SHOET-COMMONS. 



" Is there uo uook of Eiiglisli grouud secure 

 Prom rash assault ?— if liuman hearts be dead, 

 Speak, passing winds ; ye torrents, with your strong 

 And constant voice, protest against the wrong." — WorcUwortU. 



"|30LITICAL figitations do not originate 

 -^ from the laboratories or libraries of men 

 of science, neither do these generally enter 

 upon the political arena, or take an active 

 part in discussing the merits of new measures, 

 or the measures of irew men. It is only when 

 changes are proposed, or innovations are 

 threatened, v/hicli are likely to influence their 

 favourite pursuits, that they awake, as it were 

 from a dream, and inquire, What do these 

 things mean ? And even then they do not 

 speak or act as diplomatists, and their con- 

 ception of the question is bounded only by 

 the good or ill which is likely to accrue to 

 them and their '•' hobby." Yv^e are not am- 

 bitious to be regarded as politicians of any 

 school. Scarcely able to define the genus or 

 species of any legislative phenomenon who 

 figures in the pages of Hansard, or to unravel 

 the n^ysteries of a twelve hours' debate, we 

 nevertheless arouse now and then to a sound 

 of " Enclosure of Waste Lands," which we 

 translate into the more homely phrase of 

 "Short-Commons." Yv'hether or not there is 

 any present fear of more absorption in this 

 direction we are not prophets enough to tell, 

 and we care little to inquire. It is sufficient 

 for us to sufter the hallucination of Hamp- 

 stead Heath laid out in squares, adorned wdtli 

 villas, cut up into terraces, and sacrificed to 

 the demon of bricks and mortar. For us the 

 vision of Wimbledon Common surrounded by 

 miles of monotonous palisades, and laid out in 

 trim parallelograms of level grass, intersected 

 by the cleanest of gravel walks, is enough, be 

 it only a vision, to arouse us from exploring 

 the " Origin of Species " to protest against 

 3 



the " Origin of Parks," and the absorption of 

 "the last of commons." 



Not " the last of the commons," and not 

 " closed to the public " are the pleas put in 

 agaiust us. Are not Wandsworth Common 

 and the Black Sea left % Is there not a common 

 at Barnes, or Esher, or Weybridge % And if 

 Plainault is gone, and Epping is going, is not 

 the New Forest left ? We are not politicians, 

 so perhaps all this is as it should be. It may 

 be right enough to give to "Labour" its 

 Saturday half-holiday, that it may go out of 

 town and enjoy itself, and hold converse with 

 Nature face to face, and at the same time 

 drive Nature so far out of town, that a half- 

 day is too short to reach her doaiains. Such 

 changes may be in perfect accordance with 

 the spirit of improvement, and our spirit may 

 be stupid and stubborn to rebel. We might 

 know better if we were politicians. Let our 

 friend the mechanic, who has for five days 

 and a half laboured in hope that during the 

 latter half of the sixth day he shall run down 

 to Wimbledon to collect a few plants or in- 

 sects, hear the birds sing, scramble amongst 

 the furze, and feel the cool fresh breeze blow- 

 ing the smoke out of his hair, pause awhile, 

 and picture to himself a future. In that day 

 there shall be no more furze, or heather, or 

 buttercups and daisies ; the bluebell and the 

 fern must give place to asters and chrysanthe- 

 niums, and the furze be uprooted that the 

 laurel and Auciiha may stand in its place. No 

 daisy must dare to bloom in the shorn grass 

 under peril of decapitation. The butterfly 

 and dragon-fij^ no longer den iz^'us, but poach- 

 ers or burglars^ must seek the recesses of 





