Protection of interests in land and classification of property History of protection of leaseholds • Leasehold is of certain duration, expiring on a given date (the term), unlike freehold • From early days, law regarded them as personal contracts between lessor and lessee standing outside system of freehold estates/tenures. Leases seen as chattels • Result of categorising leaseholds as personal property deny an evicted lessee means of recovering actual land • Write of trespass led to a chang