suiTi.KMi.NT. SCIENCE AND ART OF AGRICULTURE. 1331 



8226. A small larder ur pantry, having a window in the outer wall, should communicate with the 

 kitchen or wash-house. This is a necessary convenience not often found in labourers' dwellings, in 

 which the provisions are generally kept in nasty close cupboards, or on shelves in the living-room, where 

 they are liable to get spoilt, and are exposed to dust, smoke, and all sorts of impurities. For want of a 

 better place, even the beer or cider barrel is kept in the warm kitchen, and in such a situation the 

 liquor, of course, soon becomes sour and unfit to drink. No cottage, therefore, should be without a cool 

 airy larder ; and a small place of this kind might be easily contrived in every dwelling, with little or no 

 addition to the cost of building. As I am describing the beau ideal of a cottage, the owner of which 

 might keep a cow, I will, in the present case, suppose the larder of a sufficient size to contain both the 

 milk and provisions. We can scarcely expect a distinct place for each in a labourer's cottage, and it 

 would be unnecessary. There might be separate shelves for the milk and provisions. &c. ; hanging 

 shelves for the small cheeses, which a managing woman would of course make during the summer 

 season, even from her single cow. 



8227. Cellar. If the floor of the larder were sunk the depth of a yard below the surface, the beer 

 might also be kept in it ; but a cottage would not be quite complete without a small cellar, to contain the 

 beer, and the potatoes and other roots. A cottager with land would grow a large supply of potatoes and 

 other roots, for his cow and pigs ; and it would save a great deal of time, and prevent waste, to have the 

 roots always at hand in the cellar, instead of burying them out of doors in pits, which, when once opened, 

 are not secure against frost and wet. I would also recommend a cellar in every new cottage ; oecuuse I look 

 forward to the time when every labouring man will be able to brew his beer at home. A hard-working 

 labourer requires a certain quantity of wholesome beer ; and if he has not this at home, he is sure to go 

 to the alehouse, where he gets into the worst company, spends in intemperance what is required for the 

 maintenance of his family, and in many cases becomes a confirmed drunkard. It would be a work of 

 charity, therefore, to encourage brewing among the labourers ; and, as a means of promoting it in country 

 villages, I would suggest a plan of having a small set of brewing utensils, for the use of the cottagers, in 

 the care of a fit person, who would lend them, in the parish, under proper regulations. The cost of the 

 tubs, &c, would be inconsiderable, and might be easily raised by subscription among the wealthy in- 

 habitants, or even among the cottagers themselves. A penny or two paid for the use of the tubs would 

 be sufficient to keep them in repair. The want of tubs is one of the chief obstacles in the way of cot. 

 tagers brewing, which this plan would remove. And 1 am persuaded it would succeed, as I find that 

 even a whitewashing brush, kept to lend out, has been a great promoter of cleanliness. 



8228. The parlour. Should this paper ever fall into the hands of a labouring man, he would probably 

 smile when he came to this part of it, in which I am to speak of the parlour. Many persons will consider 

 a parlour an unnecessary luxury in a labourer's dwelling: it would be seldom used perhaps as a sitting- 

 room, but as a spare room it would be a great convenience in the case of a large family, and should not be 

 omitted in an attempt to describe a complete cottage. Most thriving labourers are in the habit of re- 

 ceiving their distant friends and relations, at certain seasons, such as the village feast, at " the tides," at 

 christenings, &c. The parlour would be useful on such occasions, both as a sitting-room and additional 

 bedroom, as it would be also in case of sickness, or death. If for no other reason, I should be an advocate 

 for a spare room of this kind in every cottage, as a receptacle for the dead. As cottages are at present, 

 there is seldom any possibility of separating the dead from the living, when one of the inmates dies : 

 when such a calamity occurs, the corpse must be placed either in the sitting-room or bedroom ; and I have 

 known instances of a large family sleeping for several nights together in the same room with a corpse, 

 even when death has been occasioned by an infectious fever. To my feelings there is something un- 

 speakably terrible in this dreadful mixture of the living with the dead ; and if the idea be so appalling, 

