42 THE COMMONS SOCIETY. 



not of late years been much used, they still subsisted 

 in law, and were effective as a weapon against the 

 Lords of Manors who were usurping the Commons. 

 It will be seen that Mr. Augustus Smith took up 

 the case of the Commoners of Berkhamsted against 

 Lord Brownlow ; Sir Julian Goldsmid and Mr. Warrick 

 against Queen's College, Oxford, in the matter of Plum- 

 stead Common ; Mr. Gurney Hoare on behalf of 

 Hampstead against Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson; Sir 

 Henry Peek against the Lord of the Manor of 

 Wimbledon ; Mr. Hall against Mr. Byron in respect 

 of Coulsdon Common ; Mr. Betts against Mr. Thompson 

 on behalf of Tooting Graveney; Mr. Minet against 

 Mr. Augustus Morgan of Dartford Heath; and ulti- 

 mately the Corporation of London on behalf of Epping 

 Forest against the thirteen Lords of Manors Who had 

 inclosed so large a part of it. 



In many of these and other cases suits were com- 

 menced, within a few months, to vindicate the rights of 

 Commoners and to abate the inclosures. We had the 

 great advantage that, although these suits were promoted 

 locally by those immediately interested in the Commons 

 attacked, they were all under the direction and man- 

 agement of the Solicitor of the Central Society, Mr. P. 

 H. Lawrence, and had therefore the advantage of the 

 accumulated knowledge and experience of one inti- 

 mately acquainted with the somewhat obscure and 

 difficult subject of common rights. It was also, for 

 the same reason, possible to marshal the cases before 

 the Law Courts in the order which was most likely 



