&4 TOOTING COMMON. 
by asking a very moderate price fur this most important 
addition. 
TOOTING GRAVENEY. 
The suit respecting Tooting Graveney Common was 
not dissimilar to that of Plumstead as regards its legal 
aspects and conclusion. The Common is a comparatively 
small but important open space, in the neighbourhood of 
Tooting, of 63 acres, and adjoining Tooting Bec Com- 
mon. The Manor of Tooting Graveney is mentioned 
in Domesday Book as being held of the Crown by the 
Abbey of Chertsey. It remained in possession of 
the Monastery until the thirtieth year of Henry VIII. 
Some years later it was granted to Sir John Maynard, 
and then passed through numerous hands by purchase, 
till 1861, when it was sold to Mr. W. 8. Thompson, a 
gentleman residing in the district, for the sum of £3,650. 
The purchase included seven Copyhold messuages, which 
were let at a rental of £100. The proportion, there- 
fore, of the purchase money given for the Manorial 
rights and waste could not have been much over £1,000: 
a very small sum as compared with the value of the 
waste as a freehold, if it could be treated as such by 
the purchaser. 
It was alleged in the course of the suit that, when 
the Manor was advertised for sale, there was a strong 
feeling among the residents in the neighbourhood of 
the Common, that it should be purchased in the public 
interests, in order to prevent any attempt at inclosure, 
and several gentlemen were prepared to subscribe with 
