ig8 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



ing each other and fronting the street, in the middle of 

 which is an open gutter. There are two or three narrow 

 passages leading from the street between the houses to the 

 back of them. Behind the cottages the ground rises rather 

 abruptly, and about three yards up the elevation are placed 

 the pigstys and places of convenience of the cottages. There 

 are also shallow excavations, the receptacles, apparently, 

 of all the dirt of the families. The matter constantly escap- 

 ing from the pigstys, etc., is allowed to find its way through 

 the passages between the cottages into the gutter in the 

 street, so that the cottages are nearly surrounded by streams 

 of filth. It was in these cottages that a malignant typhus 

 broke out about two years ago, which afterwards spread 

 through the village." 



The bedroom of which a diagram has been given in 

 this chapter was in one of these cottages ! It is true 

 that the Commissioner admitted that " this was perhaps 

 an extreme case, but," he continued : 



" I hardly visited a cottage where there were any attempts 

 at draining. The dirt of the family is thrown down before 

 or behind the cottage ; if there is any natural inclination in 

 the ground from the cottage, it escapes ; if not, it remains 

 till evaporated ! Most cottages have pigstys joining 

 them, and these add to the external uncleanliness of the 

 labourer's dwelling. ' ' 



To quote large numbers of similar instances of over- 

 crowding and insanitariness, indicating a really terrible 

 state of things at this period 1843 practically typical 

 of what had been prevalent during the first part of the 

 nineteenth century, and how long before it is unnecessary 

 here to state would be quite easy. An experienced 

 surgeon, well versed in the condition of things in this 

 respect, wrote to the Commissioner confirming the 

 latter's evidence, and stating that " cottages every- 

 where " in his district were too small for the families 

 living in them. He gave a striking illustration of the 

 statement. He said : 



<f Two years ago typhus fever occurred in a neighbouring 

 parish which I attend. There was one cottage I attended 

 which consisted of one room on the ground floor and two 

 small bedrooms upstairs. In this cottage lived an old 

 man with his wife, his two daughters, middle-aged women, 

 and his son and wife, with three children in all, ten 



