THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



145 



in many cases improvement lias been delayed, from ig- 

 norance of the real extent of the evil, from uncertainty 

 as to what is required for the proper accommodation of 

 country labourers, and from want of information as to 

 the best and cheapest way of providing it ; and that 

 although much good has been done, by the exertions of 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society, in promoting 

 the improvement of cottage dwellings, it is expected 

 that more comprehensive and systematic means should 

 now be adopted for directing attention on the part of 

 proprietors and tenants to the great deficiency that still 

 exist-!, and for aiding them in their efforts to supply 

 it." With these views the society was constituted, 

 having for its object the holding of periodical meetings ; 

 the establishment of an office in Edinburgh, where 

 plans, models, and specifications of buildings and fittings 

 could be deposited and consulted ; and the adoption of 

 such other means as might be found expedient to pro- 

 mote the construction of suitable dwellings and domestic 

 accommodations of the agricultural labourers of Scot- 

 land. The Association has been now three years in ex- 

 istence, and from the published reports of its directors 

 we propose to glean some information as to the prac- 

 tical results which have followed from its formation. 



From the very commencement of their labours, the 

 directors were impressed with the importance of one of 

 their "regulations" — one which it would be well for 

 similar institutions to bear in mind — that, "in order to 

 be really useful, the Association must be practical, not 

 speculative; cautious, not obtrusive." That this prin- 

 ciple — so far, at least, as the first part is concerned 

 (" practical, not speculative")-— has been well acted up 

 to, a very brief glance at the three reports* suffices to 

 show. To the First Report an Appendix is added, 

 containing ' ' A few Practical Hints on Cottage-building,'' 

 with engraved plans, and a general specification. To 

 the Second and Third Reports a supplementary report 

 is added, with numerous woodcuts and plans and speci- 

 fications ; these being prepared by Mr. Wm. Fowler, 

 Architect to the Association. The practical nature of 

 these may be gathered from one fact— that in numerous 

 instances have they been carried out, with marked satis- 

 faction to all concerned. At some of the useful hints 

 of Mr. Fowler we propose hereafter to glance. In ad- 

 dition to a large circulation of these plans and practical 

 suggestions, through the medium of the annual reports, 

 further publicity has been given to them in the form of 

 separate sheets, five in number, the ))rice of each of 

 which is 2s. 6d. The sale of these, we are glad to learn, 

 has been very encouraging, not only in Scotland, but in 

 England. These sheets contain the most approved de- 

 signs for labourers' dwellings, and furnish, through the 

 medium of schedules of measurements, facilities for 

 obtaining accurate estimates of the cost of erection. In 

 preparing these plans, the directors and their architect 

 had one point always in view — namely, that " three 

 separate apartments are the minimum accommodation 

 for a labourer's family." In their Second Report they 



* Printed for the Association, by William Blackwood and 

 Sons, Edinburgh. 



emphatically repeat this axiom, as it may be called, 

 stating that the accommodation stated in it is the very 

 least that ought to be afforded " for a proper division of 

 the sexes in a labourer's family — a matter so absolutely 

 necessary to be provided for, in promoting any social 

 improvement among the peasantry." This point can- 

 not be too strongly urged upon the notice of those who 

 are contemplating the erection of cottages for their la- 

 bourers : it is folly to expect a high standard of morality 

 amongst the peasantry, when everything in their house- 

 hold arrangements is calculated to lower it. On this 

 point the Duke of Buccleugh, at the initiatory meeting 

 of the Association, made some apposite remarks. " How 

 can you expect," he asked, " that, where men, women, 

 and children are all huddled together in one apartment 

 or two apartments, it should be otherwise than that the 

 delicacy of feeling which ought to exist is destroyed ? I 

 have been told so by the people themselves, and have 

 known it in England, where complaints have been made 

 to me that the cottages did not afford sufficient accom- 

 modation. One mother said to me, ' How can I bring 

 up my daughters in respectability and with proper feel- 

 ings, when we are all obliged to live together in such 

 close contact, and without that separation which there 

 ought to be?'" Knowing well the evils which arise 

 from the crowding together of sexes in one apartment, 

 we are glad to see the stand which the Scottish Associa- 

 tion is making on this point, of having separate accom- 

 modation for separate branches of the family. 



In all movements of social reform — and in none, per- 

 haps, is it more noticeable than in the movement now 

 under notice — the question of cost — " Will it pay ?" — 

 obtrudes itself forcibly ; sometimes so much so, that it 

 excludes all other considerations, and the success or non- 

 success of the movement is decided by this alone. The 

 directors of the Association, in their Second Report, 

 endeavour to place this matter on what we consider its 

 proper basis. "They cannot profess," they say, "to 

 give plans for cottages having all the requisites for com- 

 fort and social decency at a commercial remunerative 

 per-centage on the outlay of their erections ; and they 

 are confident that, where such is insisted on, these hu- 

 mane provisions must to a great degree be sacrificed. 

 But the directors do profess to afford directions for 

 building cottages, where a plain style is adopted, which 

 shall embrace all these, and yet yield such a per-centage 

 on the outlay as, with a corresponding increase of the 

 efficiency of their occupants as labourers, will prove 

 highly remunerative to both landlord and farmer." 

 That this is the right, the just way to view the matter, 

 we are confident. Other considerations than the mere 

 pecuniary ones must be taken into account, in en- 

 deavouring to strike a fair balance. But even taking the 

 lowest ground, and judging the whole matter by the 

 standard too often applied in such cases — the money 

 standard — we apprehend that if the operation is gone 

 rightly about, and nothing left to haphazard con- 

 jecture or weak incompetence, that houses with 

 arrangements tending to promote decency and self- 

 respect amongst their inhabitants will pay as well — nay, 

 better than those in which everything is calculated to 



