WIGLEY COMMON. 187 
cultivated their own land. In the interval Mr. Briscoe 
Eyre has himself, or through his father, acquired nine 
of these holdings with 331 acres ; of the remainder, five 
only are now owned by their occupiers. The holdings, 
however, still remain small, and there cannot be a 
doubt that the common rights attached to these small 
holdings account largely for their continued existence. 
If Mr. Sloane Stanley had succeeded in his inclosure, 
these small holdings would have been rendered un- 
profitable, and there would necessarily have followed a 
consolidation of farms, and probably three or four large 
farms would have superseded the small holdings. It is 
quite certain, on the other hand, that but for Mr. 
Briscoe Eyre and his fortuitous connection with the 
Commons Society, the inclosures would not have been 
abated, and Mr. Stanley would have succeeded in effect- 
ing his purpose. Not one of the smaller holders would 
have ventured to cope with him in the law courts. The 
aggregation of lands in a single owner has been carried 
even further in Wigley Manor. In 1840 there were 
eleven distinct owners of land, tenants of the Manor; 
they have now all been merged in a single owner— 
Mr. Sloane Stanley. The two Manors well illustrate 
the process of the gradual extinction of small owners 
of land. Thatthe small holdings have not been merged 
in large farms has undoubtedly been owing to the 
existence of the Commons. 
