THE COMMITTEE ON OOMMONS. 29 
they could oppose no obstacle to its inclosures under 
the Statute of Merton; and that practically the lord 
could do as he liked with it. In this view there would 
not be a doubt as to the very generous nature of the 
offer, or as to the intentions which actuated it. On the 
other hand, it soon became apparent that the Com- 
moners of Wimbledon took a very different view of 
their legal rights, and of their relative position to the 
lord. They denied his right or power to inclose the 
waste ; they did not desire to be bought out; still less 
did they wish that the area of the Common should be 
reduced by one-third; they did not approve of the 
proposal to turn what was to remain of the Common 
into an inclosed and fenced park. ‘Those who lived in 
the neighbourhood of Roehampton and Putney ebjected 
most strongly to the sale of that portion of the Common 
which was nearest to them. A committee was conse- 
quently formed of the commoners and inhabitants of 
Wimbledon, with Mr. Peek (now Sir Henry Peek) as 
their chairman, which entered into an investigation as 
to the legal position of the Lord of the Manor and the 
commoners, and was prepared to contest that part of 
the scheme which proposed the sale of Putney Heath, 
or the impaling and fencing of the residue of the 
Common. 
Meanwhile, the subject of the London Commons, their 
neglected condition, the threatened inclosures of them, 
and the inroads which had been made on them by various 
Railway Companies, had greatly roused public attention 
in London. In the session of 1865, Mr. Doulton, then 
