39 
CHAPTER ILI. 
Tur Commons Preservation Socrery. 
Tus Report of the Committee of 1365 was followed 
almost immediately by most important consequences. 
The Lords of Manors of the London Commons, having 
failed to induce the Committee to adopt their con- 
tention that they were practically the owners of the 
Commons, and that the Commoners’ rights had 
lapsed by non-use, took immediate steps to vindicate 
their claims. In all directions inclosures were com- 
menced or threatened. In Epping Forest hundreds of 
acres were taken from the Forest, and were fenced. The 
Commons of Berkhamsted, Plumstead, and Tooting, 
and Bostall Heath were inclosed. Hampstead Heath 
and others were seriously menaced, and would doubt- 
less soon have been lost to the public. If these 
inclosures had been allowed to remain unchallenged, the 
whole of the London Commons would have been un- 
doubtedly lost to the public. The opponents to the pre- 
tensions of the Lords of Manors were equally determined 
to put in force their views, and to resist inclosures. In 
the autumn of 1865, on the suggestion of Mr. P. H. 
Lawrence, a Society was founded for the preservation 
of Commons in the neighbourhood of London, with 
the express purpose of offering resistance to these 
