HISTORY OF COMMONS. 25 



or not, to the cultivated area ; and people began to see 

 that such open spaces in their natural state, adding 

 so much to the beauty of their districts and to the 

 general enjojnnent of the public, had a value, which 

 would be lost if the land were inclosed and ploughed up. 

 Coincident with these movements, a change took 

 place in the condition of many Commons. The rights 

 of common, whether of turning out cattle or sheep on 

 them, or of cutting turf and bracken, were more and 

 more neglected and disused, where the Commons were 

 in populous places. The Manor Courts formed by the 

 freehold and copyhold tenants of the Manors, formerly 

 held with regrularitv, and attended with zeal, fell into 

 disuse. The Court rolls, which for centuries had been 

 kept up, were often discontinued. The Lords of 

 Manors, who in olden times acted in the position of 

 trustees or guardians for their tenants, maintaining 

 order on the wastes, and settling disputes between the 

 Commoners, abandoned this supervision, and allowed 

 the Commons to become subject to nuisances. Often 

 they complained that they were wholly without the 

 means of maintaining order in their Manors. The 

 enormous increase in the value of land in the neigh- 

 bourhood of towns, and especially of London, offered a 

 great inducement to them to convert the land into build- 

 ing sites. When they found that public opinion was 

 setting against these inclosures through the processes 

 provided by Parliament, they advanced the claim through 

 their lawyers that the old and forgotten Statute of Merton 

 might be furbished up to empower them to realise the 



