(_house-bote_), or of hedges (_hedge-bote_ or
_hey-bote_), must be limited in quantity to the requirements of the
house, farm buildings and hedges of the particular property to which the
right is attached. And heather taken for litter cannot be taken in
larger quantities than is necessary for manuring the lands in respect of
which the right is enjoyed. It is illegal to take the wood or heather
from the common, and to sell it to any one who has not himself a right
to take it. So, also, a right of digging sand, gravel, clay or loam is
usually appurtenant to land, and must be exercised with reference to the
repair of the roads, or the improvement of the soil, of the particular
property to which the right is attached.

We have already alluded to the fact that, in Norman and later days,
every vill or township was associated with some over-lord,--some one
responsible to the crown, either directly or through other superior
lords, for the holding of the land and the performance of certain duties
of defence and military support. To this lord the law has assigned the
ownership of the soil of the common of the vill; and the common has for
many centuries been styled the waste of the manor. The trees and bushes
on the common belong to the lord, subject to any rights of lopping or
cutting which the commoners may possess. The ground, sand and subsoil
are his, and even the grass, though the commoners have the right to take
it by the mouths of their cattle. To the over-lord, also, was assigned a
seignory over all the other lands of the vill; and the vill came to be
termed his manor. At the present day it is the manorial system which
must be invoked in most cases as the foundation of the curiously
conflicting rights which co-exist on a common. (See MANOR.)

Manorial commons.

Within the bounds of a manor, speaking generally, there are three
classes of persons possessing an interest in the land, viz.:--

(a) Persons holding land freely of the manor, or freehold tenants.

(b) Persons holding land of the manor by copy of court roll, or copyhold
tenants.

(c) Persons holding from the lord of the manor, by lease or agreement,
or from year to year, land which was originally demesne, or which was
once freehold or copyhold and has come into the lord's hands by escheat
or forfeiture.

Amongst the first two classes we usually find the majority of the
commoners on the wastes or commons of the manor. To every freehold
tenant belongs a r