The history of many towns shows that they formerly enjoyed rights of common which they no longer enjoy, and the manner in which these became lost is in numerous instances a mystery. When, from being lands of which the tenants were virtually seised for life, they passed through some evolution into being the property of the corporation let to freemen or others as the case might be, they might not improbably be sold for the good of the community at large. In earlier days the right may have been surrendered by timid or ignorant townspeople under the pressure of a local lord of the manor strong enough to set the law at defiance, or a compromise may have been effected between him and those in temporary enjoyment of the benefit. These, as we have observed, sometimes consisted of no more than a fraction of the inhabitants, and, as the population increased, this would be a diminishing fraction, with the result that outsiders would be apathetic regarding the fate of the common. Where there was a special qualification, it was not necessarily seniority. At Huntingdon, for example, it was the freemen dwelling in "commonable" houses who were privileged to use the common.
There were other restrictions than those already named. In the locality just mentioned "commonable" burgesses, if we may imitate their manner of speech, might depasture two cows and one horse from Old May-day till Martinmas, and four sheep from Martinmas till Candlemas. At Coventry, in what are called Lammas Lands, the allowance is two horses and one cow. How very wise and necessary these limitations were may be gleaned from the following extract from a decree in Chancery in 42 Elizabeth. The bill—we have modernized the spelling—recites that,
"Divers years past sundry godly and well-disposed persons having commiseration of the poor estate of the said town and parish, did in sundry times in divers kings' reigns assure certain lands, tenements, rents, common of pasture, of profits of markets and fairs and other annual commodities under divers and sundry persons for the ease and relief of the same poor inhabitants of the said town and parish, and namely one William, sometimes Lord of the Town and Borough of Torrington Magna aforesaid, by his deed did assure unto the free burgesses of the said town, and some others of his free tenants of his said manor dwelling in the parish of Torrington aforesaid, common of pasture for their beasts and cattle in and throughout his waste grounds within his manor of Great Torrington, lying within the aforesaid parish and known by divers names there, by the name of the Wester Common and one other by the name of Hatchmoor Common with, others, which waste grounds in the whole do contain about five hundred acres of land and are lying very near adjoining to the said town on each side thereof, the which hath been and so might continue and be very profitable and commodious for all the poor inhabitants of the said town and other free tenants of the said manor that by the same grant ought to have common of pasture therein, if the same were used in any reasonable rate or with any indifferency according to the good and charitable mind and intent of the said granter thereof, but in what form or what the words of the deeds are the said complainants could not express.
"They, or some of them [the defendants], do continually oppress and surcharge with their beasts, sheep, and cattle the common grounds, so as the poor inhabitants cannot well keep a cow or horse thereupon for their use and commodity in any good estate, whereas if the same were used with any indifferency according to the true intent of the donor thereof, every inhabitant within the said town that hath any ancient burgage to which the said common of pasture was granted might well keep two kine or a cow and a gelding or a horse beast with little or no charge. All which was devoured and eaten up by six or eight of the richest greedy persons of the same town and the inhabitants thereof."
But the benefit of common was sometimes not merely attenuated by the action of a powerful and covetous few, but, as was before observed, wholly or partially lost. The following passage from the same bill throws some light on the point:
"And also the said Roger Ley under colour of a lease, which he himself with the residue of his consorts made of certain tenements, parcel of the said lands and tenements, unto certain of the children of the said Ley wherein he had cunningly inserted parcel of the same common ground contrary to the knowledge and weeting of the residue of his cofeoffees or some of them had entered upon parcel of the said common ground called Hatchmoor or lying in Hatchmoor, wherein the said complainants, having burgages within the said town, and all other that dwell in the ancient burgages or dwelling-houses within the said town, ought and had used time out of mind to have common of pasture, without any colour of lawful right had enclosed and tilled two parcels thereof containing about fourteen or sixteen acres and made divers leases thereof to persons unknown, and had shut up an ancient lane or way, commonly called Dark Lane, leading from the said town to the said common of Hatchmoor, through which the inhabitants of the said town had always time out of mind, until the said enclosure, used go and drive to the said common, to the great hindrance, hurt, and damage of the said complainants, and to the disinherison of the said town for ever."
That towns, and even great towns, abode by the traditions of country life, is now abundantly manifest, but the indications above given shed only partial light on rural conditions in their earliest and fullest form. These will furnish the theme of the following chapter, which, it is hoped, will furnish the clue to much that is mysterious in the data thus far supplied.