1330 ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF AGRICULTURE. suppijmmix 



thus have the benefit of the morning and midday sun ; an Important advantage to a cottager. In y hi 

 domestic expenditure coal- liderable articles. Stone is, I believe, the best material for 



(i„. Boor, ■ osl durable and easily kept clean, ana In these respect- greatly to be preferred to 



brick. Boards, besides that they are liable to occasion a bj Bre, could scarcely be kept clean 



in a cottage living-room, and would soon be worn out by the Iron-bound Bhoe6 oi the inhabitants. ()t 

 course the walls and ceUing should be- neatly plastered and whitewashed, and there should be a proper 

 skirting-board round the n om, and attached msld i the windows. 1 he fireplace should bj 



Mtu.it. •das to be well lighted bj one of the windows ; audit might be a close or open fireplace, accordli 

 .1- wood or coal happened I > be the common fuel of the district. I observe that the old-fashioned open 

 fireplaces are generally preferred by cottagers, on account of the snug warm an ird in the 



chimnej corner a- it is called, and which Is too often the only warm place in the bouse. I am aware tl 

 these fireplaces do not economise fuel, or afford the best means of wanning the room ; but they present 

 some advantages to the cottager; thai is, they are capital places for drying bacon and wet clothing. Either 



wood may be burnt in them on the hearth, or coal in a moveable grate; and. as the lire ISOH or near the 



ground it certainly diffuses a considerable heat around it. The mouth of the brick oven also generally 

 opens in the back, or side, of the chimney, so that all the ashes and litter, together with the heat pro- 

 duced, are confined to one place ; and, should this place be near the centre of the building, the mass pl 

 warm masonry must have the effect Of raising the general temperature of all the apartments. In the 

 coal countries these open fire-places are not usually met with ; but, where wood is the principal fuel oj 

 the peasantry (as it is in the district from which 1 write), 1 would indulge their prejudice in favour oi 

 an open chimney, and will suppose one in the cottage kitchen, with the mouth of the oven on one side 

 of the back, and on the other a small copper set in an arch, having a flue through the arch by which 

 the steam might escape up the chimney. It would be tedious to describe minutely the various articles 

 ol useful and ornamental furniture found in the kitchen of a thriving cottager ; indeed, to those unac- 

 quainted with rural life it would be difficult to convey an idea of the multifarious collection ofti 

 played in a room of this kind. A tidy labourer's wife is sometimes as fond of knick-knacks, and 

 proud of displaying her various stores, as the richest lady in the laud. The peasantry have, intact, many 

 of the prevailing tastes of their superiors in wealth and refinement, and love to ornament their bouses 

 with plants and flowers, prints, and plastercasts, and ornamental china. The kitchen is frequently as 

 much crowded with useful and ornamental furniture as a modern drawing-room. The mantel-shelf 

 displays a range of flower-vases, images, and painted busts of the favourite heroes of past and presi 

 times, mixed with some of the bright cooking utensils. The walls are sometimes thickly hung with 

 coarse engravings, ballads, an i printed papers, moral, religious, and political, and with various other 

 things; among which are conspicuous the labourer's club rule-, and his staff, or some peculiar implement 

 denoting his occupation, such as the polished head of the shepherd's crook, the market-day carter's whip, 

 or the spare flail of the thresher. The window is seldom without its collection of exotics, thriving sur- 

 prisingly, some of them in spoutless teapots and other discarded vessels ; and on the window seat, or on 

 a shelf near, a little heap of books ; the bible, in a neat cover, reverently placed apart from the rest. 

 Even the ceiling is usually furnished with that desirable ornament, a well-stored bacon-rack, shoes, 

 tools, bags of seeds, and a host of other things. But the pride of the cottage housewife is her ilia s-er 

 and shelves. Here she displays her little store of glass and earthenware of the better kinds, with her 

 best plated spoons, her bright pewter plates, and clean wood trenchers, frequently arranged with con- 

 siderable taste and effect. Some of the conspicuous articles will not, perhaps, bear a close examination ; 

 and are, in fact, useless; though "wisely kept for show:" but she contrives to hide defects, and the 

 shelves often exhibit specimens of old glass and china, which a collector of such rarities might cover. 

