TOOTING COMMON. 87 
freeholders of all rights, would have made a very 
handsome profit; and he seemed to have considered 
that being the Lord of the Manor his title could 
not, without difficulty, be displaced. In that speculation 
he has been disappointed.”* In spite of these observa- 
tions, the Court, in consequence of some inchoate 
negotiations for a compromise, refused to award costs to 
the Plaintiff, who, consequently, had to bear the heavy 
charge of proving his title, and of obtaining an in- 
junction against an inclosure of a most arbitrary 
character, and one which was proved to be utterly illegal. 
The decisions of the Court of Appeal in the Plum- 
stead and Tooting cases were pronounced about the 
same time. The clear and unmistakable judgments 
of so learned and sober a judge as Lord Hatherley, 
satisfied the legal world, as well as the outside public, 
that the views advocated by the Commons Society were 
not the wild dream they had at one time been considered. 
These decisions, following upon that of Berkhamsted, 
mark the first stage in the work of the Society. All 
the suits advised by Mr. P. H. Lawrence, including those 
respecting Wimbledon and Wandsworth, referred to in 
the next chapter, had now been brought to a successful 
issue, except those relating to Loughton and Epping— 
to which reference will later be made—which were 
still pending, and were not destined to be tried out. 
In all these early and critical cases the leading 
counsel employed was Sir Roundell Palmer (now Lord 
Selborne), aud their success was due in no small 
* Betts v. Thompson, L.R., 7 Ch., 732. 
