April 8, 1899.
THE ESTATES GAZETTE
563
let us hope, to return. In this connection we are assuredly much indebted to American journalism. I am writing with a copy of the ‘*!National Auctioneer” before me. This is a weekly paper just started at Chicago, U.S., and devoted to the interests of the auction trade. The information it gives is both complete and well compiled, whilst its articles are capitally written, and the whole paper thoroughly up-to-date and “ alive.” It is chatty, anecdotal, and poetical even in parts. I wish it the success which, judging from “No. 12,” it• seems to me to deserve and to command. The “National Auctioneer” is kind enough to say of the Estates Gazette that it is a “great paper.” This land of international courtesy should do much to cement the friendship of the two nations.
STYLO.
Higal
SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE.
COURT OF APPEAL.
March 28.
(Before the Lord Chancellor, Lord Justice A. L. Smith and Lord Justice Collins.)
THE MEDMENHAM AND HURLEY EIGHT OP WAY DISPUTE.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND ANOTHER V. HUDSON.
Judgment was delivered in this case, which came before the	Court in the form
of an appeal from the decision of Mr. Justice Day, who heard the action in May of last year without a jury, and decided the matter in dispute between the parties in favour of the plaintiffs.
The action was brought to raise the question whether a certain ferry across the Thames between Medmenham and Hurley was an ancient■ public ferry, and whether the roads leading to it on either side of the river were public highways.
Mr. jelf, Q.C., Mr. McCall, Q.C., and Mr. Montague Lush appeared for the appellant; Sir Edward Clarke, Q.C., Mr. Rawlinson, Q.C., and Mr. Daldy for the respondents.
The ferry in question plied between the open space in front of the Ferry Hotel, Medmenham, and a field known as the “parish meadow,” Hurley. When the ferry was first used appears doubtful, but of late years it has been let to the Ferry Hotel, and the innkeeper has received the profits. Prior to 1857 there was another ferry a little higher up the river by which the up-stream horses crossed, the downstream horses having from time immemorial crossed by the lower ferry. The land on the Medmenham side adjoining the ferry formerly belonged to Mr. Scott Murray, and on the Hurley side to Sir Gilbert East. Both estates were, however, purchased some time back by the defendant, Mr. Hudson, who, believing that the ferry was not a public one, took steps to test the question by obstructing the ferry and the alleged highways leading to it.
The question raised involving a question affecting the rights of the public, the Attorney-General was added as plaintiff, and the action was brought claiming a declaration that the ferry was an ancient public ferry, and an injunction was claimed to restrain the defendant from obstructing the highway. At the trial a great number of witnesses were called, who spoke to the ferry being one that had always been used by the public. For the defence, evidence was given by Mr. Curzon Boyd, the well-known record expert, who stated that he had traced the history of Medmenham Manor in the Record Office, and could find no mention of the alleged grant of this ferry. The plaintiffs, however, relied on a. deed of 1713, which purported to convey, “all that passage called Medmenham Ferry,” and evidence was given to show that the word “passage” as so used implied the obligation on the persons carried over of paying a toll, and the granting of a right to take toll connoted a grant of a ferry.
Mr. Justice Day held that the plaintiffs were entitled to judgment, and granted an injunction on the terms asked for. Hence the present appeal.
Lord Justice A. L. Smith, in giving judg ment, said he was satisfied that, so far as the approach to the ferry on the north side of the river was concerned, the road was an ancient highway, and that the defendant’s appeal in the second action referred to failed. He was also of opinion that the Attorney-General had established his contention that the ferry was one which from ancient times down to the present the defendant and his predecessors in title of the lands on the north side of the river had the right to take toll for carrying over passengers, and that the right carried with it an obligation to keep up the ferry. Hour were matters on the south side of the river? The ferry crossed to a meadow, which was called the “parish meadow,” though no evidence could be found of how it acquired that name. There was evidence, however, that the former owner,
I Sir Gilbert East, had wished to stop the public crossing the field, but said he believed he had no power to do so, and contented himself by
proposes to take over Lord and Lady Warwick as going concerns, to acquire practically all their estates and other property, and to “ run ” and administer them “ in the best interests of the shareholders.” Lady Warwick, though past her first youth, is, I have been given to understand, a very charming woman, and besides being in the very smartest set— but this is not an asset—has taken an enlightened interest in many social movements. Lord Warwick is not so well known. It is rather a strange coincidence that his family should originally have sprung from a London commercial stock, and that their motto should be “ Vix ea nostra coco’’ (I scarcely call these tliings—their possessions—our own).
