16 HISTORY OF COMMONS. 



of user was very strong, have felt that they were bound 

 to find a legal origin for the custom or user, and have 

 gone so far as to presume that there must have been a 

 charter from the Crown in early times, though subse- 

 quently lost, and by this ingenious device have admitted 

 the rights of inhabitants in some instances. But these 

 cases have been few in number compared with the vast 

 number where, by virtue of the above decision, the 

 inhabitants of villages and Manors have been refused 

 legal recognition of customs and rights, which they 

 undoubtedly enjoyed from time immemorial, and 

 which were of the greatest importance to them. The 

 settlement of the law on this point enabled Lords of 

 Manors to inclose under the Statute of Merton, or 

 with the consent of the recognised tenants of their 

 Manors, without any consideration for the interests of 

 the inhabitants generally, no matter how much they 

 had actually benefited in the past from the practical 

 user of common rights. 



So long, however, as a Common remained open and 

 uninclosed, the decision in Grateward's case did not 

 practically affect the position of the inhabitants, for as 

 residents in cottages belonging to the lord and other 

 persons, they continued to exercise the customary rights 

 of turbary or pasture. It was only when inclosure took 

 place that they suffered from the rule laid down, which 

 refused to them any legal claim to that which they had 

 practically always enjoyed. 



The extent of Commons and open land in early 

 times was so great that it is probable the}- suffered 



