VILLAGE GREENS. 305 



A Committee was then formed, who brought a suit 

 against Mr. Honey, to restrain him from building on 

 the Green, and claiming, on the part of the inhabitants, 

 a right to the land as the village green of the hamlet 

 of Stockwell. The question turned largely upon what 

 was the use made of the Green before 1813, when it was 

 fenced by Barrett. Sir George Jessel decided against 

 the inhabitants, professedly on the ground that the 

 evidence before 1813 showed that the Green was used 

 as a place for games and recreation, not by the people of 

 Stockwell only, but by people from all parts of London, 

 though, no doubt, the fact of the inclosure (of a kind) 

 since 1813 greatly influenced his decision. 



" In the proof of usage/' he said, "the usage must be not 

 only constant to the custom, but not too wide. For instance, if 

 you allege a custom to dance on a Green, and you prove in 

 support of that alleged custom not only that some people danced, 

 but that everybody else in the world who chose not only danced, 

 but played cricket, you have got beyond the custom. Your 

 custom is not confined to what you say it was ; if your evidence* 

 is good for anything, you will prove a great deal more. As I 

 understand the evidence, before the time of inclosure by Barrett, 

 anybody who liked might recreate himself at his will and pleasure- 

 on the Green. There was no limit to the little boys, whether 

 they were Stockwell boys or boys from Brixton, or anywhere 

 else. I do not think many men played on the Green at any 

 time, but I think occasionally girls played there, principally little 

 girls, though some of them might be girls of a larger growth j 

 and I think occasionally young men played on the Green. It 

 was hardly big enough for men's cricket, but I have no doubt 

 that anybody who liked played on the Green. . . . The 

 Green seems to have been open to everybody who wanted to go 

 there, and whether there were or not constables of the vill, no- 

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