Lease, the contract establishing the relation between landlord and tenant. The granting of leases, commonly for a term of nineteen years, has become common in Scotland since 1312, and to this system is largely to be ascribed the rapid improvement in agriculture in Scotland during the past century. Every lease has its own peculiarities as drainage, to houses, cropping, &c. See BUILDING LEASE, LANDLORD AND TENANT, LAND LAWS; and, as to the compensation for unexhausted improvements, AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS ACT.
LEASEHOLD is a dependent tenure derived either from a freehold or a copyhold, and held by lease. Schemes for the enfranchisement of leaseholds (allowing persons having long leases of small portions of land a right to purchase the fee-simple) concern mainly Building Leases (q.v.). See also GROUND-RENT.