228 READING REALTY planing mills. The shops of the Philadel- phia and Reading railroad employ 2,800 men. Reading contains three national banks with an aggregate capital of $700,000, a savings bank with $100,000 capital, and four fire insurance companies. It is divided into nine wards, and is governed by a mayor, a select council of nine members (one from each ward), and a common council of 28. There are an efficient fire de- partment and a police force. The principal charitable associations are a dispensary and a female orphan asylum. The public schools and departments comprise 1 normal school, 1 high school, II grammar, 18 secondary, and 33 pri- mary departments, and 1 colored school. The number of teachers in 1874 was 121 ; pupils enrolled, 6,457 ; average attendance, 5,32(5. The Reading library contains 3,000 volumes. Three daily (one German) and eight weekly (six German) newspapers, and one semi-month- ly (German) periodical are published. There are 31 churches, viz. : 2 Baptist, 1 Church of God, 2 Episcopal, 3 Evangelical Association, 1 Friends', 5 Lutheran, 4 Methodist, 3 Presbyte- rian, 5 Reformed, 2 Roman Catholic, 1 United Brethren, 1 United Brethren in Christ, and 1 Universalist. Reading was laid out in 1748. It was incorporated as a borough in 1783, and as a city in 1847. READING, a borough of England, county town of Berkshire, on the Kennet, near its junction with the Thames, 39 m. "W. by S. of London ; pop. in 1871, 32,824. It has greatly improved within the past 20 years, and is now an impor- tant centre of railways and of trade. There are several fine churches. A working men's hall was opened in 1862, the town hall was en- larged in 1863, and the elegant station of the Great Western railway was completed in 18G8. Flour and grain are largely exported to Lon- don. Silk and agricultural implements are manufactured, and there are iron founderies, breweries, and extensive biscuit bakeries. Reading is very ancient, has returned two members to parliament since the time of Ed- ward I., and has been the scene of important historical events. REALTY (law Lat. rfalitas, from ret, a thing), in law, property in lands, tenements, and here- ditaments. The common law of real property is distinctively and almost entirely English, founded on the rules and customs which in the feudal period governed the tenure of lands. It is the theory of the English law that no occupant of lands, not even a freeholder, has absolute ownership of them ; he has only an estate. The king is lord paramount, and all the land in the realm is holden mediately or im- mediately of him. The chief estates in lands of the present time originated no doubt in the various forms of feudal tenure. Life feuds were probably earlier than feuds of inheritance; for as feuds were granted in consideration of a return of military services, and as this consid- eration was to be furnished by a certain indi- vidual whose already known valor or fidelity induced the gift, lands were without doubt primarily limited to the first donee; that is to say, they could neither be aliened by him to a stranger nor transmitted to his heirs. But as the lords became strong in their possessions, or when the times were more secure, it became safe and possible to grant estates of inheritance in feuds ; namely, to the first taker and certain of his heirs or to his heirs in general. From these modes of tenure came the modern estates respectively, for life, in tail, and in fee. Each of these is a freehold and a real interest, but no estate less than one for life (and a lease to A for 1,000 years is, in the contemplation of the law, a smaller interest than a grant for the term of his life) is a freehold or an estate in realty. But besides lands, things real, as the tautological phrase of the law is, comprise also tenements and hereditaments; and these are embraced in this term, because they possess some of the characteristic qualities of lands, as they may be holden on tenure or are inherita- ble. These terms may include things incor- porate. Land includes only tangible or corpo- real property: the ground or soil, and every- thing which is attached to it naturally, as trees, stones, or herbage, or by art, as houses or oth- er structures. Growing timber, therefore, and standing grass or grain, so long as they are rooted in and supported by the soil, are parts of the realty, though they become personalty immediately on severance. But when corn or any other annual product of the soil is ripe and fit to be gathered, though not yet severed, it is personal property. A permanent building erected on one's land becomes his property, even though the materials for it were wrong- fully taken from another. But a building erect- ed on another's land, by his permission, may remain the personal property of the builder. (See FIXTURE.) Besides the incidents and ele- ments of land which we have already men- tioned, and which are examples of corporeal hereditament, there may be also incorporeal hereditaments, that is, rights annexed to and issuing out of lands, as rights of common and of way, easements, and rents. These rank next in dignity and extent to lands. (See COMMON, RIGHTS OF, EASEMENT, LEASE, and LICENSE.) A right of way is the right of passage over another man's ground. It may be founded in an actual grant by the owner of the soil, or may be claimed by prescription, which supposes a grant, or it may arise immediately from neces- sity; as where one sells a lot surrounded by other land of his, here, as a right of passage is necessary to the enjoyment of the lot granted, the grantor is conclusively presumed to have granted it to the purchaser. If the way thus granted and ordinarily used become impassa- ble, it seems just that the purchaser shall have the right, founded on the same presumption, of passing over the adjacent lands of the grantor. Not so, however, if the way be a private one, lying in actual grant, for here the grantor pre- sumptively bound himself to repair. The right