 what must the reality be to those who suffer it ! A small parlour, therefore, containing an occasional 

 bed, would prevent the necessity for this most disgusting consequence of death in a labourer's family ; 

 as, with the possibility of making up an extra bed for some of the inmates, one of the bedrooms might 

 generally be appropriated for the reception of the body, between the death and the funeral. I would have 

 the parlour a plain comfortable room, ceiled and plastered, with a stone or boarded floor. It should, of 

 course, have a small fireplace, and attached inside window-shutters. Besides the chairs and table, the 

 furniture should comprise a closet tied complete, as the room would probably be more used as a bedroom 

 than as a sitting-room. A corner cupboard to receive the best china and glass, a few groceries, &c, 

 would also be useful ; and a chest of drawers for the linen of the family would not be out of place. I 

 should whitewash the walls, because it could be done by the cottagers themselves when requisite, and 

 colour-washing is, of all things in this way, the most difficult to do well to the uninitiated. The cottager's 

 wife would decorate the walls and the 'room generally with some of her best knick-knacks, books, 

 flowers &c. 



8229.' Staircase. As we proceed to the upper story, we must say something of the staircase. This, in 

 old cottages, is generally the most awkward thing possible, and placed in the most awkward situati in ; 

 a narrow, twisting, dark, and, to a stranger, a dangerous ascent, compared with which a common ladder 

 would be luxurious, and usually leading into a bedroom which is a passage room to another, when there 

 happens to be two. Our cottage must have a proper light staircase, ending above in a small landing, t>> 

 which all the bedroom doors should open. 



8230. Bedrooms. Every cottage for a family should have at least three bedrooms, so that the parents, 

 and'the children of each sex, might sleep in separate apartments. The rooms need not be large, but thej 

 should be light, airy, comfortable, each having a window that will open. Tiny ought t.> be ceiled, 

 plastered, and whitewashed ; with boarded or plaster floors j and, if possible, a fireplace m each, in case 

 of sickness, or merely for ventilation. I am rather an advocate for the plaster floors used in the north of 

 England fo'r cottage bedrooms, as they are a security against accidents by fire ; and, when properly made, 

 are more comfortable, and have a more cleanly appearance, than the rough ill-joined boards commonh 

 found in cottage chambers, i have seen these floors nearly as hard as stone, and, when washed over with 

 pipeclay, they have a very neat effect. It is unnecessary to describe the furniture, which, of course, 

 should comprise the requisites for comfortable repose and cleanliness in a humble way. You seldom find 

 bed-curtains in a cottager's .chambers ; I have heard them express a dislike to bed-furniture ; and, in a 

 tolerably warm room, it is, I think, a luxury we might all dispense wiih. as being rather prejudicial to 

 health than otherwise. Cottagers generally use stump bedsteads, with head-boards, and I have observed 

 in cottages ancient specimens of oak bedsteads, with curiously carved head-boards and legs. Old carved 

 oak clothes-chests are also frequently met with, which would be valued by the antiquary. There are ten 

 things connected with labourers' dwellings, which so much need reform as the bedrooms. In this neigh- 

 bourhood half the cottages have only one chamber, and this sometimes a low miserable apartment jn the 

 roof open to the thatch ; with the walls unplastered, and without a window that will open ; in fact, a 

 place little better than a hay-loft. And here the whole family sleep ; old and young, married and single. 

 without even a curtain to separate the sexes. Can we wonder at the gioss immorality which U so 

 lamentably common among the young peasantry, when the sense of delicacy is destroyed even from 

 infancy » I would therefore press this subject on the attention of all benevolent owners ol cottages, and 

 especially on our great landed proprietors, who are generally well disposed to contribute to the improve- 

 ment of the peasantry. The first step towards the improvement of their morals must be to increase the 

 number of bedrooms in cottages. Let me, then, urge this upon those whom it concerns, in the words ol 

 " Nature's sternest painter, yet the best," the poet Crabbe : — 



" These thoughtless people part, 

 Nor let the ear be first to taint the heart." 



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