BERKHAMSTED COMMON. 61 
respect of an immemorial user which they were about 
to terminate, they offered to present to the people of 
Berkhamsted a plot of land, of forty-three acres, 
near to the town, as a recreation ground, conditionally 
upon the Commoners, whose rights of common he 
acknowledged, agreeing to surrender them. A deed 
of gift of this land to Trustees, for the benefit of 
the town, was prepared by Lord Brownlow, and de- 
posited as an escrow, by which, if within six months, 
a release of common rights should be so fully executed 
that, in the opinion of his legal adviser, the Common 
would be freed from all such rights, the deed would be 
delivered to the Trustees therein named on behalf of 
the town. Some of the Commoners interested were 
induced to fall in with this arrangement, and thirty- 
seven freehold tenants and seven copyhold tenants, 
out of a much larger and undetermined number, 
signed the deed releasing the Common from their 
rights. 
Before, however, the termination of the six months 
provided for in the escrow, the Trustees, apparently 
impatient of delay, proceeded to effect an inclosure on a 
great scale. In February, 1866, the agent of the 
estate erected iron fences five feet in height, with seven 
horizontal rails, in two lines, across the centre of the 
Common, inclosing 434 acres of it, and dividing the 
residue into two completely detached portions. These 
fences contained no openings; they were erected with- 
out regard to any public rights of way, and entirely 
intercepted the public from access across the Common 
