GLANCING BACK. 205 



become very damp, and often quite wet. If it is re- 

 membered that this damp room was very frequently the 

 only sitting-room, the other one of the two-roomed 

 cottage being the single bedroom, the misery and 

 wretchedness of it may be imagined. The rent in this 

 particular case was eighteenpence a week. Several 

 cottages adjoining and in the same " row " were equally 

 miserable. Coming in from the road a paved pathway 

 ran along in front of the cottages, each of which was 

 fronted by small bits of garden or " potato ground," as 

 the occupiers usually designated it. 



Another dwelling, in another village, consisted of three 

 rooms the sole accommodation for a family of ten a 

 labourer, his wife, and eight children. Here also the rent 

 was eighteenpence a week. A cottage in the same village 

 had for its lower room a stone floor that was fortunately 

 raised about two feet from the street level, and was 

 entered by steps. The only other room, for sleeping, 

 above it, was all the accommodation available for eight 

 persons six children and the father and mother ; the 

 children being aged respectively fourteen (a boy), thir- 

 teen (a girl) , and four younger ones, including twins five 

 years old. The " bedroom " the single one over the 

 single living-room below was practically only an attic, 

 and almost furnitureless. There were actually two 

 windows, but several panes had been broken and the 

 holes stuffed with rags to keep the draughts out. It was 

 impossible for us to stand upright in parts of this room 

 where the roof sloped to the low bordering wall. The 

 mother'%)f the family (of eight) informed us that no less 

 than thirteen persons had, at one time, slept in this tiny 

 chamber. 



The squalor of another hovel in the same Somerset- 

 shire village was almost indescribable. The occupier was 

 a man of sixty-nine, " crippled up " with rheumatism. 

 He had therefore been obliged to discontinue regular 

 work, and all beyond what he got for occasional odd 



