COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE AND COTTAGES. 53 



simple, and understandable. Designs would be out of place here; 

 and we only recommend both poor men and rich men to examine 

 those in the book before us. 



There was one point in which cottages are frequently very defective, 

 and that is the free admission of light and air. People, not many 

 years ago, seemed to have a most unnatural horror of the free breath 

 of heaven, and hence the occasional devastations of fevers, plagues, 

 and other contagious and epidemic diseases. Recently a great im- 

 provement has taken place in this respect, and if the window duties 

 were removed, we should see still further changes. The chancellor 

 of the Exchequer and a man's health and purse are here at issue, and 

 the tax-gatherer shuts out God's provident gifts. 



" Formerly (says Mr. Smith) the old farm cottages in Scotland were 

 very defective in these respects. They had small windows, and these were 

 not made to open; therefore the only ventillation was by the door and win- 

 dows. But these wretched hovels are now giving place to more substantial 

 dwellings, brought about, in a great measure, by the patriotic and well- 

 directed exertions of the Highland Society. 



" In many districts the cottagers now vie with each other in comfort and 

 cleanliness; we now see whitened walls, half covered with honeysuckles 

 and roses, and a neat garden, either in the front or rear, where ornament is 

 blended with utility. 



t( The Scotch agricultural labourer deserves well of his country he is, 

 in general, frugal, industrious, and contented he is a stranger, not only to 

 the luxuries but often to the moderate comforts of life ; yet in this humble 

 condition he has not lost that spirit of independence, which has so long 

 distinguished him ; and his chief ambition seems to be to rear his family 

 for the village school, where they receive the blessings of that education, 

 which afford the first elements of their independence ; for in the parish 

 schools the sons and daughters of the peasantry inhale with their early 

 breath the principles of devotion they are trained up in the discharge of 

 every moral and religious duty and are thus prepared to follow the simple 

 rural life of their fathers." 



Not only would the agricultural labourer be thus a contented citi- 

 zen, and a moral and religious man in Scotland he would, if pro- 

 perly treated and encouraged, be so every where. But when he is 

 ground down by fiscal exaction demoralized by defective adminis- 

 tration of poor laws and then treated worse than a serf or a slave, 

 we know what a degraded being he may become. And what a pic- 

 ture does the agricultural population of England at this moment pre- 

 sent ! We challenge the social history of any country in Europe to 

 present so rapid a declension in the scale of moral and social refine- 

 ment as that of Great Britain. Formerly her cottage homes were her 

 almost peculiar boast, and her brave and bold yeomanry formed one 

 of the most valuable and important links of the social union. Hardly 

 a vestige remains and it seems to have been the aim of legislators 

 and the owners of property to root out the very existence of the in- 

 dependent labourer. In the eight counties of Bedfordshire, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Essex, Huntingdon, Lincoln, Norfolk, Rutland, and 

 Suffolk a diminution of no less than 20,064 houses took place from 

 the year 1690 to that of 1801. This is a fact which speaks volumes. 

 It tells that the hand of ruthless appropriation has driven away thou- 



