4 ORIGIN OF COMMONS. 



beyond the fifteen mile limit. No other populous 

 district is so much favoured as London in this respect. 

 But there are not a few towns which owe a great part 

 of their popularity as health resorts to the breezy 

 Commons which adjoin them. What, for instance, 

 would Tunbridge Wells be without its Common, or 

 Harrogate without its " Stray," or Malvern without 

 its wide range of open hills or chase, or Eastbourne 

 without its downs on Beachy Head ? 



In rural England, though the Commons are not 

 so essential for health and recreation, yet there are 

 many districts which owe their residential charm and 

 value to these wild and picturesque open spaces. This 

 is specially the case with Surrey, Sussex, and Hamp- 

 shire, which are greatly favoured by the number 

 of their Commons still remaining uninclosed, by reason, 

 probably, of the land being unprofitable for cultivation, 

 and offering no temptation in past times to inclose them. 

 In the more mountainous parts of England and Wales 

 the common rights over wide ranges of land have been 

 the means of securing to the public the unrestricted 

 access to and enjoyment of the mountain tops, and 

 have prevented the owners of the land from excluding 

 the public, in the same manner as the Scottish land- 

 owners have done in the case of their forests and moors. 



There is no accurate information as to the number 

 and area of Commons which still remain uninclosed. 

 So late as in 1871, the Inclosure Commissioners reported 

 to Parliament that the Commons extended over an area 

 of 8,000,000 acres, of which they said 3,000,000 were 



