A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON VILLAGES. 



The owners of hamlets and villages should give earnest attention to their 

 neatness, picturesque heauty, and general appearance, as well as to tire 

 comfort of the occupiers, especially those of the poorer classes, since, — 

 independent of higher considerations, — a well-managed village adds much to 

 the importance and beauty of a domain. To my mind, a really rural village is 

 one of the most pleasing objects, especially when the cottages have not too 

 much of a street-like appearance, but stand in groups, with fields here and 

 there interspersed, with now and then clusters of trees and neatly clipped 

 hedges, and clean firm roads and gravelled paths close to and on each side of 

 the road. No open drains, offices, or rubbish heaps, should be any where 

 visible. Cottages should be kept in comfortable repair, neat in their external 

 appearance, and by all means the occupiers should be urged to cleanliness 

 and order within. Roses and other climbing plants, neatly and uniformly 

 trained to the cottage walls, give an idea also of management and respect- 

 ability ; and I would therefore recommend proprietors to put up in front of 

 every cottage, for the protection of such plants, a simple but neat palisade, 

 from about three feet to three feet six inches high, and at a distance of 

 about three ■ feet from the cottage front. If the cottages are old, perhaps a 

 corresponding dwarf wall, two feet six inches high, might be better ; or larch 

 rods of similar height, two to three inches in diameter, fixed upright, three or 

 four inches apart, with a half one nailed on the top, the round side upwards, 

 and stained or painted oak colour, would be quite in character. I should in 

 no instance allow more front garden to appear, as such, unless the greatest 

 order is kept, without which the beauty which we wish a village to present 

 would be lessened. This three feet of garden should be fully occupied 

 with flowers, such as stocks, pinks, pansies, tulips, wallflowers, mignonette, 

 &c. The principal garden ought to be behind the house, for which, 

 perhaps, each cottager should be allowed from five hundred yards to a 

 quarter of an acre, as a general average, for vegetables, fruit, and flowers. 



