98 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



Next in importance is the roof, which, rising from 

 very low walls, really encloses half of the inhabitable 

 space. 



The one great desire of the cottager's heart after 

 his garden is plenty of sheds and outhouses in which 

 to store wood, vegetables, and lumber of all kinds. 

 This trait is quite forgotten, as a rule, by those who 

 design " improved " cottages for gentlemen anxious 

 to see the labourers on their estates well lodged ; and 

 consequently the new buildings do not give so much 

 satisfaction as might be expected. It is only natural 

 that to a man whose possessions are limited things like 

 potatoes, logs of wood, chips, odds and ends should 

 assume a value beyond the appreciation of the well- 

 to-do. The point should be borne in mind by those 

 who are endeavouring to give the labouring class better 

 accommodation. 



A cottage attached to a farmstead, which has been 

 occupied by a steady man who has worked on the 

 tenancy for the best part of his life, and possibly by 

 his father before him, sometimes contains furniture 

 of a superior kind. , This has been purchased piece 

 by piece in the course of years, some representing a 

 little legacy cottagers who have a trifle of property 

 are very proud of making wills and some perhaps 

 the last remaining relics of former prosperity. It is 

 not at all uncommon to find men like this, whose fore- 

 fathers no great while since held farms, and even 

 owned them, but fell by degrees in the social scale, till 

 at last their grandchildren work in the fields for wages. 





