Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 3, Page 164

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Volume 3, Page 164

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[001] be rightful or wrongful, wrongful where one on his own land wrongfully does something
[002] prohibited by law,¹ contrary to law or a constitution. If he cannot be prohibited
[003] by law from doing it, though he creates a nuisance and causes damage it will not be
[004] wrongful, for each may do on his own property [whatever he wishes if] wrongful
[005] damage does not accrue to a neighbour, as where one erects a mill on his own land
[006] and takes from his neighbour his own suit and that of others; he does his neighbour
[007] damage but no injuria² since he is not prohibited by law or a constitution from having
[008] or erecting a mill.] ³that is, that he not raise the level of his pond so high that his
[009] neighbour's tenement is flooded,⁴ [or] dig a ditch on his land whereby he diverts his
[010] neighbour's water, so that it cannot return to its original channel, completely or in
[011] part, [or] do anything on his own land by which his neighbour may not use a servitude
[012] imposed or granted, or may use it only in a less convenient way: [less convenient],
[013] [as] in place, time, number or kind, quality or quantity. It does not matter whether
[014] one does a thing or does what amounts to it; if one has a right of way over another's
[015] land, he disseises him not only if he obstructs the way completely,⁵ but if he does not
[016] permit him to cross conveniently or in the accustomed way. And so if he does not
[017] allow him to repair the road, for a right to repair is appurtenant to a right of way. And
[018] so if he does not divert the water completely but digs a ditch,⁶ or does not permit him
[019] to scour the channel, for scouring is appurtenant to a right to conduct water⁷ just as
[020] repair is to a right of way. And so, though he does not obstruct completely, if he does
[021] something by which its use is made less convenient,⁸ as where I have common in a
[022] certain place, with free and lawful entry and exit, and he constructs a bank or⁹ a
[023] hedge, wall or palisade, by which I am obliged to take a circuitous way where formerly
[024] I entered by a short route, yet saving to the neighbour his right.¹⁰ [If that is
[025] done it may be demolished] on the complaint of him who suffered the wrong, [if] he
[026] immediately pursues what is his, [and because of the common welfare,]¹¹ lest he be
[027] prevented for long from making use of his right, or using it advantageously. ¹²<What
[028] is described here ought to be taken as an unlawful and harmful nuisance, ‘of a bank
[029] or hedge unlawfully raised.’> And so if a right of pasture is granted for a certain
[030] time, and the grantor does not permit him to use it at any time, [or] if it is granted
[031] at all times, he only permits him to use it at certain times or certain hours, [or] when
[032] it ought to be used throughout, he is only permitted to use it in certain restricted
[033] places, [or] though he has the right to pasture all beasts, of every kind and description,
[034] he only permits him to pasture

Notes

1. ‘prohibitus a iure’

2. ‘iniuriam’; infra 195

3. Om: ‘Item a iure . . . vicinorum,’ a connective; supra 163, last line

4. Infra 190, 191

5. ‘omnino,’ from above

6. ‘fossam’

7. Infra 189, 190, 196

8. Om: ‘faciat disseisinam’

9. ‘vel,’ as below

10. Infra 190

11. Infra 168, 189, 192, 193

12. Supra i, 401