HISTORY OF COMMONS. 25 
or not, to the cultivated area; and people began to see 
that such open spaces in their natural state, adding 
so much to the beauty of their districts and to the 
general enjoyment of the public, had a value, which 
would be lost if the land were inclosed and ploughed up. 
Coincident with these movements, a change took 
place in the condition of many Commons. The rights 
of common, whether of turning out cattle or sheep on 
them, or of cutting turf and bracken, were more and 
more neglected and disused, where the Commons were 
in populous places. The Manor Courts formed by the 
freehold and copyhold tenants of the Manors, formerly 
held with regularity, and attended with zeal, fell into 
disuse. The Court rolls, which for centuries had been 
kept up, were often discontinued. The Lords of 
Manors, who in olden times acted in the position of 
trustees or guardians for their tenants, maintaining 
order on the wastes, and settling disputes between the 
Commoners, abandoned this supervision, and allowed 
the Commons to become subject to nuisances. Often 
they complained that they were wholly without the 
means of maintaining order in their Manors. The 
enormous increase in the value of land in the neigh- 
bourhood of towns, and especially of London, offered a 
great inducement to them to convert the land into build- 
ing sites. When they found that public opinion was 
setting against these inclosures through the processes 
provided by Parliament, they advanced the claim through 
their lawyers that the old and forgotten Statute of Merton 
might be furbished up to empower them to realise the 
