200 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



Dorsetshire he mentioned that there had been " the 

 greatest improvement/' largely, in all probability, due 

 to himself and although one of the Commissioners of 

 1868 spoke of " great changes " which landlords had 

 effected in their estates, yet Mr. Stanhope, the Com- 

 missioner, had to confess that " in spite of these changes 

 the cottages of this county are more ruinous and contain 

 worse accommodation than those in any other county 

 I have visited, except Shropshire " the other counties 

 being Kent, Chester, Stafford, and Rutland. He added : 

 " Such villages as Bere Regis, Fordington, Winfrith, 

 Cranbourne, or Charminster (in which there is an average 

 of seven persons in a house), together with others de- 

 scribed in the evidence, are a disgrace to the owners 

 of the land, and contain many cottages unfit for human 

 habitation." It is important here to qualify the 

 expression " in a house/' which means the smallest of 

 small cottages. 



Another Commissioner, the one for Wiltshire, Mr. 

 Norman, was confirmed in his own report by the evidence 

 of the medical men who were consulted that the cottage 

 accommodation of that county was deplorable. He 

 mentioned an interesting fact the difference between 

 cottages built by landlords of the estates containing 

 them, by speculators, and by labourers themselves. 

 It may be assumed what was really the case, namely, 

 that the first-named description of dwelling was the 

 best, those of speculators coming in as bad seconds, 

 and the wretched erections of thatched wattle and cob 

 made by the labourers the worst containing usually 

 only two rooms, a bedroom and a " sitting "-room. 

 These last named were, in the majority of instances, 

 entirely destitute of drainage, and, because of the poverty 

 oi the occupiers, in extremely bad repair. 

 /One very important remark made by this Com- 

 missioner was, that the evils resulting from the unwhole- 

 some overcrowding of the rural labouring population 



