10 THE NEW FOREST 



living on their own land and in their own houses, 

 who own and exercise rights of common. They 

 are a very prosperous and praiseworthy commu- 

 nity. They represent the genuine commoner and 

 his interests far more than those landlords who 

 let out their rights, or those tenants who rent a 

 large farm and go in for pony ranching in the 

 Forest, even though they perhaps own the larger 

 proportion of the ponies running out. But the 

 small freeholder is the real pony breeder and cattle 

 and pig raiser on small but efficient lines, who 

 ought to be encouraged in every possible manner. 

 It will be obvious that these common rights con- 

 stitute a property of great value, and that there 

 is necessarily considerable friction between those 

 who own and constantly desire to increase and 

 enhance them, and the Crown as actual owner of 

 the soil over which they are exercised, and again 

 with the public exercising its privileges in right 

 of the Crown. 



This constant state of conflict has existed 

 from time immemorial, and been the subject of 

 numerous inquiries by official committees and of 

 Acts of Parliament based on the results of these 

 inquiries. 



It would be tedious to follow out these dis- 

 cussions in full, but for the purposes of this 

 present story it is necessary to go back as far as 



