REGULATION OF COMMONS. 315 
for £45,000 in lieu of £400,000, his original demand ; 
in 1873 they bought the manorial rights over Tooting 
Bee Common for £10,200. Two years later, the Board 
purchased Mr. Thompson’s interest in Tooting Graveney 
Common, which it has already been shown he had 
been restrained from inclosing, for £3,000. The 
acquisition appears to have been effected under com- 
pulsory powers.* 
The first case of a scheme under the Act of 1866 
was that relating to Hayes, a very beautiful Common 
near Bromley in Kent, and within the Metropolitan 
Police area. What is popularly known as Hayes 
Common, is in fact partly in the Manor of Baston, 
and partly in that of West Wickham; the waste in the 
former Manor being about 200 acres, and in the latter, 
till within recent years, about 100 acres. These Com- 
mons were not separated by any fence or defined 
boundary. The Lord of both Manors was Sir John 
Lennard. <A short time before 1865 this gentleman 
inclosed about fifty acres of West Wickham Common, 
and disposed of them as sites for villas. There was 
great fear in the district that he intended to deal in 
the same way with the residue, consisting of a most 
picturesque open space, with a grove of the oldest and 
most beautiful oak trees to be found within twenty miles 
of London. He was owner of nearly the whole of the 
inclosed land in the Manor. Prima facie inquiries on 
behalf of the Commons Society failed to discover any 
* The Metropolitan Board of Works (Various Powers Act), 
1875. 
