BANS TE AD COMMONS. 193 



from the demesne lands, and the purchaser acquired 

 only the soil of the waste of the Manor, subject to the 

 rights of common over it, and the quit rents, heriots, 

 and fines of the freehold and copjdiold tenants of the 

 Manor. Sir John Hartopp, having bought these 

 manorial wastes and rights for a comparatively small 

 sum, endeavoured to turn his purchase into a land 

 building speculation, by getting rid of the Commoners 

 and inclosing the Commons. In spite of the lessons 

 which Lords of the Manors must or should have drawn 

 from the experience of the recent litigation in respect 

 of Berkhamsted, Plumstead, and Coulsdon Commons, 

 and still more of Epping Forest, his legal advisers 

 appear to have persuaded him that he could without 

 difficulty convert the Commons into private property, 

 free from common rights. The prize would have been 

 a great one, for the land would have been most valuable 

 for villa residences. The difficulty hitherto in such 

 cases had been the uncertainty as to who were the 

 owners of land within the Manor entitled to common 

 rights, and whose assent it was necessary to obtain by 

 agreement or purchase, before attempting inclosure 

 under the Statute of Merton. 



In the Banstead case, the course of approvement, 

 under the Statute, had apparently been buoyed out by 

 recent proceedings, under the authority of Parliament. 

 In 1866, the London and Brighton Eailway Company 

 had obtained power to construct a branch to Epsom, 

 and to carry this line through Banstead Down. Not 

 only was this a great disfigurement and injury to the 



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