IMPROVEMENT IN DWELLINGS. 275 



on or supplied from springs, sewage and factory -polluted 

 water runs in drains hardly six inches below the streets. In 

 some places the drains are open, and occasionally overflow 

 the footway on their course to meadows which are irrigated 

 by them a little to the north of the town, and to villages 

 where their water is drunk ! Yet the place is said to be 

 healthy,' in spite of this abundant provision for fevers ; 

 and when having refused a drink of water offered to me in 

 a village one day, because the liquid was not clear the 

 woman tendering it to me remarked, ' That is nothing to 

 what it is sometimes, sir,' it struck me that, like the old 

 lady in the fens, who, when asked her opinion of the water 

 laid on from the newly opened ' works,' exclaimed in dis- 

 gust, ' Call ye that water ! why, it has neither taste nor 

 smell ! ' So here they might in some villages have the same 

 idea for their drinking water possesses both these qualities. 

 Though in some villages the springs, especially in chalk 

 districts, give excellent water, yet much needs to be done 

 to give better water, better drainage, better houses, and 

 more elevating recreations to the people." 



Another correspondent from another Wiltshire village 

 wrote to us very encouragingly. He said : 



" The cottage accommodation is generally very good. 

 Recently a great number of new cottages have been erected, 

 and I think if the artisans and even some of those who con- 

 sider themselves much ' higher up ' socially could see some of 

 the compact, commodious, and convenient dwellings which 

 we have in this neighbourhood, their envy would be excited. 

 The new cottages are, I think, everything that could be 

 desired. They are built in most healthy situations, have 

 each, in most cases, two good rooms on the ground floor, 

 and three bedrooms upstairs, and are well provided with 

 every convenience. Each cottage has a garden attached 

 to it of some ten ' lug ' of ground, and the rent is only one 

 shilling per week. But the occupier is also entitled to, and 

 gets, from ten to twenty - lug ' there are a hundred and 

 sixty - lug ' to the acre of potato-ground." 



Speaking of other and dilapidated cottages to which 

 the same correspondent had called our attention when 

 he had previously and personally taken us to see them, 

 he wrote : " They have since been put into good repair " 

 another indication of the hand of reform to which 

 we have already alluded. A very pertinent and interest- 

 ing remark concluded his letter. He said : 



" It seems to be the design of landed proprietors to have 

 as few people as possible on their estates. Time was when 



