68 BERKHAMSTED COMMON. 



custom to have perceive and take in the Fryth (or Common) 

 and other waste land, herbage and pannage, bushes, furze, 

 stubbes, and ferae for their necessary use for their lands and 

 tenements, and common of pasture for their cattle at all times 

 of the year ' sans nombre', and that the Fryth and other waste 

 lands cannot be estimated at anie yearely value, by reason that the 

 tenantes and inhabitants aforesaid are manie, and that they perceive 

 and take the benefit thereof. And the pannage likewise can be 

 nothing worth to the Lord of the Manor, for that the tenantes 

 have always had the benefit thereof.'' 



The freehold tenants at that time were stated to be 

 1S6 in number, and the copyhold tenants 57. The 

 inhabitants of Berkhamsted also were even then 

 numerous. 



In spite of this survey, showing that the Common 

 was no more than sufficient in area for the rights which 

 existed over it, an effort was made within a few years 

 to inclose the whole, or considerable parts, of it. In 

 1617, the Council of the Prince of Wales, afterwards 

 Charles the First, took proceedings with this object. 

 The tenants of Berkhamsted and North church, the two 

 parishes comprised in the Manor, were consulted on 

 the subject. Those of Berkhamsted were willing to 

 agree, on the terms that one-half of the Common 

 should be assigned to them, in exchange for their rights ; 

 those of Northchurch held back, at the suggestion of a 

 Mr. Edlyn, a landowner of the district, who exercised 

 extensive rights over the Common. The people of 

 Berkhamsted were propitiated by the promise of 

 a charter of incorporation. The Northchurch tenants 

 still refused ; but after the exercise of pressure upon 



