DL Авр

PRECEDENTS

IN

CONVEYANCING,

ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT STATE OF THE LAW.

ILLUSTRATED WITH

NOTES

PRACTICAL AND CRITICAL,

BY

THOMAS GEORGE WESTERN, Esq. F.R.A.S.

OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE;

AUTHOR OF COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION AND
LAWS OF ENGLAND," DEDICATED BY COMMAND TO

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN, etc.

VOL. IV.

LONDON:

JOHN RICHARDS AND CO., LAW BOOKSELLERS,

194. FLEET-STREET.

LONDON:

Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE,

New-Street-Square.

PRECEDENTS

IN

CONVEYANCING.

LEASES.

XI.

MINING LEASE. (a)

LEASE of Coals, Culm, Ironstone, and other Minerals, under
FREEHOLD LANDS, to a COMPANY.

THIS INDENTURE, made the

-day of, 1840, Parties.

between A. B. of the one part, and C. D., E. F., and G. H.

(a) Mines are veins or strata in the body of the earth, the depositories of mineral or ore, and opened for the purpose of obtaining the produce (as to mines in general, see 1 Tho. Co. Litt. 218., 3 id. 237.; Lears v. Branthwaite, 2 B. & Ad. 437.; as to tin-bounds, see Doe v. Alderson, 3 Crom. M. & R. 210.; 4 Dowl. 701.). No mine can properly exist before it has been opened by shafts, pits, or levels; for, before that has been done, there can be no positive certainty that any mineral or ore lies in that particular district; and thus before such opening, the interest of the party entitled as grantee thereof in fee, which exists independently of any estate in the surface, is only a right of entry on the supposed mines not being liable to dower (for which there must have been either a seisin in deed, which is an actual possession; or else a seisin in law, which is a right to the possession; (Litt. s. 36.; 53 Perk. 371.; Co. Litt. 31.; and see 2 Bac. Ab. 364.; Fearn C. R. 346.; Co. Litt. 29 a., 32 a.); whereas in this case there is not necessarily anything to be seised of), and lying in grant; but, as soon as they are opened and reduced into possession, they become corporeal hereditaments, and may be