OPEN SPACES AND FOOTPATHS. 27 
be seen at its fullest effect, as can only be when we gaze up from 
the winding lake below. 
On Hickling Inroad, in Norfolk, fishing and shooting was 
decided against in a recent case. But when the plaintiff 
endeavoured to restrain the defendant from entering the Broad, 
the Court declined to allow this claim. It is fortunate that there 
is such a precedent. Had the decision been otherwise, other 
landowners would, if so disposed, have endeavoured to close to 
the public any broads the soil of which they claimed to own, and 
in time ruin the whole district as a pleasure resort. The sole 
pleasures and beauty of the Norfolk Broad district are centred in 
sailing and boating over those noble stretches of water. 
To those who dwell in London it would have been interesting 
to find what is wanting in this volume, namely, a little informa- 
tion on the regulation of the royal parks which are under the 
control of the Woods and Forests Department. Hyde Park is 
open day and night ; Regents’ Park and Richmond Park are 
closed at sunset. Meetings are held in Hyde Park, as all our 
readers know ; in Regent’s Park they are not, to the best of our 
knowledge. Cricket is played in the latter, but no games are 
allowed in Hyde Park. Bathing is permitted in the Serpentine, 
but not in the Ornamental ^\’ater of Regent’s Park. Are these 
balances of public pri\ ilege specially arranged ? 
How far canals are public waterways, especially when they 
communicate with rivers, is another point upon which the author 
has not dwelt. The Regent’s Canal is strictly private except 
to barges — at any rate that part of it which passes through 
London. But the above omissions are of small importance, and 
for all practical purposes the work as a treatise on rights of way 
is as invaluable as it is exhaustive. 
Not the least useful feature of the book is the series of 
appendices, comprising the judgment of the late Master of the 
Rolls in the Hackney Commons case, when the Board of Works 
(through the Attorney-General) sought to restrain the lord of 
the manor from removing the soil from the Commons ; the 
Regulation Scheme with regard to Banstead Downs, and the 
Memoranda as to the Powers and Duties of Rural District 
Councils and Parish Councils and Meetings, with respect to 
Rights of Way, Road-side Wastes, Commons, Village Greens 
and Recreation Grounds. 
Upwards of three hundred cases relative to open spaces and 
right of way have been decided favourably or the reverse in the 
Law Courts, and well-nigh a hundred statutes nearly or remotely 
relative thereto are to be found in the statute book of the realm. 
No mean part, therefore, have our commons and footpaths played 
in the records of history and the rights of the nation. 
Archibald Clarke. 
