74 PROTECTION AGAINST MAN. 



6. The Disadvantages Arising from Forest Servitudes. 



The chief disadvantages to forests, from the existence of 

 rights-of -common are : 



() Limitation of the owner's power of managing the forest 

 in the best possible manner, or of converting it, and so forth. 

 An insuperable obstacle to systematic management in English 

 woodlands subject to rights-of-common, is, that they cannot 

 be enclosed, or fenced. Such woodlands pay no rates, and 

 thus, the general public has to pay for the privileges of the 

 right-holders, often a few neighbouring land-owners, who 

 obtain a higher rental, than they would otherwise, from 

 the farmers, or cottagers, who exercise the rights. 



Some servitudes affect the control more than others, and it 

 is noteworthy, that it is generally not any one right that is 

 objectionable ; the difficulty arises from the aggregate demand 

 for a number of right-holders, both as to the quantity of pro- 

 duce, area of grazing, etc., which they require, and also 

 the number of persons introduced, to graze flocks, gather 

 wood, etc. 



(b) Even rights-of-way and other rights which take nothing 

 from the forest, give occasion to accidental trespass, to forest 

 fires, and perhaps to wilful offences. 



(c) The forest owner is tempted to be less careful of 

 his forest, and is deterred from expending capital on its 

 improvement. 



(d) Both the labour and cost of protection are considerably 

 increased when forest rights are numerous. 



was enforced when the lords of the manors wished to enclose the forest areas, 

 included in their manors, and had oven proceeded so far as to clear a thousand 

 acres of forest and subdivide it into building allotments. They claimed the 

 power to purchase the right of lopping from the right-holders within their own 

 manors. The right-holders, on the other hand, claimed that their right extended 

 over the whole forest, and not over any pnrticular manor, and this view of the 

 matter was eventually accepted by the High Court of Justice after a protracted 

 judicial inquiry. Thus it was decided that the lords of the manors could not 

 free their respective manors from the rights without satisfying all the right- 

 holders, in whatever manor they might reside. This decision saved Epping 

 Forest from being converted into building-sites, and the City of London even- 

 tually purchased all the manorial and lopping rights in the forest, the latter for 

 7,000, and now only rights of pasture and pannage are exercised by the. 

 commoners. 



