52 HAMPSTEAD HEATH. 
other judges, in subsequent and similar cases. He 
refused to decide himself on the issues of fact involved 
in the suit, as to the nature of the rights, and number 
of the Commoners, and directed that these issues, 
eleven in number, should be tried before a jury. This 
much disheartened the Commoners who had embarked 
in the suit, as they foresaw a long vista of further 
litigation. 
The researches made into the Court Rolls, in the 
preparation of the Commoners’ case in this suit, showed 
that from the date of 1684, previous to which the rolls 
had been burnt, there was undoubted evidence of the 
exercise of rights of common by the copyholders, 
and of the right to dig sand for the purpose of their 
holdings. No doubt whatever existed in the minds of 
the legal advisers of the Society, as to the sufficiency of 
these rights to maintain the case of the Commoners 
against the lord, and to justify a jury in finding 
the issues in their favour, and the Court in giving 
a permanent injunction against him. It was also of 
the utmost importance to all the Commoners’ cases, 
in respect of other inclosures, that this case should be 
tried out, and should not be compromised. 
In 1868, however, Sir Thomas Wilson died. His 
successor in the property evinced a different disposition. 
He announced his intention not to proceed with the 
buildings on Hampstead Heath. Negotiations were then 
opened for a compromise, by the purchase of the lord’s 
interests and rights by the Metropolitan Board, who had 
always favoured the process of purchase of the Commons, 
