42 THE COMMONS SOCIETY. 
not of late years been much used, they still subsisted 
in law, and were effective as a weapon against the 
Lords of Manors who were usurping the Commons. 
It will be seen that Mr. Augustus Smith took up 
the case of the Commoners of Berkhamsted against 
Lord Brownlow; Sir Julian Goldsmid and Mr. Warrick 
against Queen’s College, Oxford, in the matter of Plum- 
stead Common; Mr. Gurney Hoare on behalf of 
Hampstead against Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson; Sir 
Henry Peek against the Lord of the Manor of 
Wimbledon; Mr. Hall against Mr. Byron in respect 
of Coulsdon Common; Mr. Betts against Mr. Thompson 
on behalf of Tooting Graveney; Mr. Minet against 
Mr. Augustus Morgan of Dartford Heath; and ulti- 
mately the Corporation of London on behalf of Epping 
Forest against the thirteen Lords of Manors who had 
inclosed so large a part of it. 
In many of these and other cases suits were com- 
menced, within a few months, to vindicate the rights of 
Commoners and to abate the inclosures. We had the 
great advantage that, although these suits were promoted 
locally by those immediately interested in the Commons 
attacked, they were all under the direction and man- 
agement of the Solicitor of the Central Society, Mr. P. 
H. Lawrence, and had therefore the advantage of the 
accumulated knowledge and experience of one inti- 
mately acquainted with the somewhat obscure and 
dificult subject of common rights. It was also, for 
the same reason, possible to marshal the cases before 
the Law Courts in the order which was most likely 
