WIMBLEDON COMMON. 93 
hold and copyhold tenants. Besides the Rolls, there 
is a record of the Customs of the Lordship of Wimble- 
don, taken from the Black Book of Canterbury—an 
early record of Archiepiscopal Manors, apparently 
made at a time when Wimbledon belonged to the See 
of Canterbury, and also a Parliamentary survey of the 
Manor made in 164). The earlier Court Rolls abound 
with orders and regulations respecting the rights of 
cutting wood and furze. ‘Till within the last seventy 
years, there were a great number of oak pollards on 
the Common, which afforded fuel for the inhabitants in 
the winter months. During the summer the wood 
was not allowed to be taken; but it was usual for the 
Parish Beadle to go round every year at Michaelmas 
with his bell, and “cry the Common open.” He went 
round again at Lady Day to “ery it shut.” 
The pollards were cut down and sold, in 1512, by 
the grandfather of the present owner, and the only wood 
which remained upon the Common in 1864 was a little 
brushwood near the Warren Farm; and there were some 
picturesque groups of bushes and hollies. But within 
recent times the poor of the parish were allowed to cut 
furze in the winter. The free and copyhold tenants 
of the Manor had the usual rights of turning out 
cattle on the Common, and at one time there were 
gates on the roads leading to it, to prevent cattle 
from straying. 
The Homage appear to have appointed surveyors of 
the woods, gravel-diggers, and Common keepers. They 
also made bye-laws, and prosecuted offenders for tres- 
