The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-26 00:00:00

CLAPHAM COMMON.

This beautiful open space—the threatened enclo-
sure of which by Lord Spencer has so justly excited
the alarm of the inhabitants and neighbourhood—
contains 202 acres of land, and lies partly in Clap-
ham parish, and partly in that of Battersea. In
1760 (three years after which his Lordship's interest
in it was purchased of the St. John family, to which
it had before belonged) the spot is described as
being little better than a morass; the roads to it
were almost impassable, and the whole compara-
tively valueless. The late Christopher Baldwin,
Esq. who resided there many years, and whose name
is well known to the amateurs of agriculture as a
zealous promoter of the science, was 'the person who
first began its present improvements. These'he in
great part completed by a subscription of the inha-
bitants, aided by his own private influence and
exertions as. a Magistrate. ['hey consisted irk
draining and laying out the ground, and plant-
ing that beautiful variety of trees, both English
and exotic, with which it is ornamented; which
give to it the resemblance of a park, and have
long made it universally admired. As a proof
of the great improvement of property on the split
in consequence, and the great request in which it is
held, Mr. Baldwin, some years afterwards, sold 14.
acres of land near his own house for the sum of
5,0001. The increase of inhabitants of the most
wealthy and respectable class has been great since
that time. The new church of Clapham was re-'
moved from its original situation by the Wandsworth
road to the North-east corner of- this common' in
1774, and cost 11,0001. merely with a view to ac-
commodate this increase of inhabitants; and near
the same time a reservoir of line water, from which
the whole village is supplied, was constructed near
the road from Clapham-common to Wandsworth;
well.o kiNeiantge r f°croniu could formerly
nost° ,
and may. be denominated not one bf the least in.-
psinroavliemtheanttsa place,osfuffiticieientquantity tiie
f water
without' much difficulty, hi:: procured from day to
day.

Not only has the common and its immediate vi-2
cinity become the seat of numbers' of the greatest
and most optktit City merchants, and mansions and
grounds of the most splendid description been form-
ed there since, but the whole line of road from the .
.Common to town has felt the benefit of theie im-
provements; and from being, a few years since, a
dark, lonely thoroughfare, it has now become, on
each side, a continued range of gentleman's houses.
Kennington-common, with its handsome residences
and church ; the whole of the Brixton road, filled
with houses of the most elegant description; and
even the Vauxhaq-bridge Kennington-oval, and the
new-formed road lead tig ;hence tss 'Camberwell, with
all the immense neigh. ,ourhood, forming around them,
may be said, in a gre, t measure, to have originated
from the laying out 0; Cisaphanncommon.
The name Claphassi is in Doomsday Book called
Clopeham, and V.; is there said to contain seven
plough lande, or about 1,120 acres. Mr. Lysons
thinks this name to have been derived from some
farmer possessor, and hints at Osgod Clappa—the
cognomen of the Danish Lord, at whose manor feast,
at Lambeth, Hardiea naredietr-4iS havinif been, pro-
bahly, that person. • in the reign of Edward the
Confessor, it was held by Turburnus, and valued at
101. Geoffery de 'Mandeville, a Norman follomr of
the Conqueror, is mentioned as the owner in the
survey alluded to, which notices a report of his hold-
ing it unjustly, to the nrejudice of ono Asps. In
the reign of Edward the Fourth, Richard Gower was
Lord of the Manor of Clapham, and sold it to Sir
George Ireland, Lord IV. ayor of London. It passed
afterwards through seve; al descents to Henry Atkins,
physician to James the First, who purchased it for
6,0004, which money is said, by the tradition of that-
family, to have been the produce of presents be-
stowed on him by the King, after his return from
Scotland, whither he had been sent to attend I:..;harles
[., then an infant, who lay ill of a fever, His son
was. afterwards made a Baronet. The manor de-
scended to his brother, and in 1790 wa'n the property
df the Right Honoura:sle Lady Rivers, sister of Sir.
Richard Atkins, Bart., witch whom the title became
extinct. Lady Rivess's rental, in consequence of
the improvements Inentioned, arose, between 1771
and 1790, front 1,333/. to 2,0311. per annum clear
value--an intssease of 700/., and has since continued
to rise with the progressive improvements which
have taken place.
BatterseaManor was given by William t h e enn qn erar
to 'Westminster Abbey. At the Dissolution it came
to the Crown, and after being twice leased out, was
assigned in 1610 for the maintenance of Henry Prince
of Wales, and in 1627, on that Prince's death, was
granted in reversion to Oliver St. John Lord Vis-
count
Grandison, and continued in the St. John
family till 1763, when it was bought in trust for
John Viscount Spencer.
There has Iseen a dispute of very ancient standing
between the parishes of Clapham and Battersea, re-
specting this common ; the inhabitants of Battersea
claiming about one-half of it as within their parish,
whilst the inhabitants of Clapham, on the contrary,
assert that the whole common, as far as Battersea
Rise, is in the Clapham'Parish. In 1711 the inha-
bitants of Battersea enclosed with a ditch and bank
that part of the common which they considered to be
within their boundaries; this was resisted by the
inhabitants of Clapham, who filled up the ditch, and
levelled the bank, for which an action of trespass
was brought against them by Lord 'Viscount St.
John, the Lord of the Manor of Battersea. The
cause was heard at the Lent Assizes for Oetober,
held at Kensington in 1718, when, after a long trial,
clu.dedi theo n disputedo feo min groundonabie lands,i n the
those pe ram
claims,
ons.
we
Lord St. John suffered a nonsuit. The inhabitants
of Battersea nevertheless, kept up the claim, and in-
Speaking of manorial claims, in regard to the ap-
piopriat
are told by a late celebrated writer on the subject,
" should be regulated by the particular . advantage
which the lord of a given manor may enjoy, and
which lie may continue to enjoy while they remain
open and uncultivated, whether they may arise from
mines, quarries,
'water, alien tenants, fuel, estover,
pannage, &c. The claim of lords, as guardians of
the soil, which is productive of pasturage only, is
in most instances merely honorary ; and it is for the
Legislature to apportion the share of lands to which
they are entitled, ac an equivalent for such. But
their claims in right of the soil on which thriving
timber i 9 standing, are more . substantial; as outsof
them they have in effect a real yearly income, equil
—young thriving timber,
to the annual increasing value of the timber--a sorts
of advantage which they, of course, will continue to
enjoy, if the commons remained open and unens
in value. Their claims in this respect, consequently,
stand upon, the trees themselves; or
closed, as long as the timobferticmo:etrin,tatenadtiotsisntcartetelsoof
if suffered to
continue, whereas stinted trees not affording such
agdfficopowredntild::go.cnaonlitjahonei
nn
utqlayula
innttaci
ktryee
el
of
value,
increase, or entitling their owners to any share of
the soil they
their intrinsic value, appear to be all-that the.hor.4
the manor low far this deli-
' Lion may seem to justify Lord Spencer in his attemps
to enclose Clapham Common, after the statement
above made,
has a right to claim."
is for the public to determine.
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