GLANCING BACK. 197 



sons Silas, seventeen, John, fifteen, James, fourteen, and 

 Elias, aged ten, eleven persons, six of them practically 

 adults, in this tiny sleeping apartment ! Unhappily, 

 this was not a solitary instance of gross and shameful 

 overcrowding for the Commissioner stated that it was 

 not an extraordinary example every bedroom in the 

 cottages at Blandford being overcrowded with inmates 

 of both sexes and varying ages. The dearth of cottages 

 a very widespread " dearth " throughout the agri- 

 cultural districts generally was the cause of the over- 

 crowding. The Commissioner, indeed, gave an instance 

 in which, in another parish, no less than twenty-nine 

 persons were compelled to occupy one cottage, and it was 

 stated to him and this was by an estate agent that 

 the twenty-nine were " married men and women and 

 young people of nearly all ages " ! In yet other cases it 

 was by no means at all uncommon to find whole families 

 occupying one room, and he added the painful and yet 

 almost inevitable result of such a demoralising state of 

 things, that the number of illegitimate children was very 

 great in the district. 



That the deplorable state of things indicated was of 

 very general prevalence is amply proved by the evidence 

 obtained by the Commissioner the cottages every- 

 where throughout the four counties under notice being 

 " old and frequently in a state of decay." Here is an 

 illustrative picture, which, though merely verbal, is 

 sufficiently descriptive of a most deplorable state of 

 things : 



" The floor of the room in which the family live during 

 the day is always of stone in these counties, and wet or 

 damp during the winter months, being frequently lower 

 than the soil outside. The situation of the cottage is often 

 extremely bad, no attention having been paid at the time 

 of its building to facilities for draining. Cottages are 

 frequently erected on a dead level, so that water cannot 

 escape ; and sometimes on spots lower than the surround- 

 ing ground. In the village of Stourpain hi Dorsetshire, 

 there is a row of several labourers' cottages, mostly join- 



