50 
NATURE NOTES. 
an effort to escape for a few hours, he cannot do better fhan buy one of these or 
similar guide-books, and a railway ticket, and follow out the picturesque routes 
indicated for his guidance. The benefits which he will derive from his excursion 
are too many and too obvious to be specified. Let it suffice to mention the fresh 
air, the sense of rest and freedom, and the ample opportunities for peaceful medita- 
tion in the lap of nature. 
As to the comparative merits of the books on our list, that by Mr. .Miles deals 
with the country lying to the south-east of London, and is most practical and 
precise in its directions how to avoid the high roads and follow the prettiest foot- 
paths. Broadly it describes two main routes from Bromley to Gravesend and to 
Rochester, which may be broken into sections suited to the muscular capacity of 
the pedestrian. Attention is called to objects of interest. 
iSIr. Foley has adopted a more picturesque style of w'riting, which sometimes 
rather obscures the description of the route one is following, but reference to the 
excellent map at the beginning of each volume speedily makes the way dear. In 
these maps are marked all the principal foot-paths in the district to the north-east 
of London, extending over an area of some eighteen by twelve miles. An 
immense quantity of antiquarian and other information is supplied, but we must 
warn the reader not to trust too implicitly to the author’s botanical references. 
He will hunt in vain for the bee orchis at Mill Hill (p. 12) ; the ‘'brilliant scarlet 
flowers of the dock ” (p. 31) belong to the sorrel ; it is certain that “ each variety 
of the wild rose” (p. 31) is not to be found in the Brent valley; and we are 
Mecidedly sceptical as to the Willow-herb “with its beautiful crimson flowers as 
large as petunias ” (p. 62). A little revision of this part of the work w'ould add to 
its usefulness, nor would Mr. Foley’s volume suft'er if certain redundancies were 
excised. The jjublishers have failed to state on the title-pages the date of these 
two volumes and the fact that they are new editions. 
.\XTONY GePP. 
COMMONS AND OPEN SPACES. 
In this little pamphlet the history of our commons and open spaces is carefully 
traced out. The author, himself a lawyer, seeks to dispel the legal theory, which 
has become engrafted to a large extent in the public mind, that the rights com- 
moners at present possess are held of the lords of the manors alone, and date from 
the time that these lands were granted by the kings to his under lords. That 
these rights can be traced back to periods far more remote than those in which 
the manors were parcelled out is Mr. Birkett’s main contention. -As instances of 
this he quotes a manor in Hertfordshire, Ashdown Forest, Dartmoor Forest, 
Malvern Chase, Epping Forest and the New Forest. In some cases several 
manors and villages lay in the midst of one and the same forest or waste, to 
which the inhabitants resorted in common to take whatever they wanted. .At 
various periods declarations of these rights were made before Forest Courts, and 
the lists show them to have been practically limitless. 
But the struggle to keep them has been something enormous. Time after time 
did the lord of the manor attempt, sometimes successfully, to wrest the rights from 
the commoner. With equal stubbornness did the latter strive to retain them. A 
short cut to the deprivation of commoners’ rights was found in inclosure of the 
waste lands. To effect this the aid of the legislature w’as summoned, and statute 
after statute authorising inclosure of, and encroachment upon, commons and 
forests, was passed. Fierce contests took place between the lords’ men and the 
commoners ; and not a few rebellions, recorded in the most elementary history of 
England, arose from this cause. 
Though inclosure by statute has now practically ceased, lords of the manor 
•Commons and O/ien Spaces: their Origin. History and Utility, suith Suggestions /or 
/acilitating their Preserration. By Percival Hirkett, Hon. Solicitor to the Commons Preserva- 
tion Society, &c. C. F. Roworth, Great New Street, Fetter Lane, E.C. 8vo, 40 pp., 1893 
