222 TOLLARD FARNHAM. 



heavy cost of taking it there. The expenses of the in- 

 vestigation into the history of the Manor, and of the pro- 

 ceedings before the arbitrator and the Court, had been 

 already very serious. It was only by the forbearance of 

 the professional men engaged in the case that the cost 

 was able to be met, and it was found impossible to raise 

 funds for further litigation. Lord Rivers therefore 

 maintained his victory. He had whatever satisfaction 

 was to be derived from wresting from the labouring 

 people of one of his many parishes an user and custom 

 which had undoubtedly existed from time immemorial, 

 and the deprivation of which rankled in their minds, 

 and created grave discontent. This was part of his 

 scheme for concentrating in his own hands all the 

 property in the parish, and for turning the Common into 

 a game preserve. 



How many other similar cases may there not have 

 been in rural districts where no one has been fortunate 

 enough to find assistance from outside to fight the 

 great owner of the district, and where ancient and 

 established customs have been arbitrarily set aside, 

 and the labouring people still further depressed by 

 their being deprived of the last vestige of a sense of 

 property in the land on which they were born and 

 bred ! It cannot be doubted that such acts are to 

 some extent responsible for the exodus of population 

 irom the country to the towns, which landowners (as 

 well as others) are at last beginning to deplore. 



The case, thus described, was decided before the 

 judgment of Lord Hobhouse in the Loughton Lopping 



