Note 2 — PROLOGUE

This term recurs to me almost as often as I think of moors and commons, and for the following reason. An old friend of mine, who lived to be nearly ninety, a lawyer by profession and a wit by practice, once told me how he attended an inquiry held in West Somerset by a certain Government Commission, concerning a well-known tract adjacent to his property. To his surprise, a fussy solicitor, who did not know that he was addressing another “limb of the law,” rushed up to him, and after expatiating volubly on the difference between a claim in gross, a claim appendant, and a claim appurtenant, begged to be informed what was the nature of his claim. “Impertinent, if any,” replied my friend, delighted at the opportunity, “as I am not here on business.”