182.—Time of prescription. The length of time necessary to establish a right claimed by prescription or a title by prescription. Before the act of 2 & 38 Wm. IV. c. 71, the possession required to constitute a prescription must have existed “time out of mind” or “beyond the memory of: man,” that is, before the reign of Richard I.; but the time of prescription, in certain cases, was much shortened by that act. 2 Steph.