188 



CHAPTER XI. 



Banstead Commons. 



The last, but not the least important, of the great suits 

 affecting Commons within reach of London, was that of 

 the Banstead Commons. Indeed, no other suit has 

 been more pertinaciously fought through long years of 

 litigation, or was subject to more strange and un- 

 expected vicissitudes. Commenced in the year 1S77, 

 it was not concluded till 1890, and only in the past 

 year, 1893, has the future of the Commons been 

 definitely provided for by a Regulation scheme, under 

 the Metropolitan Commons Acts, in spite of the most 

 determined opposition of those representing the Lord 

 of the Manor before Select Committees of both Houses 

 of Parliament. Seventeen years, therefore, have been 

 spent in resisting the efforts to appropriate these 

 Commons, and in securing to the Commoners and the 

 public the enjoyment and management of them. 



The Commons of Banstead consist of four distinct 

 and separate areas, with an aggregate of about 1,300 

 acres. They lie on the summit of the North Surrey 

 Downs, at an altitude of 500 to 600 feet above the sea, 

 with splendid views, on the one side, of the Valley of 

 the Thames, with its teeming population, on the other, 

 of the Weald of Surrey and Sussex. Together with 

 Epsom Downs, Walton Heath, and Coulsdon Commons, 



