COMMON

(Lat. communis.) In Law, is the right which one person has of taking a part of the produce of land, while the whole property in the land is vested in another. Common of pasture is either, 1. Common appendant, which is the right of the tenant of a manor to pasture his beasts on the lord's waste; 2. Common amnir tenant, annexed to land by grant of prescription; 3. Common in gro , a right severed from the land. When a common is under pasture all those who have a right of pasturage may turn out on it a certain number of animals, according to the extent of the enclosed grounds which they cultivate. When the common consists wholly or partly of arable land, this arable land is formed into ridges, generally with a narrow riband or balk of turf between each ridge, or between each two or three ridges. The right of cultivating these ridges is distributed among the holders of the enclosed lands of the parish, according to the extent of their po e ions; and in order that there may be no partiality, and that every one may have as much interest in preserving his neighbour's ridge as his own, the ridges which any individual has the right of cultivating do neizhbours.not lie together, but are distributed among the.ridges of his, [s. 277]