2 ORIGIN OF COMMONS. 



sense of the term, and which the owners could at any 

 time inclose with fences. 



These Commons are not to be found only in purely 

 rural districts ; many of them are near to London 

 and other large towns. In such cases they form, as 

 it were, oases of nature, in striking contrast to their 

 surroundings. They have ceased, however, to be of 

 any substantial profit to those who have rights of 

 common over them. The growth of a large population 

 in their neighbourhood has made it dangerous to turn 

 out valuable cattle on them. Cheap coal has superseded 

 the necessity of cutting turf or gorse for fuel. Bracken 

 and heather are not wanted for litter or thatching. 

 People have taken the place of cattle and sheep, and use 

 the wastes for recreation, though it will be seen that 

 the law has not recognised the change, or given full 

 sanction to the new user. The common rights still 

 subsist in law, though no longer of any practical value 

 for the purposes which gave rise to them. They are 

 valued by the adjoining owners of land only because 

 they afford the means of preventing the owner of 

 the soil, the Lord of the Manor, inclosing and ap- 

 propriating the Common for building, and thus ex- 

 cluding the public. 



Where such urban or suburban Commons exist 

 it is difficult to exaggerate their value to the public. 

 They are natural parks, over which every one may roam 

 freely ; for though the public may be trespassers in 

 strict law, there are no practical means of preventing 

 their going upon these waste lands for exercise and 



