236 THE NEW FOREST. 
of the Forest, claimed that they had the right to inclose 
successively the whole of the open lands of the Forest, 
whether timbered or not, on condition that, by successively 
throwing down the fences of previous inclosures when 
the trees were of a height to save them from destruction 
by cattle, they should avoid keeping more than 16,000 
acres at any one time within fences. It is clear that, 
from the year 1851, the Commissioners of Woods 
assumed the position with reference to the Forest 
that Lords of Manors have taken up of late years as 
to Commons. They asserted that the Crown was 
practically owner of the Forest, that the Commoners’ 
rights were of little value and might be disregarded, 
and that as officers of the Crown they were bound to 
make the very utmost income out of the Forest, with- 
out regard to the interests of the Commoners or of 
the public. 
In 1854, under the authority of the Act of 1851, 
a Commission, of which Mr. Coleridge, now Lord 
Coleridge, was a member, sat for the purpose of deciding 
upon the claims of persons entitled as Commoners; and 
in spite of the fact that many persons neglected to put 
in claims, and that the presumptions of the Commission 
appear to have been rather against the extension of 
rights, it was held that the owners and occupiers of no 
less than 65,000 acres of land, not waste of the Forest, 
situate in sixty-three parishes, were entitled to turn out 
their cattle and horses, and to exercise other rights in the 
Forest, and that the occupiers of 1,200 houses were 
entitled to take turf in it for fuel. 
