236 THE NEW FOREST. 



of the Forest, claimed that they had the right to inclose 

 successively the whole of the open lands of the Forest, 

 whether timbered or not, on condition that, by successively 

 throwing down the fences of previous inclosures when 

 the trees were of a height to save them from destruction 

 by cattle, they should avoid keeping more than 16,000 

 acres at any one time within fences. It is clear that, 

 from the year 1851, the Commissioners of Woods 

 assumed the position with reference to the Forest 

 that Lords of Manors have taken up of late years as 

 to Commons. They asserted that the Crown was 

 practically owner of the Forest, that the Commoners' 

 rights were of little value and might be disregarded, 

 and that as officers of the Crown they were bound to 

 make the very utmost income out of the Forest, with- 

 out regard to the interests of the Commoners or of 

 the public. 



In 1854, under the authority of the Act of 1851, 

 a Commission, of which Mr. Coleridge, now Lord 

 Coleridge, was a member, sat for the purpose of deciding 

 upon the claims of persons entitled as Commoners ; and 

 in spite of the fact that many persons neglected to put 

 in claims, and that the presumptions of the Commission 

 appear to have been rather against the extension of 

 rights, it was held that the owners and occupiers of no 

 less than 65,000 acres of land, not waste of the Forest, 

 situate in sixty-three parishes, were entitled to turn out 

 their cattle and horses, and to exercise other rights in the 

 Forest, and that the occupiers of 1,200 houses were 

 entitled to take turf in it for fuel. 



