THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



343 



THE COTTAGE OF THE LABOURER. 



It is my lot to reside in a district wliero the farms are 

 somewhat remote from the residences of our labouring 

 population. It is true that we have within the past 

 twenty years had many cottages built upon the respec- 

 tive farms by the various owners ; but still we are 

 lamentably deficient in cottage accommodation, many 

 of our men having to walk a weary distance to and fro 

 to labour, some from three to four miies each way, and 

 nearly all varying from one mile to four, and then pro- 

 bably another mile to the place of work for the day. 

 Talk about serfdom and slavery. Freedom excepted, 

 is their position far worse than the poor fellow who has 

 to rise between three and four o'clock in the morning, 

 prepare his breakfast, eat it hastily, and be down at his 

 master's yard by six o'clock, ready for a long day's 

 labour ? He leaves his work on the farm again at six 

 o'clock in the evening ; he commences his wearisome 

 walk home, takes his evening meal (" his supper") 

 between seven and eight o'clock, and then to bed. And 

 this daily throughout the Summer; aad in harvest, and 

 hay-time he has to make still longer days. In the Winter, 

 or for nearly six months of the year, all this dreary walk 

 is in the dark. It is dark when he leaves his home ; 

 it is dark when he arrives at the farm ; it is dark when 

 he leaves it ; and he trails his tired legs home in the 

 dark, having all the stiles to clamber and bridges to 

 cross by the way, and the footway for the most part soft, 

 slippery, and muddy. Add to this, his insuflScient wages 

 are seldom good enough to provide him the common 

 necessaries, to say nothing of the comforts which ought 

 to pertain to the industrious labourer : his wages seldom 

 exceed 123. per week, and they are frequently below 

 that amount. Verily, his position in life is no enviable 

 one. And this is no isolated case ; it is a too common 

 one. It much needs the favourable attention of every 

 landlord, and to these I venture to appeal on behalf 

 of this truly valuable class of men, and I trust this 

 short paper may not be written in vain. My wish is 

 that many more able pens than mine would take up 

 the subject most energetically. 



The cottage of the labourer ought to be on the farm, 

 or contiguous to it. It is unreasonable to expect a 

 good and satisfactory day's work from a man who has 

 these long distances to travel, shod, it may be, in hard 

 "high lows," or clumsy shoes, perhaps with wooden 

 sole<», and with a gait none of the readiest for quick 

 transit. And yet he is required to do it, and in piece- 

 work he must do it, or starve. There is no help for him. 

 'Tis a weary, weary, daily task. He is soon worn out, 

 and no wonder. Landlords, think of this ! Have 

 their cases, then, in your best consideration. Good 

 farm buildings are now the prevailing fashion every, 

 where. All right in its place, and modern farming 

 would progress tardily without them ; but comfortable 

 cottages, on farms distant from yillages or cottage re- 

 sidences, are of equal if not greater importance. And 



where can they be so well situate ? There is room for 

 the garden on every farm, and every convenience all 

 close at hand. The poor labourer can enjoy the two- 

 fold advantage of obtaining more rest nightly, and rise 

 fresh and vigorous for work, being minus his long 

 morning's walk. The farmer, reaping the benefit of this 

 arrangement, would gladly pay a high per-centage for 

 the boon. 



I am well aware that on entailed or life estates many 

 difficulties may attend an extensive outlay in cottage 

 building. It is a trying, if not an unreasonable thing, for 

 a man possessing only a life interest, or deriving only an 

 annual income from the estate, to be called upon to ex- 

 pend a considerable portion of it for the convenience 

 and benefit of his tenantry and his future heir. Be that 

 as it may, it is capitalwell laid out, and will not only 

 ensure an enhanced income, but a more prosperous 

 tenantry. If, however, this should be found imprac- 

 ticable, by all means let Government be empowered to 

 grant loans for cottage building, on precisely the same 

 principle as is now adopted for subsoil drainage on en- 

 tailed estates. Both are permanent improvements, and 

 no valid objection can be made against charging these 

 entailed estates with the repayment, provided all is done 

 under proper regulations and inspection. A short Bill 

 for this purpose might be passed by the Legislature 

 based upon the Drainage Bill, which would effect every 

 purpose contemplated, and prove a valuable blessing 

 to thousands of poor workmen. 



In respect to the cottage itself, I can only speak in 

 general terms ; but for the sake of morality and decency 

 it never ought to contain less than three sleeping-rooms : 

 one for the parents, one for the daughters, and the other 

 for the sons. I need not stay to point out the evils 

 arising from the intermingling of the sexes in cottages ; 

 our Poor-Law statistics give lamentable evidence on this 

 head ; the wonder, after all, is, that they (the cases I 

 allude to) are not more numerous. The public papers 

 read by all, have lately unfolded some wretched cases of 

 the over-crowding of cottages ; parents, sons, daughters, 

 lodgers (male and female) all occupying the same bed- 

 room. Yes ! and I am grieved to say wholly uncon- 

 scious of their degradation. It is a lamentable fact, 

 that numbers of our labouring population think there is 

 nothing degrading or unseemly in thus herding together; 

 and frequently, if not influenced by their masters or 

 landlords, they will fill their cottages with lodgers, des- 

 pising every precaution, and looking only to the extra 

 shilling per week paid by each lodger. It is in this 

 particular that the notions and ideas of our labouring 

 population require elevation ; they have been so long 

 accustomed to small, close cottages, great privations, 

 and general commingling of sexes in one room, if not 

 in one bed, that they think nothing of it, and it is taken 

 as a matter of course. It was only the other day, one 

 of roy own labourers, for whom, with others, I was 



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