a square of 200 feet, surmounted by a dome of fifty feet diameter. It contains upwards of 100 apart then written out by a notary-public, which must be recorded in the Register of Sasines. The date of recording is held to be the date of the Sasine, and the party whose Sasine is first recorded is preferred to the property. The Sasine may be recorded either in the General Register for all Scotland, which is kept in the Register House at Edinburgh, or in the particular Register for the County where the lands lie. These County Registers are transmitted at stated periods to the Keeper of the Records in Edinburgh. This is the manner in which a person voluntarily divests himself of his lands; but there are also two kinds of diligence-Inhihibition and Adjudication-by which an individual's heritable property may be affected without his consent. By the former, a debtor is prohibited from conveying or burdening his property to the prejudice of the creditor using the inhibition; by the latter, he is divested of the property, which, by a decree of the Court, is declared to belong to his creditor, in satisfaction of his debt. An inhibition must be executed, and with the execution of it recorded within forty days of its date, either in the General Register of Inhibitions at Edinburgh, or in the particular Register for the County, which, like the County Registers of Sasines, are transmitted at stated periods to the Keeper of the Records at Edinburgh. An abbreviate of a decree of adjudication must be recorded within sixty days of its date, in a register kept in the Register House for that purpose, called the Register of Abbreviates of Adjudication. A person, therefore, who wishes either to purchase a property, or make a loan over it, may, by a search of the Register of Sasines, Inhibitions, and Adjudications, ascertain whether there has been any previous sale or conveyance of it by the proprietor or his predecessors-to what extent it may be burdened with debts-whether the proprietor has been prohibited by inhibition from granting any voluntary conveyance or whether there has been any judicial assignation of it by adjudication. It is a principle of the Scotch law, that no party who has possessed a property upon an heritable title for forty years shall be disquieted in his possession thereafter; and, also, that any party who may have possessed a title to a property without insisting on or prosecuting it for a period of forty years shall be held to have aban ments for the transaction of public business. Among these the great room, in which the older records are deposited, is distinguished for its handsome proportions. Admission can only be obtained by an introduction to some of the public officers. In front of the building will stand the fine Equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, by Steele ; and on the opposite side of the street is THE THEATRE-ROYAL. Its exterior is plain almost to meanness, but its internal accommodation is excellent. Although theatrical amusements are not very warmly supported in the city, the management of the theatre is most efficient, and the regular company of a highly respectable order. The manager himself, Mr. W. H. Murray, possesses a great versatility of talent, and his representations of character in broad farce are unsurpassed on the British Stage.* Proceeding due east, we enter Waterloo Place, and on the right pass successively the STAMP OFFICE and the POST OFFICE. The lightness of the open doned his right. A forty years' search of the records, showing that no incumbrances exist, is therefore generally considered sufficient evidence that the property is not liable to any burden or ground of eviction, and that any one may with safety either purchase it or lend money on its security. No such assurance of the safety of a transaction, relative to landed property, can be obtained in England. The consequence is, that Scotch mortgages form a very favourite investment with those capitalists who are more anxious to secure the safety of the capital itself than a high rate of interest. * A smaller theatre, under the same management, is open during the summer months. It stands at the head of Leith Walk, but possesses no architectural attraction. |