BANSTEAD COMMONS. 209 



the Commons for ever, and to avoid further legal pro- 

 ceedings. Their overtures were disregarded, and the 

 mortgagees were induced to plunge further into this sea 

 of litigation, with the result only that they lost every- 

 thing, and were mulcted in enormous costs. The Com- 

 moners, in spite of their victory on every point, had 

 to pay their costs in the suit against Sir John Hartopp, 

 in consequence of his bankruptcy ; but they had at least 

 the satisfaction of knowing that their efforts had saved 

 the wastes, not only from immediate and prospective 

 inclosure, but from the destructive practices of the 

 lord, which were defacing the surface and destroying 

 the beauty of the Banstead Commons. 



The battle, however, did not end with the litigation 

 in the Law Courts. The Commoners, having succeeded 

 there, were determined to strike further while the iron 

 was hot, and to put the Commons in such a position that 

 their interests would be no longer neglected. They 

 applied to the Agricultural Department for a scheme for 

 regulating Banstead Commons, under the Metropolitan 

 Commons Act. The Agricultural Department, hitherto, 

 had generally been unwilling to pass regulation schemes 

 when the Lords of Manors opposed. In this case, how- 

 ever, the circumstances were so exceptional, the argu- 

 ments arising from the action of the lord, in his long 

 efforts to inclose and to injure the surface of the Commons, 

 were so potent, that the Department after protracted pro- 

 ceedings gave way on the point, and made a scheme for 

 the regulation of the Banstead Commons in spite of the 

 vehement opposition of the mortgagees of the Manor, 

 o 



