0 T. CYPRIAN WILLIAMS, OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, LL.B.; FORMERLY LECTURER ON CONVEYANCING Editor of "Williams on Real Property” and “Williams on Personal Property.” ASSISTED BY J. F. ISELIN, OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, M.A., LL.M. IN TWO VOLUMES. Vol. I. LONDON: SWEET AND MAXWELL, LIMITED, Law Publishers. 1903. To the Memory of MY FATHER AND MASTER IN THE LAW, JOSHUA WILLIAMS, SOMETIME ONE OF THE CONVEYANCING COUNSEL TO THE COURT OF CHANCERY, AND AFTERWARDS ONE OF HER LATE MAJESTY'S COUNSEL, Whose wish it was that his Son should keep his name in Remembrance in Lincoln's Inn, This Book IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. INTRODUCTION. THE writer can hardly put forward a treatise on the law of Vendor and Purchaser of Land without an apology for adventuring upon the field successively occupied by so eminent a Real Property lawyer as Lord St. Leonards, and a writer of such profound knowledge of conveyancing and great literary skill as Mr. Dart. His excuse is that so many years have elapsed and so many and great changes have been made in the law, not only since Mr. Dart first wrote, but even since he himself supervised an edition of his book, that there appears to be room for a re-statement of the principles of the law of sale of land from the standpoint of the present time. Such a statement of the law it has been the writer's aim to make; and he has particularly endeavoured to give a readable account of it. This book is intended for the use of those engaged in the practice of conveyancing, whether as counsel or solicitors. Its design has therefore been to discuss the incidents of a contract for the sale of land as they are usually presented to the notice of conveyancers; that is to say, in order of time. And the scheme of the work is to treat first of the normal course of such a contract, where it has been made between persons |