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CHAPTER XV. 
Rvurau Commons. 
Tue movement for the preservation of Commons, 
which commenced in 1864, was for the first five years 
mainly directed to the saving of the Commons round 
London from arbitrary inclosure. In 1869, the late Mr. 
Fawcett became an active member of the Commons 
Society, and at his instance its operations were ex- 
tended to rural Commons, in the interest mainly of 
agricultural labourers. 
In the same year his attention was directed to the 
proposals then before the House of Commons, in the 
annual Bill of the Inclosure Commissioners, under 
which many rural Commons were scheduled for in- 
closure, with an aggregate area of 6,916 acres. Of this it 
was proposed by the schemes to appropriate the miser- 
able pittance of three acres for the recreation of the 
people of the districts dealt with, and of six acres for 
allotments for labouring people, in leu of their cus- 
tomary user of the common lands. 
Among the Commons included in the Bill for in- 
closure was that of Wisley, an open space on the road 
from Kingston to Guildford, just beyond the pine woods 
of St. George's Hill, one of the beautiful Surrey Commons, 
which add so much to the beauty and residential charm of 
that county, and which are admitted to be of no value 
8 
