COTTAGE ACCOMMODATION. 275 



only his work, but, what is even more important, 

 the chance of getting a roof over his head, or 

 indeed any employment in the neighbourhood. 

 In his Secret of Rural Depopulation, Lieu- 

 tenant-Colonel D. C. P. Pedder gives us a 

 gruesome picture of tied cottages being used 

 as booby-traps. "Most cottages," he says, 

 *' are tied to farms. Say a farmer has a very 

 bad one, how is he to get a labourer in and 

 get him to stay ? What is he to do ? First, 

 there is the advertisement, ' Good cottage 

 and garden.' Much hiring is done by letter. 

 The labourer sees the advertisement. To go 

 and see the cottage means losing a day's wage. 

 I wish the wives went ; but they don't. And 

 they don't encourage their husbands to go. 

 There is the money lost to begin with, and 

 very likely a bad head resulting from much 

 strange beer, and after all, 'what could he tell if 

 he saw it ?' Such is the contempt felt for the 

 masculine mind by our natural rulers. He 

 applies by letter for the place, is accepted, and 

 fetched over with family and furniture in his 

 master's waggon. If he goes into the cottage 

 provided, the trap falls. He will be had up 

 before the magistrate if he refuses to fulfil 

 his agreement of service in writing or verbal. 



