26 Farming of Bedfordshire. 



The more considerate of our farmers manage, as far as practi- 

 cable, to give piece-work to men of large families ; so that men, 

 so circumstanced, have the opportunity of earning more money, 

 and their wages will often reach 155. per week ; while to this 

 must be added frequently the earnings of other members of the 

 family. In the southern division of the county the plaiting of 

 straw furnishes additional employment to the wife and junior 

 members of the family, and a most welcome addition to the income 

 of the household. 



Many labourers have garden allotments, and when these and 

 the cottages are at a moderate rent the labourers are not ill cared 

 for. But, I regret to say, this is not invariably the case, and full 

 justice can scarcely be done to the farm-labourers of the county, 

 or to some of their best friends, without appending a few re- 

 marks on cottages and cottage allotments, for the sake of a 

 deserving but too often depressed portion of our rural popu- 

 lation. 



It is scarcely needful to say that to a family-man, be his 

 condition in other respects what it may, if there be the absence 

 of convenience and comfort at home, there cannot be real 

 enjoyment of life. In the course of a new assessment of a 

 populous parish in the county, I have seen, on the one hand, 

 labourers living in miserably small and crowded cottages, devoid 

 of all convenience, and without a foot of garden ground, paying a 

 rent of 2s. &d. per week, or 6/. lO.f. per annum ; while, on the 

 other hand, in tlie same parish, were to be seen tastefully built 

 cottages, often with three sleeping rooms and two rooms below, 

 fitted up with a neat stone sink, a supply of spring and soft 

 water, and a good spacious garden studded with fruit trees, and 

 all for about 3/. 5^. a year, or at most 3Z. IO5. per annum. 



The former were, it appeared, the property of a speculator, 

 who, taking advantage of the wants of this class of poor people, 

 bought ground and erected a number of cottages on the most 

 economical plan, with but little reference to comfort. They are, 

 however, tenanted ; and upon the maxim of Hudibras — 



" Tlie value of a thing 

 Is just as much as it will bring" — 



the rent-collector is sent round every Monday morning for his 

 half-crown, or, in some instances, three shillings, which must 

 be paid within the week. 



In the latter case the property belonged to a nobleman, whose 

 estate in that particular parish is not large, but who, doubtless, 

 feels a just pride in providing comfortable homes for the 

 labourers working upon his estate. 



The want of comfortable cottages, and as near as possible to 



