f the common; and the practice
hardened into a custom. As might be expected, there is more variety in
the details of the rights they exercise. They may claim common for
cattle which are not commonable, if the custom extends to such cattle;
and their claim is not necessarily connected with arable land.

In the present day large numbers of copyhold tenements have been
enfranchised, i.e. converted into freehold. The effect of this step is
to sever all connexion between the land enfranchised and the manor of
which it was previously held. Technically, therefore, the common rights
previously enjoyed in respect of the land would be gone. When, however,
there is no indication of any intention to extinguish such rights, the
courts protect the copyholders in their continued enjoyment; and when an
enfranchisement is effected under the statutes passed in modern years,
the rights are expressly preserved. The commoners on a manorial common
then will be, prima facie, the freeholders and copyholders of the manor,
and the persons who own lands which were copyhold of the manor but have
been enfranchised.

The occupants of lands belonging to the lord of the manor, though they
usually turn out their cattle on the common, do so by virtue of the
lord's ownership of the soil of the common, and can, as a rule, make no
claim to any right of common as against the lord, even though the
practice of turning out may have obtained in respect of particular lands
for a long series of years. When, however, lands have been sold by the
lord of the manor, although no right of common attached by law to such
lands in the lord's hands, their owners may subsequently enjoy such a
right, if it appears from the language of the deeds of conveyance, and
all the surrounding circumstances, that there was an intention that the
use of the common should be enjoyed by the purchaser. The rules on this
point are very technical; it is sufficient here to indicate that lands
bought from a lord of a manor are not necessarily destitute of common
rights.

Rights of common not connected with manorial system.

So far we have considered common rights as they have arisen out of the
manorial system, and out of the still older system of village
communities. There may, however, be rights of common quite unconnected
with the manorial system. Such rights may be proved either by producing
a specific grant from the owner of the manor or by long usage. It is
seldom that an actual gr