Tidy Commons
What should be the practice and policy of Lords of the Manor of our commons ? Certain controversies have arisen. One school holds that nature should be left to deal with these Gardens of Eden, and thorns and briars be given free play. The other school maintains that the danger is excessive growth now that the commoners rarely take advantage of their right to estovers—a blessed word almost as widely forgotten as Lammas right. Some golf clubs—and many have bought the rights, often from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners—are doubtless inclined to destroy an excessive amount of bramble, gorse and heather ; but after all the public's one acknowledged privilege is " the right of air and exercise," and these are more fully enjoyed on a lawn than in a bramble bush. Again, even in such a sanctuary as Wicken Fen, all the natural denizens, both bird and insect, have been advantaged by the cutting of both bush and sedge.
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