books now in use, it would not be easy for him to make: but in aspiring to add one to the number, he has only to show that a vacant space was left for his exertions. And that such a space existed, he conceives every person must be sensible, who happens to have passed at once from the perusal of Blackstone's Commentaries to the business of a Conveyancer's Office, and to the necessity of seeking for practical information, not indeed in the Year Books, or immediately in any Book of Reports, or in any thing that bears the character of Black Letter, (except perhaps Coke upon Littleton, or the Touchstone;) but in some ample Digest or Treatise of modern date; which, however excellent in itself, must encumber his unpractised search by that very copiousness and minute accuracy to which it owes much of its value. It has therefore been the Author's endeavour to adapt his work, (though intended to be as complete as possible in itself,) principally to such readers as, being already acquainted with Black