272 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



parish because the clerk of the council has 

 the letting of them ! 



On another occasion, in quite a different 

 parish, I informed a lady who took a great 

 interest in hygiene, that several of the cottages 

 on her large estate had nothing but stagnant 

 ponds from which to draw their water-supply, 

 and that several children in these cottages 

 had been down with diphtheritic throats. She 

 called, with her agent, upon one of the unfortun- 

 ate cottagers, who, fearful of consequences, 

 said that he himself had made no complaint. 

 And yet, impelled either by a sense of humour 

 or by yokel simplicity, he invited his land- 

 lady and her agent in turn to partake of a 

 glass of the water. But neither the lady nor 

 her agent were thirsty that afternoon ! When 

 she left, she advised the cottager to send a 

 sample to the Medical Officer of Health ! Of 

 course this was never done, and even if it 

 had been, assuredly the INIedical Officer would 

 have rejected a sample which he himself did 

 not take in a special phial. 



In 1910, Mr. F. Swanzy, J.P., carried out, 

 by means of travelling correspondence, an 

 inquiry concerning conditions prevailing in 

 the county of Kent. The report is summed 



