In the 2002 publication, Boundaries and Easements, by C. Sara (London: Sweet & Maxwell, p. 184), the author aptly defines a servient tenement as follows:
"The property to which the easement relates and, in the case of positive easements, over which it physically runs, is known as the servient tenement because it is 'serving' the dominant tenement.... It is an essential characteristic of an easement that it does not place on the owner of the servient tenement any obligation to act."