A propos of the recent appointment of Sir Arthur Charles to be Dean of Arches, I suppose [hat there is not one “average man” in 1,000 who could tell off-hand the meaning and origin of the title. I am sure that I could not have done so until a day or two ago, when I saw it stated that the Court of Arches derives its name from its ancient place of judicature, which was in the church of St. Mary of the Arches {do Arcubus), the modern representative of which is now called ordinarily Bow Church (south side of Cheapside). The derivation is either from the “bows” or “arches” which supported the roof or steeple, or from the very fine arched crypt of the old church, and the name was retained after the Court was removed, first■ to Doctor’s Commons, and subsequently to Westminster Hall, etc. Was it Sidney Smith who, when asked to define an archdeacon, replied that he was a “ person who discharged archi-diaconal functions ” ? The functions of a Dean of Arches are not easily to be understanded of the people, but whatever they are, no doubt Sir Arthur Charles will discharge them satisfactorily, for there is no more learned ecclesiastical lawyer in England.
It is an Englishman’s privilege to grumble, and certainly some of us are never tired of exercising it at the expense of our Government. But it appears that some other nations are ruled by a much more “ mixed lot ” than we are. I recently saw it stated that though in our House of Commons there are only four well-defined parties, Conservatives, Liberal Unionists, Opposition Liberals, and Irish Home Rulers, in the German Reichstag there are 16 parties, each of them hating the other with a rancour unknown in English politics. The 397 members represent 97 distinct callings or professions, including 12 justices, 13 mayors, 21 large manufacturers, 22 clergymen, 112 landowners, 111 lawyers, 28 military and naval officers, 15 editors, and 25 authors. The religious census of this new and heterogeneous Reichstag likewise presents features of interest. There are 141 Roman Catholics, one member of the Old Catholic Church, 177 Reformed Lutherans, 29 Old Lutherans, four Jews, seven Freethinkers, and 30 without any profession of faith, of whom 29 are Socialists, and four “ unknown.” If variety in a legislature is pleasing the Germans seem to have got it.
Attorneys and solicitors have always constituted a well-abused class of the community. The Court of Star Chamber would appear to have been particularly hard on them. The “Law Journal” gives this extract on the subject:—“The Lord Keeper made delivery of his conceit for solicitors, and he said that he had not learned any law to allow or warrant them, and that they were caterpillars del common weal, and maintenance would lie against them ; for at all times the laws and Acts of Parliament gave authority in cases necessary to make attor-nies, and therefore solicitors are not warrantable by any law, and therefore they should be punished, and a remedy should be provided against them, and he promised that he would advise as to punishment against this, and to abolish and extirpate all solicitors." This seems hard measure, b .t our contemporary points out that the Star Chamber was also very arbitrary with the Bar, and even with the Bench. This is from a charge by an ecclesiastical Lord Keeper to justices going circuit: “ Now that this (keeping 1 lish days ’) is ordained in policy and the public good, in diverse respects their stomachs will not bear it, but they can sit all day long at sack and tobacco ; nay, I have heard of some that must needs drink tobacco [qy. take snuff] on the Bench ; but if I understand of such hereafter they shall not sit on the Bench any more.” This was “paternal” treatment with a vengeance.
