2o6 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



appear larger than Tooting, which is really only lo acres 

 less, but of more rambling shape. The Common has 

 suffered much less than most of its neighbours from 

 enclosures. It was shared between two manors, Battersea 

 and Clapham, and the rival lords and commonalities, each 

 jealous of their own special rights, were more careful to 

 prevent encroachments than was often the case. At one 

 time Battersea went so far as to dig a great ditch to 

 prevent the cattle of the Clapham people coming into 

 its part of the ground. The other parish resisted and 

 filled up the ditch, and was sued for trespass by Battersea, 

 which, however, lost its case — this ended in 171 8. The 

 Common has an air of dignified respectability, and is still 

 surrounded with some solid old-fashioned houses, although 

 modern innovations have destroyed a great number of 

 them. A nice old buttressed wall, over which ilex trees 

 show their heads, and suggest possibilities of a shady 

 lawn, carries one back to the time when Pepys retired 

 to Clapham to " a very noble house and sweete place, 

 where he enjoyed the fruite of his labour in great 

 prosperity " ; or to the days when Wilberforce lived 

 there, and he, together with the other workers in the 

 same cause, Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and Zachary 

 Macaulay, used to meet at the house of John Thornton 

 by the Common. 



There is nothing wild now about the Common, and 

 the numbers of paths which intersect it are edged by high 

 iron railings, to prevent the entire wearing away of the 

 grass. The beauty of the ground is its trees. They 

 proclaim it to be an old and honoured open space, and 

 not a modern creation. Only one tree has any pretentions 

 to historical interest, having been planted by the eldest son 

 of Captain Cook the explorer, but only a stump remains. 



