ITS HISTORY. 19 



ton, and Miss Octavia Hill — all of whom took an 

 active part on its committee. Such a body had, 

 as was to be expected, great parliamentary in- 

 fluence. Among other steps that were taken at its 

 instigation, a Committee of the House of Com- 

 mons was appointed, who reported in 1863 that 

 the Forest was being destroyed, and recommended 

 that the forestal rights of the Crown should be 

 enforced where they had not been sold. 



Two years later another committee was ap- 

 pointed to inquire into all the open spaces round 

 London. The view of the lords of the manor, 

 which was urged upon these committees, was that 

 nothing stood between each lord and enclosure on 

 his own manor but the right of the commoners of 

 that manor, which rights in several of the manors 

 had either been compensated or surrendered. On 

 the other hand, the opponents of this view main- 

 tained that the common rights still existed, and, 

 even if little used, were sufficient to resist enclosure. 

 This committee repeated the recommendation with 

 regard to the Forest which had been made by the 

 previous one ; but, though an Act was passed pro- 

 viding for the regulation of commons, no steps were 

 taken by the Government of the day with regard to 

 the Forest, and in default of this the party of enclos- 

 ure gained courage to assert what they believed to 

 be their rights by further large enclosures. Within 

 a comparatively brief period nearly 3000 acres were 

 thus surrounded by fences. Public opinion began 

 to be aroused, but the first overt act of resistance 

 was committed by a labouring man — one Willin- 

 gale — who persisted in asserting his ancient right 

 of lopping in Loughton Manor, as his forefathers 

 had done. It is held locally that this right was 



