BANSTEAD CCMMONS. 209 
the Commons for ever, and to avoid further legal pro- 
ceedings. Their overtures were disregarded, and the 
mortgagees were induced to plunge further into this sea 
of litigation, with the result only that they lost every- 
thing, and were mulcted in enormous costs. The Com- 
moners, in spite of their victory on every point, had 
to pay their costs in the suit against Sir John Hartopp, 
in consequence of his bankruptcy ; but they had at least 
the satisfaction of knowing that their efforts had saved 
the wastes, not only from immediate and prospective 
inclosure, but from the destructive practices of the 
lord, which were defacing the surface and destroying 
the beauty of the Banstead Commons. 
The battle, however, did not end with the litigation 
in the Law Courts. The Commoners, having succeeded 
there, were determined to strike further while the iron 
was hot, and to put the Commons in such a position that 
their interests would be no longer neglected. They 
applied to the Agricultural Department for a scheme for 
regulating Banstead Commons, under the Metropolitan 
Commons Act. The Agricultural Department, hitherto, 
had generally been unwilling to pass regulation schemes 
when the Lords of Manors opposed. In this case, how- 
ever, the circumstances were so exceptional, the argu- 
ments arising from the action of the lord, in his long 
efforts to inclose and to injure the surface of the Commons, 
were so potent, that the Department after protracted pro- 
ceedings gave way on the point, and made a scheme for 
the regulation of the Banstead Commons in spite of the 
vehement opposition of the mortgagees of the Manor. 
fo) 
