40 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



the door of nearly every thatched cottage, 

 where, with the efficiency that one generally 

 associates with the State, cottages are put 

 into decent repair and the rent is no longer 

 the uneconomic rent of the dilapidated farm- 

 tied cottage, but is on a sound economic foot- 

 ing. The immediate result has been the 

 raising of wages and the maintenance of a 

 hiffher standard of life. Not that the 

 cottagers have any more money to spend, but 

 they have, at any rate, sound roofs and walls 

 to keep out bad weather. 



As we approach Bulford with its military 

 camp we might expect a change from 

 extensive to intensive culture, for here, surely, 

 close at hand, is a splendid market for small 

 holders situated in this fertile vale. Yet what 

 do we find ? 



At Figheldean, which is about three or four 

 miles from Bulford, a number of men duly 

 made applications for small holdings. They 

 were men thoroughly approved of both by 

 the County Council and by the Inspector 

 sent down by the Board of Agriculture, who 

 reported favourably on the proposed site, 

 and yet, in spite of all this, the scheme has 

 somehow or other been blocked at Whitehall. 



