e controlled by the government in the interest of the
masses of the rural population. By the middle of the century the
process of enclosing was practically complete. There had been some
3954 private enclosure acts passed, and under their provisions or
those of the Enclosure Commissioners more than seven million acres had
been changed from mediaeval to modern condition. But now a reaction set
in. Along with the open field farming lands it was perceived that open
commons, village greens, gentlemen's parks, and the old national
forest lands were being enclosed, and frequently for building or
railroad, not for agricultural uses, to the serious detriment of the
health and of the enjoyment of the people, and to the destruction of
the beauty of the country. The dread of interference by the government
with matters that might be left to private settlement was also passing
away. In 1865 the House of Commons appointed a commission to
investigate the question of open spaces near the city of London, and
the next year on their recommendation passed a law by which the
Enclosure Commissioners were empowered to make regulations for the use
of all commons within fifteen miles of London as public parks, except
so far as the legal rights of the lords of the manors in which the
commons lay should prevent. A contest had already arisen between many
of these lords of manors having the control of open commons, whose
interest it was to enclose and sell them, and other persons having
vague rights of pasturage and other use of them, whose interest it
was to preserve them as open spaces. To aid the latter in their legal
resistance to proposed enclosures, the "Commons Preservation Society"
was formed in 1865. As a result a number of the contests were decided
in the year 1866 in favor of those who opposed enclosures.

The first case to attract attention was that of Wimbledon Common, just
west of London. Earl Spencer, the lord of the manor of Wimbledon, had
offered to give up his rights on the common to the inhabitants of the
vicinity in return for a nominal rent and certain privileges; and had
proposed that a third of the common should be sold, and the money
obtained for it used to fence, drain, beautify, and keep up the
remainder. The neighboring inhabitants, however, preferred the
spacious common as it stood, and when a bill to carry out Lord
Spencer's proposal had been introduced into Parliament, they contended
that they had legal rights on the co