ENGLISH 



COMMONS AND FORESTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Origin and History or Commons. 



In most parts of England and Wales there are to be 

 found ranges of open land, which have never been 

 subject to cultivation or agricultural improvement, 

 and which have consequently remained in their original 

 state of nature from the earliest times. Their per- 

 manence in this state has been due to the fact 

 that the ownership of them is not absolute. They 

 are burdened with the rights of numerous adjoining 

 owners and occupiers to turn out cattle or sheep 

 on them, and to dig turf or cut gorse, bracken, or 

 heather thereon for fuel, litter, or thatching. The 

 existence of such rights has prevented the nominal 

 owners of the soil from exercising the full rights of 

 inclosing and cultivating the land, and has indirectly 

 been the means of securing to the public the un- 

 restricted use and enjoyment of walking or riding over 

 it in all directions, whatever may be their strict legal 

 right. Such common lands are technically the wastes 

 of the Manors in which they are situate, and must 

 be distinguished from other lands, which, though open 

 and uninclosed, are yet private property in the full 



B 



