INCEST. C)12 INCIDENTALS. ecclesiastical courts on the general ground of its sinfulness. Ill most of the American States it is a criminal offense by statute, punisliable by imprisonment for a term of years, usually not exceeding ten. In some States the marriage of persons within the prohibited degrees, even when not followed by coliabitation or accimipanicd by sexual inter- course, amounts to criminal incest. Consult: Stephen, History of the ('riiniiial Law of Eng- land (London, 1883) ; Blackstone, Commen- taries; Bishop, Statutory Crimes (Chicogo, 1001). INCH'BALD, Elizaiietii Simp.son (1753- 1821 ) . An Knglish novelist and playwright, born at Stanninglield. near Bury Saint Edmund's. Suf- folk. She educated her.self. mostly by general reading. After vain attempts to engage herself as actress, both in Norfolk and in London, she married, in 1772, the actor .Joseph Inchbald. Ijiter in the same year she made her first ap- pearance on the stage at Bristol in the rOle of Cordelia. With her liusbund she performed in the provincial towns till his death (1779), and continued to appear for ten years more. As an actress .she had the advantage of great per.sonal charm, but an impediment in .speech prevented the highest success. Beginning to write for the stage as early as 1782. she produced about twenty comedies and farces, which were well re- ceived at the Lond(m theatres. But of lier lit- erary work, only lier two novels have survived: .4 Simple Story (17ni), which, though ill-con- structed, was one of the best novels since the death of Smollett; and Xalitre and Art (1706), which was also very popular. Mrs. Inchbald also edited three collections of plays: The Hritish Theatre (2,5 vols., 180(1-00) : 'Modern Theatre (10 vols., 1800) : and Farces (7 vols., 1809). She wrote her memoirs, but destroyed them. Con- sult: Scott's edition of her .Vorci.s with a memoir (London, 1880); Boaden, Memoir (ib., 1833); Elwoiid, Memoirs of the Literary Ladies of Eng- land (ib.. 1842). INCH'CAPE ROCK, or Bell Rock. A dan- gerous reef in the North Sea, east of the Firth of Tay in Scotland. A bell attached to a buoy is said to have been placed here by an abbot of Aber- brothock to warn sailors. This bell was cut from its support by a pirate, who. on a subse- quent voyage, was lost on the spot. The tradition is embodied in Southey's ballad "The Inchcapo Rock." In 1810 a liglithouse was built with much dilTieulty on the reef. INCH'COLM. . picturesque islet in the Firth of Forth. Scotland, .separated from the Fife shore by 'ilortinier's Deep,' a channel about a mile wide (Map: Scotland. B 4). It is half a mile long, with a maxinnim width of one-third of a mile, and is noted for its monastic ruins, which exhibit traces of the twelfth-century Romanesque architecture, but are chiedy in the early pointed style of the thirteenth and fourteenth centviries. They consist of the remains of an abbey of Austin Canons regular, foiinded by .Mexander I. in 1123, and include a vaulted oratory, and a chapter house with groined roof and three elegant sedilia. The Latin names of the islet are .T.niona and Insula Sancti Columho'. the latter derived from Saint Colm or Cnhmiba (q.v.) of lona. who dwelt here in the sixth century. As Saint Colm's Inch, it is mentioned in Shakespeare's Macbeth, act i., scene 2. Tlie monasterj- was frequently sacked by the English during- the fourteenth, lilteenth, and si.xtccntli centuries. Consult Simp- son, .-Kmonu and the Islands of the Forth (Edin- burgli. I8tjl). INCHKEITH, inch'kfith. A small fortified island of historic interest in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, nearly midway between Leitli and Kinghorn (Map: Scotland, B 4). It has a light- house 220 feet above high water, visible 21 miles. INCHWORM, or Meascrixg Worm. See Geo-MKiiiH) Moth. INCIDENT (from Lat. incidere, to fall upon, from ill, in + cadere, to fall). In law, a right, privilege, or burden inseparably annexed to an estate or tenure of lands. Thus, rent reserved upon a lease for life or years is incident to the reversion, or estate of the landlord, and passes with the latter upon its assignment; and a right to distrain is incident to a rent charge and at- tends it into whosesoever hands it may come ; and a court baron is incident to a manor (q.v.), which, indeed, cannot exist without such a court. In the same sen.se, the rights of inheritance and of free alienation are incidents of an estate in fee simple, and the right to take estovers (q.v.) is an incident of a tenancy for life or years, while dower and curtesy are among the incidents of estates of inheritance. More specifically, the term incident is em- ployed in English law to describe a certain class of obligations attaching to the several forms of feudal tenure. Viewed from the standpoint of the lord of whom the lands were held, these were certain legally defined rights which inured to him by virtue of his superior or paramount title. They were due. as a matter of legal obligation, from all land held by such tenure, and not by virtue of any understanding or agreenu-nt — which fact distinguishes them from the services due from the tenant to the lord, which were entirely a matter of agreement. The most important of these 'feudal incidents,' as they are termed, were aids, reliefs, and escheats, which were due from all secular tenures, and Hardship and marriage, which were peculiar to the military tenures. These will be described under their appropriate titles. Though difTering greatly in the kind and amount of the burden which' they imposed upon the land, they had this in common, that they came to be regarded as tlie essential and distinguishing characteristics of the several forms of tenure to which they were appropriate. The military structure of the feudal system in England decayed rapidly after the Conquest, and the expression military tenure, or tenure in chivalry-, was regarded not as tenure for which military service was in fact to be ren- dered, but tenure attended by the burdensome in- cidents of wardship and marriage; while socage tenure was not so much a tenure by a fixed and determinate service, as one free from those in- cidents. Most of the incidents of tenure were done away with by the famous statute which abolished mill- tarv' tenures (12 Chas. IT., c. 14), and only the right of escheat remains to remind us of the feudal origin of our land law. See FEfDALISM; Socage: Texube; and the authorities there referred to. INCIDENTALS (from incident, from Lat. I'licicfcrc, to fall in, from in, in -f cadere, to fall).
