IMPROVEMENT IN DWELLINGS. 277 



tion for the local peasantry. Moreover, in Milbourne 

 Saint Andrew, which had been rather conspicuous for 

 meetings in connection with the agricultural labourers' 

 movement we found that the cottages generally were 

 good. At Puddleton, already mentioned, the scene, we 

 remember, of an interesting descriptive article in the 

 London Daily Telegraph some years ago in connection 

 with the same movement, we found that although 

 bad dwellings were still in existence, there was a greater 

 proportion of good ones ; but whilst the rents of the bad 

 ones were only fifteenpence or eighteenpence per week, 

 the rents of the new and improved ones were rather 

 high, as much as five pounds per annum, and sometimes 

 six, seven, and even eight pounds. Naturally only the 

 better paid, that was, also, the better class of labourers, 

 could afford to take the highly rented ones. From a 

 rector of a parish not far from Dorchester came a very 

 interesting communication. He wrote to us : 



" Where cottages are not - found ' they may be rented 

 for about five pounds a year ; but they are still, in so many 

 places, very unfit for human habitation lacking a suitable 

 number of rooms and other accommodation. The sanitary 

 laws, so objectionable to farmers and agricultural members 

 of Boards of Guardians, have done much to enforce a supply 

 of water, and to enforce cleanliness. Still there is much 

 to be done, though it must be allowed that cottages are 

 vastly improved throughout the county." 



After commenting upon some bad cottages in his 

 district, this clergyman concluded his letter with the 

 following excellent sentences : 



" I have long made it a great point to hold up the injustice 

 and folly of bad cottage accommodation. The present 

 agricultural depression will do good if it serves to induce 

 farmers to take only farms upon which are the best buildings 

 for man and beast." 



The following comments of our own must suffice, 

 with its concluding optimistic expressions, for a summing 

 up of the condition of the peasant dwellings of Devon ; 



