RURAL COMMONS. 285 



Common still remains open to the public, though much 

 in need of a regulating scheme. 



A case of somewhat opposite character was that of 

 Thurstaston Common, near Birkenhead. The Common, 

 of about 150 acres, was one of great beauty, occupying 

 the highest land on the peninsula between the Dee and 

 the Mersey, and commanding fine views of the estuary 

 of the Dee and the Welsh mountains. Its surface was 

 also picturesquely diversified by masses of rock; and it 

 contained one stone of much antiquarian interest called 

 Thor's Stone, believed to have been a place of sacrifice 

 in the time of the Danes. Unfortunately almost the 

 whole of the parish was owned by two landowners, the 

 Lord of the Manor and another wealthy proprietor, the 

 remaining thirty acres being glebe. A threat was held 

 out to the Inclosure Commissioners that if Parliament 

 would not consent to the inclosure of the Common 

 under the Act, the Lord of the Manor would by 

 agreement with the other two persons interested, effect 

 its appropriation. The Inclosure Commissioners in 

 their report to Parliament, said that, considering the 

 growing population of Birkenhead and the almost equal 

 nearness of the great city of Liverpool, they would have 

 declined the application for inclosure in order to keep 

 the entire Common for public resort ; but seeing that the 

 owners might by agreement appropriate the whole 

 Common for themselves to the exclusion of the public, 

 they thought it better, by consenting to the scheme, 

 to secure a part of it for the public. They agreed to the 

 proposal, therefore, upon the terms that forty-five acres 



