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CHAPTER XVI. 



Road Side Wastes. 



Closely analogous to the question of Commons is that 

 of the road-side wastes, so often to be found in rural parts 

 of England, and not unfrequently even in the suburbs 

 of our great towns. It need not be pointed out how 

 valuable they are to the public. To horsemen they are 

 welcome as affording soft turf, in lieu of the hard road, 

 for a gallop. They are often the only playground for 

 the children of labouring men. Where the fences are 

 irregular, and the space between them and the road is 

 interspersed with bushes and brambles, beneath which 

 wild flowers find luxuriant growth, or with gorse or 

 broom, the picturesqueness of the rural scene is greatly 

 enhanced. Such strips of land are of far greater value 

 in their present condition, than if added to the 

 adjoining fields, even though the produce of the soil 

 might be slightly increased ; and no owner of land, who 

 has any regard for public interests, would dream of 

 advancing his fences so as to appropriate them. Yet 

 such is the desire to add to their domains even a few 

 yards of frontage, that many landowners and especially 

 small owners seem to be unable to resist the tempta- 

 tion of inclosing these strips, when they can do so with 

 impunity. 



The soil of these road-side wastes is generally 



