ORIGIN OF COMMONS. 13 



thirds of England, was at that time common or waste 

 land of Manors, the right of approval thus conceded to 

 the lords was of great value. It gave rise to frequent 

 disputes between Lords of Manors and the free tenants 

 of their Manors. The early law-books are full of such 

 cases. Very often we find that inclosures were effected 

 for the purpose of making parks for deer and other 

 game. More frequent was the inclosure of a pastura 

 separabilis, which it is often added fuit quondam com- 

 munis and qurs solebat esse communis totius villa, 

 showing that the recollection of the folk-land of the 

 vill had not been lost. 



Later a much greater restriction was practically 

 imposed on these inclosures, by the legal recognition 

 of fixity of tenure, on the part of the villeins of the 

 Manor, in the land which they occupied. This con- 

 version of villeinage into fixed customary tenure, which 

 was the origin of Copyholds, came about almost im- 

 perceptibly, without the intervention of Parliament, 

 and by the gradual expansion of legal doctrines, 

 borrowed by the judges from the Roman law. It 

 cannot be traced earlier than the time of Henry IV. 

 These Copyholders, when fixity of tenure was conceded 

 to them, constituted the main class of yeomen. They 

 had customary rights over the waste of the Manor, 

 which were also recognised at the same time, and must 

 h;ive limited greatly the power of inclosing under the 

 Statute of Merton. 



About the same time, or perhaps somewhat earlier, 

 the lowest class of dependants on the Manor the serfs 



