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CHAPTER XI. 
BanstEaD ComMONS. 
Tue last, but not the least important, of the great suits 
affecting Commons within reach of London, was that of 
the Banstead Commons. Indeed, no other suit has 
been more pertinaciously fought through long years of 
litigation, or was subject to more strange and un- 
expected vicissitudes. Commenced in the year 1877, 
it was not concluded till 1890, and only in the past 
year, 1893, has the future of the Commons been 
definitely provided for by a Regulation scheme, under 
the Metropolitan Commons Acts, in spite of the most 
determined opposition of those representing the Lord 
of the Manor before Select Committees of both Houses 
of Parliament. Seventeen years, therefore, have been 
spent in resisting the efforts to appropriate these 
Commons, and in securing to the Commoners and the 
public the enjoyment and management of them. 
The Commons of Banstead consist of four distinct 
and separate areas, with an aggregate of about 1,300 
acres. They lie on the summit of the North Surrey 
Downs, at an altitude of 500 to 600 feet above the sea, 
with splendid views, on the one side, of the Valley of 
the Thames, with its teeming population, on the other, 
of the Weald of Surrey and Sussex. Together with 
Epsom Downs, Walton Heath, and Coulsdon Commons, 
