28
tenants of each Manor. How in the face of the
Report of the Land Revenue Commissioners of 1793,
of the Report of the Commission of 1850, of the
Report of the Select Committee of 1863, of the pub-
lic proceedings of the Verderer's Courts, and of the
public meetings that were held in the Forest to
protest against the enclosures, they could as matter of
fact find that such a belief really existed, will surpass
all reasonable comprehension.
It is as well to quote here an extract from the
Report of the Commission of 1850. "The Crown
" claims, what the Land Revenue Commissioners
" reported that it had, ' in this as in other forests,
" ' viz.: an unlimited right to keep deer in all the
" ' unenclosed woods and wastes within the perambu-
" ' lation, unless some parts have been disafforested
" ' by grants which have not come to our knowledge '
" While the freeholders and others ' owners and
" ' occupiers of lands within the bounds of the forest'
" claim what the same Commissioners say that they
" had, viz. : ' a right of common pasture for horses
" ' and cows over the said woods and wastes ;' and it
" is clear that both these rights (as also those of the
" ordinary public, especially from the East of the
" Metropolis, who by leave of the Crown use Waltham
" Forest as a place of recreation) are liable to be
" annulled, if private individuals are to be at liberty
" gradually to enclose the wastes over which such