ENGLISH 
COMMONS AND FORHSTS. 
— 
CHAPTER I. 
OrriGiIn AND Hisrory or Commons. 
In most parts of England and Wales there are to be 
found ranges of open land, which have never been 
subject to cultivation or agricultural improvement, 
and which have consequently remained in their original 
state of nature from the earliest times. Their per- 
manence in this state has been due to the fact 
that the ownership of them is not absolute. They 
are burdened with the rights of numerous adjoining 
owners and occupiers to turn out cattle or sheep 
on them, and to dig turf or cut gorse, bracken, or 
heather thereon for fuel, litter, or thatching. The 
existence of such nghts has prevented the nominal 
owners of the soil from exercising the full rights of 
inclosing and cultivating the land, and has indirectly 
been the means of securing to the public the un- 
restricted use and enjoyment of walking or riding over 
it in all directions, whatever may be their strict legal 
right. Such common lands are technically the wastes 
of the Manors in which they are situate, and must 
be distinguished from other lands, which, though open 
and uninclosed, are yet private property in the full 
B 
