A Peep at Scotland 



i6s 



mense extension of building in all our towns has taken 

 place ; and the tenements built for the labouring 

 classes have been so constructed that each contains, ac- 

 cording to its size, from four to eight separate houses, 

 of two or three rooms each, with closet, in which is 

 sink, water, &c., letting annually from ;i^8 to £\2. 

 Such, generally speaking, are the houses raised for 

 the labouring classes ; but we have yet to learn 

 whether it is a fact that that kind of house either gives 

 more breathing space to those who live in it, or 

 whether the sexes are thereby kept more apart than 

 when the same class lived in their one or two rooms. 



It was above shewn that each so-called house in 

 the towns had a proportion of 12.2 persons to it, 

 while each house in the villages only had 5.8 persons, 

 and each house in the rural parts 5.3 persons — that is 

 to say, that to every ten houses in each group, there 

 were 122 persons in the towns, 58 persons in the 

 villages, and 53 persons in the rural districts. If "a 

 house " meant the same thing in the towns as in the 

 villages and rural parts, the above figures would shew 

 that more than double the number of persons lived in 

 each house in the towns to what lived in each house in 

 the villages and rural parts. But it appears that every 

 ten houses in the towns contained seventy-three 

 rooms, while every ten houses in the villages and rural 

 districts contained only thirty-four rooms ; so that the 

 room accommodation in the towns and villages were 

 equal, being ten rooms to every 1 7 persons. 



This striking fact shews that mere generalities will 

 lead us to no practical conclusions relative to the 

 housing of the population, or their overcrowding ; but 

 it effectually disposes of the cry so often raised 

 erroneously, that the towns are in a much worse con- 

 dition as to room accommodation than are the villages 

 or rural parts of the country. 



The proportion of families inhabiting houses of 

 different sizes differs in each county. For instance, 

 only 17.53 per cent, of the population in Kincardine 

 lived in houses of one room ; while in Renfrew 36. 50 

 per cent., and in Lanark 42.74 per cent, of the 



population lived in houses of the same size. Over 

 the whole counties the proportion was much more 

 uniform who lived in houses of two rooms — varying 

 only from 30. 13 per cent, in Elgin to 48.35 per cent, 

 in Orkney. Of all the counties, however, Shetland 

 had the smallest proportion living in houses of three 

 rooms, viz., only 3,56 per cent. But 21.89 per cent, 

 of the population in Elgin lived in houses of three 

 rooms, and 23.16 per cent, in the county of Banff. 

 Even the county of Edinburgh had only 11.79 per 

 cent, of her population in houses of three rooms, 

 while Lanarkshire had only 9.97 per cent. 



As might have been expected, Shetland had by far 

 the highest proportion of her population living in 

 houses of one or two rooms with or without windows 

 — 90.24 per cent, of her population being in that con- 

 dition ; and she had also the highest proportion of her 

 people living in huts, or houses without windows, 

 seeing that 8.35 per cent, of her families were in that 

 condition. So many crude and unsupported theories 

 are now brought forward and proclaimed as facts, that 

 it seems right to mention that the mere circumstance 

 of Shetland being the worst housed of all the counties 

 of Scotland has not had the effect of either making 

 her the most unhealthy or the most immoral of the 

 counties. So much is the reverse the case, that she 

 stands pre-eminent for the healthiness of her popula- 

 tion, and also for their morality ; which leads us to 

 conclude that house accommodation is only one of 

 the causes, and after all perhaps not one of the most 

 important, which affect the healthiness and morality 

 of a people. 



The report at which we have just glanced 

 is an extremely interesting one, and cannot 

 fail to assist all who are anxiously striving to 

 understand the anomalies of our social 

 system, the condition of our agricultural 

 population in particulai", and how best to 

 improve their house accommodation in order 

 that this may tend to greater comfort and 

 morality. 



