The eavesdrop or eavesdrip is the width of ground around a house or building which receives the

rain Rain is a form of precipitation where water drop (liquid), droplets that have condensation, condensed from Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is res ...

water dropping from the

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...

. By an ancient

Anglo-Saxon law Anglo-Saxon law (, later ; , ) was the legal system of Anglo-Saxon England from the 6th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. It was a form of Germanic law based on unwritten custom known as folk-right and on written laws enacted by Histo ...

, a landowner was forbidden to erect any building at less than two feet from the boundary of his land, and was thus prevented from injuring his neighbour's house or property by the dripping of water from his eaves. The law of Eavesdrip had its equivalent in the Roman

stillicidium Stillicidium, a dripping of water from the eaves (''stilla'', drop, ''cadere'', to fall), is the term in architecture given by Vitruvius (v. 7) to the dripping eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, nor ...

, which prohibited building up to the very edge of an estate.

References

Architectural elements {{Architecturalelement-stub

See also

References