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The Nature and Descent of Ancient Peerages Connected With Scotland, the Origin of Tenures, the Succession of Fiefs, and the Constitution of
The Nature and Descent of Ancient Peerages Connected With Scotland the Origin of Tenures the Succession of Fiefs and the Constitution of Author:George Wallace Title: The Nature and Descent of Ancient Peerages Connected With ... Scotland, the Origin of Tenures, the Succession of Fiefs, and the Constitution of Parliament in That Country General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1785 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there m... more »ay be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: SECT. IV. Nobility conferred on Lands. Lord, under a feeble government, the 0 '' , - progrefs from great barbarity, through defenf1ve leagues and military aflbciations, to feudal tenures, is very natural; and that native authority, which your Lordfhiphas now beheld a- rifing out of landed property, however different from thofe honours about which we are inquiring, led directly to the production of them. In Scotland, people of fortune, neither invited into town by the elegance of its entertainments, nor allured to Court by the profpect of intereft, were wont moftly to refide at a diftance from both, retired, on their own demefnes (/). There the only equals, by whom their habitations were evec approached, were thofe rare individuals placed in like fortunate circumftances with themfelves; and their lands formed the objects towards which, in the comparifons made by envy and by pride between thofe who pretended to an equality, their imaginations were principally directed. It was their £/) Buchanan, l.10. c. 41. their eftate, which both exalted them above their inferiors, and raifed them to a level with their equals. Each proprietor, therefore, would endeavour to procure to his property fomething, which, both in his own conception, and in the opinion of others, mould elevate it above that of his neighbours. A better hufbandry and a finer culture, thofe vulgar means that lead to fuch di- ftinctions only as, depending on plain indu...« less