302 VILLAGH GREENS. 
in the Queen’s subjects generally, was bad ; that the 
public had no right to be there; but they intimated 
that if the defendant could have claimed as an in- 
habitant of Newmarket, he might possibly have main- 
tained the custom.* 
This distinction between the user by the public 
generally, and that of the inhabitants of a parish, was 
also brought out clearly in a later case, that relating to 
Woodford Green, forming a part of Epping Forest. In 
this case a claim was made on behalf of the inhabitants 
of the village to the enjoyment of the Green, and to 
prevent the inclosure of it by the Lord of the Manor. 
It was maintained in the first place that there was 
a right of way in all directions over the Green, and 
secondly that the inhabitants were accustomed to 
play at all lawful games on the Green. In sum- 
ming up this case to the jury, Mr. Justice Wightman 
said :— 
“The question is, first, whether there was a right of way 
over the spot where the hurdles were put up. In one sense 
there was a way there, for it appears that the Green was part of 
the ancient forest, and the effect of the evidence is that people 
went wherever they liked, and so in that sense the whole forest 
was one great way. . . But there was no distinct evidence of 
any definite way in any particular direction, and though there 
were tracks from time to time, which might last for a few 
weeks or months, there was no beaten or enduring track in any 
one direction which had lasted for years. Then, as to the 
alleged custom, it is laid in the inhabitants; but the proof is 
wider than the plea, for it appears that all the world went 
* Coventry «. Willes.—12, Weekly Reporter, 127. 
