4 ORIGIN OF COMMONS. 
beyond the fifteen mile limit. No other populous 
district is so much favoured as London in this respect. 
But there are not a few towns which owe a great part 
of their popularity as health resorts to the breezy 
Commons which adjoin them. What, for instance, 
would Tunbridge Wells be without its Common, or 
Harrogate without its “ Stray,’ or Malvern without 
its wide range of open hills or chase, or Hastbourne 
without its downs on Beachy Head ? 
In rural England, though the Commons are not 
so essential for health and recreation, yet there are 
many districts which owe their residential charm and 
value to these wild and picturesque open spaces. This 
is specially the case with Surrey, Sussex, and Hamp- 
shire, which are greatly favoured by the number 
of their Commons still remaining uninclosed, by reason, 
probably, of the land being unprofitable for cultivation, 
and offering no temptation in past times to inclose them. 
In the more mountainous parts of England and Wales 
the common rights over wide ranges of land have been 
the means of securing to the public the unrestricted 
access to and enjoyment of the mountain tops, and 
have prevented the owners of the land from excluding 
the public, in the same manner as the Scottish land- 
owners have done in the case of their forests and moors. 
There is no accurate information as to the number 
and area of Commons which still remain uninclosed. 
So late asin 1871, the Inclosure Commissioners reported 
to Parliament that the Commons extended over an area 
of 8,000,000 acres, of which they said 3,000,000 were 