Miscere utile dulci—to combine instruction with amusement—what a good thing it is when it can be attained ! I hope I may be allowed to congratulate the “ Law Journal ” on the success with which it continues to supplement its more substantial features with light and diverting articles such as that from which I have just quoted. Nowadays, indeed, all kinds of papers ! and periodicals—“trade,” “class,” financial and legal ; daily, ׳weekly and monthly—try to be as smart as they know how. The times for ponderous articles—which nobody ever looked at, much less read—and for a uniform “ respectable ” dulness of tone and style are gone, never,
Mayings anb Beings.
One would think that in the matter of handbooks, guides, and other works of reference of the kind, London was tolerably well provided, but Paris is better off still, according to the correspondent in that city of the “Stationery Trades Journal,” who, in a smart and interesting letter in the current number, speaks, in especial, of a book called “ Paris Hachette ” as “really a marvellous production.” He describes it as a kind of cross between “ ‘ Whitaker’s Almanack ’ and the Post Office Directory,” but he adds that it also gives as much information as is to be found “ in a couple of score of technical guides.” It “contains 100,000 addresses, 800 portraits, 67 maps and plans, 24 full page and 152 small engravings, etc.” “ Etc. ” is1 good. As a sample of what is done in “.Paris Hachette,” the writer states that■ under the head “ Engravers,” not only the addresses of the leading engravers are to be found, but what to pay for wood or process blocks, the earnings of engravers, and so forth. I presume that with regard to lawyers, doctors and auctioneers, butchers, bakers and candlestick-makers the same plan is adopted. The guide, in fact, is encyclopaedic in character. As far as Paris is concerned it treats de rebus omnibus et quihusdam all’s.
Our contemporary’s correspondent asks why a similar work could not be produced respecting London. The subject is obviously one of great interest to the inhabitants of this city, of which it may with all certitude be affirmed that its prosperity, activity and importance has increased, is increasing, and is never likely to be diminished. To those engaged in commercial or trade life, and to owners of house property in the metropolis, the question will specially appeal, and I cannot help thinking that expert opinion would be tolerably unanimous in the view that a work of the kind, if it could be started here, would not only be most valuable to the public as a guide, but most lucrative to the publishers as an advertising medium. But the writer to whose remarks I have been referring possibly suggests the right reply to his own query when he says : “ I should probably be assured that London is very much bigger than Paris, and that, as it needs a book of 1,500^ pp. in triple columns of nonpareil and weighing rather over 31b. to ‘ do ’ Paris properly, a similar work on London would need some 4,000 pp. and would have to be in two volumes, weighing 81b. or 91b.” The enterprise would indeed be a gigantic one, but if it could be carried out in a proper manner, I repeat that there should be a lot of money in it.
There is a popular—or, perhaps, I should rather say, an unpopular—theory to the effect that it always rains on a Bank Holiday. But there are exceptions to every rule, and the weather last Monday might have been made to order. Prodigious crowds were on the move in all the suburbs and places of resort about London, and some people, I daresay, had occasion to ask themselves the question ׳whether a universal “day off” of this kind on a given date was not a bit of a mistake. If, indeed, a "holiday” does or should partake someivhat of the nature of a period of calm and peace and quiet, the term, it might be advanced, sits about as easily on the festival of St. Lubbock as a saddle on a pig. The cockney division rushes frantically and blatantly about. Trains, trams, omnibuses—recreation grounds, public gardens, taverns—every square yard of country within measurable distance of the “great wen”—congestion is not the word for their state, and it ׳would be a fulsome compliment to our citizens, and especially to our citizenesses, to compare the shouting and yelling, the idiot laughter, the music, vocal and instrumental, which issue from their proceedings, to Pandemonium. Of course, one answer to all this is—If you don’t like it, stop away from it. Then is the holiday of the man who does not care to aid and abet others in making themselves noisy nuisances always to be spent au secret in a parlour or back garden with a pipe and a penny paper? ’Tis a consummation devoutly not to be wished. At any rate, I think that the suggestion which has often been put forward to allow holidays to take place at different periods of the year for the members of different professions, businesses or trades is not altogether unworthy of consideration.
