2 ORIGIN OF COMMONS. 
sense of the term, and which the owners could at any 
time inclose with fences. 
These Commons are not to be found only in purely 
rural districts; many of them are near to London 
and other large towns. In such cases they form, as 
it were, oases of nature, in striking contrast to their 
surroundings. They have ceased, however, to be of 
any substantial profit to those who have rights of 
common over them. The growth of a large population 
in their neighbourhood has made it dangerous to turn 
out valuable cattle on them. Cheap coal has superseded 
the necessity of cutting turf or gorse for fuel. Bracken 
and heather are not wanted for litter or thatching. 
People have taken the place of cattle and sheep, and use 
the wastes for recreation, though it will be seen that 
the law has not recognised the change, or given full 
sanction to the new user. The common rights still 
subsist in law, though no longer of any practical value 
for the purposes which gave rise to them. They are 
valued by the adjoining owners of land only because 
they afford the means of preventing the owner of 
the soil, the Lord of the Manor, inclosing and ap- 
propriating the Common for building, and thus ex- 
cluding the public. 
Where such urban or suburban Commons exist 
it is difficult to exaggerate their value to the public. 
They are natural parks, over which every one may roam 
freely; for though the public may be trespassers in 
strict law, there are no practical means of preventing 
their going upon these waste lands for exercise and 
