326 REGULATION OF COMMONS. 
of Mitcham and their Commoners, with respect to in- 
closures, but the great uncertainty as to the boundaries 
of the Manors made it difficult to resist. In 15385, 
a hundred acres were inclosed by the Lord of the 
Manor of Beddington, and 200 acres were inclosed in 
1820. In 1882 the Lord of the Manor of Wallington 
commenced to assert his right to inclose a small portion 
of the Common. The Commoners and inhabitants 
determined to oppose. Mr. Bidder, Q.C., a resident in 
the district, put himself at the head of the movement, 
and brought a suit in the usual form to restrain the 
inclosure, alleging his rights over Mitcham Common. 
Owing, however, to the extraordinary conflict of evi- 
dence in the early and late records, it was impossible to 
show conclusively that the piece inclosed was part of 
this Common, and the Court held that the plaintiffs had 
failed to establish their case. 
Looking at all the documents dispassionately from 
1086 to the present day, one is almost driven to the 
conclusion that this fine tract of Common never formed 
part of the possessions of any Manor. It appears that, 
in very early times, the King held all of the Manors 
interested, and granted them out without any specific 
reference to the Common, and also granted out smaller 
tracts of land in the same parishes as those in which the 
Manors were situated. The consequence may have been 
that the Common was retained as a Crown possession, 
or, perhaps, was looked upon as public property, or 
‘folk-land,” upon which all the neighbouring land- 
owners might exercise common rights. 