 There are, indeed, few more picturesque interiors than that of the well-kept kitchen of a thriving 

 labourer who happens to have a tidy wife; and I have often been much pleased at the air of decent 

 comfort, and at the decorated effect produced by the miscellaneous collection seen in a room of this 

 description. 



8224. Furniture of the kitchen. Among the more prominent articles of furniture in a thriving labourer's 

 kitchen, the clock, I think, take- precedence of the rest in the owner's estimation, and its well-polis 

 case is generally a conspicuous object. Next to this we may rank the best dining-table, often one ol 

 those interesting old oak tables with rounded leaves, and as many curiously-turned legs as a spider. The 

 best tea-table, turned up, with its pillar and claw, in a corner j and the dough trough with its clean 

 white cover, would next attract attention. To these we may add the great arm-chair, with a patchwork 

 cushion in the bottom, for the man. as be is emphatically called here, in which he sits in the evening in 

 a sort of rustic dignity, surrounded by his wife and children, forming, in many cases, a happy, inten sting 

 group : the wife and elder girls at work, perhaps, while one of the boys is standing by the father, readii 

 or repeating what he has learnt at school during the day. 1 hope there are many such evening groups 

 still to be found in our cottages, in spite of politics and the beer shops. This reminds me of another 

 piece of furniture w huh 1 should w ish to see in every cottage j I mean, a shelf of useful and instructive 

 books. You seldom enter a cottage without finding some books; hide, d, as far as my observation 

 extends. I should say that a taste for reading is becoming more general among the labouring classes ; and 

 it ought to be encouraged, as a source of instruction and enjoyment, which has a tendency to improve 

 the morals and better the condition of the peasantry. What a wide field of knowledge and enjoyment 

 is cut off from the labourer who is unable to read, or who has no taste for reading ! Half the leisure 

 time of such a person must be spent in drowsy indolence, or in the debasing scenes of the ale-house. to 

 winch he is almost driven in sell-defence, to relieve the tedium of idleness and the oppressive vacancy 

 of his mind : the want of this resource and comfort is severely felt by the uneducated labourer in timi 

 sickness and old age, when along active life is necessarily exchanged for a state of total inactivity. 

 There are few of the rising gem ration entirely without education. The stores of knowledge Will 

 therefore soon be opened to all the labouring classes, and they should lie encouraged to Use them to their 

 own advantage, by having their attention directed to useful and improving books. " A little learning," 

 if not properly directed. " is a dangerous thing." 



8225. Back-kitchen and washhouse. Besides the kitchen, or common living-room of the family, every 

 complete cottage should have a small washhouse, in which the brewing and washing, the dirty and all 

 work of the family, may be done. Here 1 would have shelves for the saucepans, and other unsightly 

 articles, used in cooking ; also a set copper ; and a proper sink, communicating, by a drain, with the dung 

 pit or a cess pool. Most cottages are without a washhouse ; but a small place of this sort is absolutely 

 necessary to every dwelling ; as. without it. the living-room can never he tidy or comfortable, and, I may 

 add. w holesome. For want oi a w as ii house, the cottager is c impelled to hangup hi- dead pig, and even 

 to salt it. in the living-room ; and as there is no other place in which to do the dirty work, and put away 

 the dirty things which must lie used in every family, the room is generally in a litter, and has an un- 

 wholesome, disagreeable smell, which must he prejudicial to the health of the inhabitants. But what I 

 would chiefly insist upon in the washhouse is a proper sink to receive the slops and dirty water. Very 

 few cottages have any convenience of this kind ; and consequently all the slops are thrown out at the door ; 

 and you can scarcely approach a cottage, in many cases, for the abominations that surround it. Besides 

 this, the entrance is commonly surround. -.1 by a sort of impure air. which is extremely offensive, and 

 must be injurious to the inmate's. No cottage, therefore, should be without a sink, communicating with 

 a drain, w Inch may carry the dirty water to a sufficient distance irom the house. Even a pretty cottage 

 will have a squalid, miserable appearance, when the door is surrounded by tilth ; and I have seen vil- 

 lages, with the houses built on each side of a narrow road, which were absolutely disgusting in con- 

 sequence of the nuisance referred to. 



