APPENDIX III. 375 



and breadth of Wiltshire to find a single bad cottage 

 on any large estate, so well and so thoroughly have 

 the landed proprietors done their work. On all farms 

 gardens are attached to the cottages, in many in- 

 stances very large, and always sufficient to produce 

 enough vegetables for the resident. In villages the 

 allotment system has been greatly extended of late 

 years, and has been found most beneficial, both to 

 owners and tenants. As a rule the allotments are let 

 at a rate which may be taken as 4 per annum a 

 sum which pays the landlord very well, and enables 

 the labourer to remunerate himself. In one village 

 which came under my observation the clergyman of 

 the parish has turned a portion of his glebe-land into 

 allotments a most excellent and noble example, 

 which cannot be too widely followed or too much ex- 

 tolled. He is thus enabled to benefit almost every 

 one of his poor parishioners, and yet without destroy- 

 ing that sense of independence which is the great 

 characteristic of a true Englishman. He has issued a 

 book of rules and conditions under which these allot- 

 ments are held, and he thus places a strong check 

 upon drunkenness and dissolute habits, indulgence in 

 which is a sure way to lose the portions of ground. 

 There is scarcely an end to the benefits of the allot- 

 ment system. In villages there cannot be extensive 

 gardens, and the allotments supply their place. The 

 extra produce above that which supplies the table and 

 pays the rent is easily disposed of in the next town, 

 and places many additional comforts in the labourer's 

 reach. The refuse goes to help support and fatten the 

 labourer's pig, which brings him in profit enough to 

 pay the rent of his cottage, and the pig, in turn, 



