VILLAGH GREENS. 309 
The Common Hill had been used from time im- 
memorial for games by the villagers. They had played 
there football, rounders, and cricket. It was distinctly 
larger than an ordinary village Green, consisting of 
sixty-four acres, but the whole of it had been used by 
the people for recreation, and many parts of it for 
games. These were now prohibited. On the lord’s 
agent being requested to explain the grounds on 
which the changes were made, and what justification 
there was for the keepers interfering with the use of 
the Common for games and recreation, he replied that 
the Lord of the Manor intended to prosecute any 
persons who in any way trespassed on the hill, over 
which he claimed absolute control; if the claim, he said, 
were persisted in, the question would have to be settled 
in a Court of Law. Mr. Virgo, a working gardener and 
florist, with land adjoining the Common, then took up 
the case of the C »mmoners and the public. He was in- 
formed that, in consequence of his action, the Lord 
of the Manor would stop him from using a cart-road 
across the Common, which afforded the only access in 
one direction. He was also told that the Lord of the 
Manor had ample means at his disposal, and that he 
must expect no quarter. 
Undeterred by these threats, Mr. Virgo brought 
an action at law against the trustees for interference 
with the right of the inhabitants to play games on the 
Common, and claimed an injunction to restrain them 
from so doing. The case was tried at Bristol before a 
special jury by Mr. Justice Wills, in August, 1892. 
