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1 
CHAPTER II. 
Tue Comumitter or 1865 on Merroponitan Commons. 
Tue first movement for dealing with a Common in the 
interest of the public arose in respect of Wimbledon 
Common—one of the largest, most beautiful, and best 
valued of those in the neighbourhood of London—and 
at the instance of its lord. 
In the autumn of 1864 Earl Spencer, the Lord of 
the Manor of Wimbledon, announced his intention to 
dedicate the greater part of this Common to the public. 
In bringing his proposal before the Commoners and 
Inhabitants of Wimbledon, he pointed out the very 
great changes which had occurred within recent years, 
by the growth of a large suburban population in the 
neighbourhood of the Common, and the grave respon- 
sibilities and difficulties entailed upon him as Lord of 
the Manor; he said that, however anxious he had been 
to fulfil these duties in an unselfish manner, and to 
consult the interests of the neighbourhood, he had found 
his powers as lord were inadequate to cope with the 
various cases in which complaint had been made to him, 
by the inhabitants and others, in relation to the want of 
drainage, to petty encroachments on the Common, to 
the gipsies and tramps who frequented it, and to the 
rubbish-heaps and other nuisances which disfigured it, 
and generally as to the want of power to improve it, and 
to manage it in the interest of the public. 
