ORIGIN OF COMMONS. 9 
common field system, with its three great fields in each 
village or parish, and with its waste lands open to all. 
A large part of the inclosures complained of in Tudor 
times consisted not of inclosures of the waste lands, but 
in doing away with the system of common fields, and 
in converting them into individual property, freed from 
the obligation of throwing them open during a portion 
of the year. Such inclosures continued to be frequent, 
under the authority of private Acts, down to modern 
times, and not a few cases still exist of land called 
Common Fields, or Lammas Land, held on this system 
of tenure, and thrown open during a part of each year. 
Interesting examples of it will be referred to later in the 
cases of Tollard Farnham and the Hackney Commons. 
The introduction of the feudal system gradually 
effected a great change in the relations of individuals 
to one another and to the waste lands. The new 
system had its origin in military necessity. The 
country was by degrees parcelled out into commands 
among military chiefs, who were at first appointed only 
for life, but who later acquired the right of inheritance 
for their eldest sons or heirs. The Chief assumed 
command, and later exercised the rights of property 
over the district assigned to him, which generally cor- 
responded to the ancient village, and which became the 
“Manor.” The Chief, thus appointed, had the right of 
summoning to arms the inferior landowners within his 
district or Manor, who thus became in a military sense 
his dependants, bound to render him military service. 
They held their land, however, on certain tenure, and 
