REGULATION OF COMMONS. 317 
body of a property in West Wickham Manor, with 
undoubted rights of common over this waste, and 
whose owner was prepared, with adequate support, to 
contest Sir John Lennard’s right to inclose. The 
time which had elapsed since the past inclosure was so 
long, that it was hopeless to contend for restitution, but 
at least what remained of the Common might be saved. 
Proceedings were commenced with this object, and a 
meeting was summoned at Bromley, to be presided 
over by the writer, with the view of raising funds and 
arousing public feeling on the subject. Fortunately, 
however, before the meeting took place it was ascer- 
tained that Sir John Lennard was willing to part 
with his interest in the fifty acres for £2,000, on con- 
dition that the Common should be kept open. As the 
litigation, even if successful, would have involved an 
expenditure not far short of this, it was thought 
advisable to compromise on these terms, and the meet- 
ing was turned into one for raising this money for the 
purchase of the lord’s rights.* 
The sum of £1,500 was obtained locally by subserip- 
tion, and the residue was made up by the Corporation 
of London. The purchase was effected. The Common 
was vested in the Corporation as conservators, and is now 
safe from further encroachments. The case afforded 
yet another proof of the truth of the contention before 
the Committee of 1865, that no matter how hopeless the 
* The feeling of the meeting was so strong against inclosure, that 
I had some difficulty in persuading it to adopt the compromise rather 
than to fight the Lord of the Manor in the Law Courts, 
