CHAPTER VIII 



COMMONS AND OPEN SPACES 



'77j very had in man or ivoman 

 To steal a goose from off" the common. 

 But who shall plead that mans excuse 

 Who steals the common from the goose P 



— An Old Ditty. 



T was only fifty years ago, when the 

 want of fresh air and room for 

 recreation was being realised, that 

 people began to wake up to the 

 truth that there were already great 

 open spaces in London which ought 

 to be cared for and preserved. It 

 was brought home by the fact that 

 over ;^iooo an acre was being paid to purchase market- 

 gardens or fields so as to transform them into parks, 

 while at the same time land which already belonged to 

 the people was being recklessly sold away and built over. 

 All through the history of most of the common lands 

 encroachments of a more or less serious nature are re- 

 corded from time to time. The exercise of common 

 rights also was often so unrestrained as to inflict permanent 

 injury on the commons. The digging for gravel was 

 frequently carried to excess, whins and brushwood were 

 cut, and grass over-grazed until nothing remained. At 



last, in 1 865, a Commons Preservation Society was formed 



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