648 hepoet— 1882. 



mon rights to be traced witli some accuracy and definiteuess, tlie purview of tliis 

 paper will be limited to this class. 



The chief rights comprise common of turbary and (iu the Forest) of fuel wood — 

 appurtenant to the ancient houses, and common of pannage and of pasture — appur- 

 tenant to the land. There are other rights, viz., of taking marl (for manure), gravel, 

 and sand ; but the very ^'aluable immemorial custom iu the Forest of taking fern 

 for litter was lost in 1854, partly through mismanagement, partly through the 

 hostility of the representatives of the Crown. The right of cutting litter has been 

 recently disputed by the Grantee of the Crown, Earl Delawarr, in Ashdown Forest, 

 in Sussex ; and the decision of the present Lord Coleridge and his two fellow^ Com- 

 missioners in 1854 against the commoners of the NevA Forest was alleged, but, not- 

 withstanding, the right was upheld by the Courts after extensive litigation. In 

 the New Forest, the fern is sold by the Office of Woods, but under conditions 

 generally considered to be prohibitive ; it is bought chiefly from necessity. Now, 

 the cottagers buy leaves, the sedge-grass of the woods, &c., for litter, straw being 

 scarce and expensive, though none of these make-shifts at all make up for the loss 

 of the fern. 



The right of turbary sometimes, i.e. in the manors, includes peat ; the so-called 

 ' turf ' consists of disks of heather with the roots and adhering humus, pared hori- 

 zontally from the gravelly and pastureless soils ; it is burned on the hearth with a 

 little wood, and makes a slow and economical hre. The ashes are much valued for 

 the garden and farm. A turf-right averages 4,000 turves per house, and, being 

 eked out with a few faggots or a little stump-wood, formerly kept a family in fuel 

 througli the winter. Nowadays the use of coal is on the increase. The value 

 of the i-ight is roughly reckoned at 10s. to IZ. a year. 



The right of fuel-wood from the Forest averages a load to a cottage, and 

 farms sometimes have a good deal more. Tliese wood-rights, being costly to the 

 Office of Woods, were keenly contested in 1854. Their value depends largely upon 

 the distance from home at which the wood is assigned. 



The right of pannage varies in value with the season, and with the commoner's 

 power to take advantage of a good mast-time. Tlie cottager who has saved a few 

 pounds, observing the promise of beech-mast and acorns, buys in early and cheap 

 as many pigs as lie can hope to keep until September 25, or he buys a good-sized 

 pig or two just before that date. He then turns them out on payment of 4d for 

 a hog and 2d. for a pig, and they return bettered to the value of about 10s. to 20s. 

 a-head, and fit for immediate sale. In a good season 5/. thus laid out may be 

 doubled iu three months ; but on the average of seasons a clear profit of 10s. per 

 pig accrues on a number of pigs of all sizes. Perhaps the cottager's pig benefits 

 most by a good mast, for the children collect large quantities of acorns along the 

 roads and from the manorial lands, and after the pig has been taken in these are 

 given to him with other food, and thus the mast can be made in all to save 21. 

 in food. The acorns are the better for a little keeping. Some cottagers adopt this 

 method as soon as the mast begins to run short. At present the cheapness of 

 food in proportion to the price of pig meat increases the profit of keeping pigs. 

 Cottagers have been known to make 201. a year by their pigs. 



But it is the right of pasture which is of paramount importance. It gives a 

 wide scope to enterprise, slall, and thrift ; and while the expenses out of pocket are 

 small, a modest capital can be accumulated (either by hard work and rigid economy 

 in early life, or by the co-operation of a helpful family in later life), and a high rate 

 of interest be obtained legitimately. An admirable investment is alw^ays ready 

 to hand, and sometimes a family owes its first ]start to a windfall applied to stock- 

 keeping ou the wastes. From this right the most widespread benefit arises. The 

 aged and the widow may make a bare livelihood and preserve their honourable 

 aversion to parish relief; the shrewd and care fid labourer may become gradually 

 independent of work, and may even raise himself into the ranks of the tenant- 

 farmers. There are labourers of these districts who are better off, all things con- 

 sidered, tlian many a skilled artisan earning full wages in London. Indeed, many 

 a young man before leaving home has a colt or mare running on the open wastes, 

 or possibly even two mares, before he is of age. As forest mares often breed yearly, 



