192 BANSTEAD COMMONS. 
before the Committee of the House of Commons 
on the London Commons. He pointed out the diff- 
culties he had experienced, as Lord of the Manor, 
in preserving order over the Banstead Commons, 
and expressed his desire to dedicate his rights and 
interest in them to the public, so that they might be 
secure against inclosure, and that he might be relieved 
of the burden of protecting them. The Committee 
referred to his proposal in their Report, as an argument 
in favour of their scheme for regulating Commons and 
placing them under some protecting local authority or 
governing body. In the same year Mr. Alcock joined 
the Commons Society as one of its first members ; 
and when the Society propounded its scheme, which 
ultimately developed into the Metropolitan Commons 
Act, for regulating Commons within fifteen miles of 
the Metropolis, he strongly supported it. Had he 
lived, there can be no doubt that he would have placed 
the Banstead Commons under the protection of the 
Act, in such a manner that no future inclosure could 
have been attempted. 
Unhappily, Mr. Alcock died, in 1866, before any 
proceedings could be initiated under the above Act, for 
the regulation of the wastes of his Manor. His repre- 
sentatives showed no disposition to carry out his in- 
tentions. They renewed application to the Inclosure 
Commissioners for the inclosure of the Commons, and 
when their proposal was rejected, they sold, in 1878, their 
interest in the Banstead Commons to Sir John Hartopp. 
Unfortunately, the Manorial rights thus became separated 