Nowadays, news is like a penny bun—it very soon grows stale and unpalatable. But it will probably be some time before the scheme for converting the Earl and Countess of Warwick into a limited liability company ceases to be the subject of comment and of cheap wit. The idef. is a novel one—a curious socialistic experiment—and its outcome will be looked for with a great deal of interest by the philosopher as well as by the man of business, and the fashionable and aristocratic quidnunc, who, by-the-bye, should it succeed, is pretty sure not to let fanciful scruples stand in the way of applying to a promoter to rescue him from his difficulties and embarrassments by “ conversion.” The company, it is well known by now,
THE DUDDING HILL ESTATE, WILLESDEN.
FlEW parts of the north of London have changed in aspect and character during the past few years more than that in the vicinity of Willesden, and to-day land hereabouts that offers any promise of development for building purposes possesses a high market value. There is not a great deal of such land remaining for disposal, a fact which makes the forthcoming offer to auction of a freehold estate close to Kingsbury - Neasden Station of considerable interest.
The propert'־ referred to, known as the Dudding Hill Estate, comprises some ?0 acres, and will be offered to auction by Messrs. Hobson, Eichards and Co., of 79, Coleman-street, Bank, E.C., at the London Mart, on April 20.
A propos of the growth of this part of the Metropolis we may quote the observations of the writer of an illustrated descriptive article upon Willesden, which appeared in the Estates Gazette, of April 10, 1897. He says :—“ One of the best ways fully to appreciate the expansion of London is, after a lapse of years, to visit a once familiar environ, which in the interval has developed from a few scattered hamlets into a populous suburb. If one who knew Willesden a score or so of years since were to visit it to-day, he would acknowledge the truth of the proposition, and see on every hand evidences of such a change. Bows of trim villas stand where straggling hedge-rows once were fragrant in the spring with hawthorn, and in summer bright with wild rotes; where pleasant avenues of trees afforded grateful shade from the summer’s sun, are thriving business establishments; where children once in careless glee hunted for stray blackberries, a handsome church now rears its lefty spire—on all sides, indeed, signs of change appear. But, although much of the rural seclusion of Willesden has had, perforce, to be sacrificed to modern exigences, the undulating and pleasant character of the vhole of its large area renders it impossible for the builder either to blot out the extensive and lovely views to be obtained from many and many a coign of vantage, or to spoil the varied charm of its surroundings. If to its rural attractions be added the almost unique travelling facilities enjoyed by the district, and that around lie lovely stretches of open country, then the reasons are at once appai ent for the rise of Willesden into popular favour as a pleasant place of residence.”
The Dudding Hill Estate is well adapted for final development, one road is already made, kerbed and sewered, giving a frontage of about 1.965ft., there being also a frontage of about 860ft. to Dudding-bill-lane, and of about 1,295ft. to the S'ation-road. It may further be added that the estate is sufficiently level and moderately high above ordnance datum to admit of its being laid out to the best advantage for building purposes. The special circumstances of the sale render it necessary that the estate should be sold in one lot This offers an exceptional opportunity for a purchaser to resell the land in lots, and thus reap a substantial profit, without •he cost and trouble of development.
The Midland and the Metropolitan Railway Companies are under certain obligations as to the repair of roads over which they have rights of way.
It is anticipated that, as soon as the estate shows signs of development, the Midland Railway will provide a suitable train service to Dudding-hill-station, which immediately adjoins the estate.
We may also add that the well-known Dollis Hill Estate, which the Willesden District Council are negotiating to acquire as a public pirk or recreation ground, is within a few minutes’ walk of the estate.
The land is at present let on a tenancy, determinable on one month’s notice, in the event of the whole or any part being required for aDy purpose other than agriculture, at a yearly rent of ¡6101.
Auctioneers and Estate Agents desiring to secure Partners, Purchase a Business, or engage Professional Assistance, should consult the “Wanted” Advertisements Jin the centre of the Paper.