176 COULSDON COMMONS. 
the sense that the Commoners could only exercise their 
rights over the Commons nearest to them. 
In this view he abandoned the intention of inclosing 
all the Commons. He made arrangements with some 
of the Commoners, by promising grants to them of 
portions of the waste, in extinguishment of their 
rights, and then began to inclose some parts of it. 
He also commenced the sale of turf from Coulsdon 
and Riddlesdown Commons on a very great scale, in 
such manner as to ruin their surface. 
It was in consequence of all these acts, which in 
the aggregate amounted to an assertion of absolute 
right over the Commons, that the Messrs. Hall com- 
menced a suit against the Lord of the Manor, claiming 
in the usual way, on behalf of the Commoners, a 
determination of their rights, and asking for an 
injunction to restrain the inclosures and the excessive 
digging of gravel and loam. Mr. Byron replied, deny- 
ing the rights of common, whether in the Messrs. Hall 
or in the class of persons on whose behalf they claimed, 
and asserting that no general right of common existed 
over all the different Commons in the Manor, but that 
each Commoner was restricted to a particular Common. 
As in all the other Commons’ cases, the investigation 
of the history and customs of the Manor, and the 
determination of the persons entitled to common rights, 
gave rise to protracted, difficult, and expensive pro- 
ceedings. After some years the case was ultimately 
heard by Vice-Chancellor Hall in 1877, and occupied 
eight consecutive days. In the end the Judge was 
