Book iV. 



FARM-COTTAGES. 



^55 



for their situation. These habitations are in the tenure of the farmer, in common with 

 the other buildings of the farm ; and whenever a married servant changes his master he 

 changes his habitation. 



2877. The accommodation formerly considered suitable for farm labourers consisted of two rooms. That 

 on the ground floor not being less than twelve feet square, with a sleeping-room of the same size over, and 

 sometimes on the same floor. But this is justly deemed too small for an ordinary labourer's family. 

 *' Humanity," Beatson observes, " shudders at the idea of an industrious labourer, with a wife and 

 perhaps five or six children, being obliged to live, or rather exist, in a wretched, damp, gloomy room, of 

 ten or twelve feet square, and that room without a floor; but common decency must revolt at considering, 

 that over this wretched apartment there is only one chamber to hold all the miserable beds of this 

 miserable family. And yet instances of this kind, to our shame be it spoken, occur in every country 

 village. How can we expect our labourers or their families to be healthy ; or that their daughters, from 

 whom we are to take our future female domestics, should be cleanly, modest, or even decent, in such 

 wretched habitations ?" 



2878. The accommodation which the smallest cottage ought to have, according to Waistell, is a kitchen, 

 washhouse, and closet, or pantry, with two bed-rooms. A parlour is almost useless. The kitchen, being 

 freed from the business of washing and baking, may always be kept decent for the family to live in ; and 

 a decent kitchen is greatly preferable to a disorderly parlour ; and a parlour that is not used oftener, 

 perhaps, than two or three times a year, will seldom be kept in order. Every cottager who has a family 

 of children at home, ought, for decency's sake, to have two bedrooms ; and if the children are of both 

 sexes he ought to have three. For the purpose of thoroughly airing and sweetening the bedrogms there 

 ought to be windows to all the rooms. ( WaisteWs Designs, &c. p. 81.) " If the rooms of a cbttage be 

 built too low, or in any other respect upon a bad plan, the inconveniences arising from these circumstances 

 will, in all probability, have to be endured by its successive occupants as long as the materials of which it 

 is composed will last. If, therefore, the welfare of the inhabitants of such dwellings be considered, it 

 is highly important that any circumstances which would thus entail the want. of comfort should be avoided ; 

 and it must be gratifying to those who erect durable and efficient cottages, in healthy situations, with 

 gardens attached, to contemplate on what industry, what cleanliness, what happiness, and, in short, what 

 great and lasting improvement in the condition and habits of this class of their fellow-beings, they may, as 

 they have it in their power, by a little attention, so easily and so beneficially to themselves effect. " {lb. p. 84.) 



2879. Cottages for farm servants, it is observed by the able author of the article Agriculture, in the 

 Supplement to the Encyc. Britannica, " are usually set down in a line, at not an inconvenient distance 

 from the farm. yard. Each of them contains two apartments with fireplaces, and garret sleeping-rooms 

 over. Adjoining is commonly a cow-house, hogsty, shed for fuel, necessary, a small garden, and some- 

 times other appendages of comfort and enjoyment. As an example of the minimum of modern accom- 

 modation, we may refer to 



AQfi a K two cottages on a farm in 



" ^ ^ Berwickshire, as described in 



the report of that county. 

 They contain each a kitchen 

 {fig. 426, a), small parlour 

 and store-room (6), with two 

 good bedrooms over, and a 

 dairy under the staircase. 

 There is a garden behind (c), 

 a place for a calf or pigs, or 

 for fuel (d), water-closet {e), 

 and dung-heap ( / ). The 

 labourer's cows, in this case, 

 are kept at the farmery, 

 along with those of the far- 

 mer. It is proper to observe, however, that this is more the beau id^al of the cottage of a farm servant in 

 Scotland than the reality. With the exception of some cottagesthathavebeen recentiybuilt by Englishmen 

 who have become possessed of property in Scotland, such as the Marquess of Stafford, Earl Gwydir, &c. the 

 dwellings of the labouring classes are a disgrace to the country. It is any thing but creditable, both to the 

 landed proprietors and the farmers, that whilethe houses of both have been greatly improved in comfort 

 and appearance within the last thirty years, scarcely any improvement has taken place in the dwellings of 

 their servants. Even in East Lothian, Berwickshire, and other counties, generally considered the most 

 improved in Scotland, scarcely any alteration has taken place for the better within our remembrance. 

 One cause, no doubt, of this want of comfort, and the appearance of enjoyment in Scottish cottages, is 

 owing to the ignorance of the cottager of many of the comforts which are enjoyed by the same class in 

 other countries, and more particularly in England, Holland, and the South of Germany. This applies 

 particularly to tradesmen cottagers, or what may be called independent occupiers ; but with respect to all 

 those cottagers who are the hired servants of owners or occupiers of land, the blame belongs wholly to 

 the owners and occupiers, and may be traced to their want of sympathy for their fellow-men, as well as a 



^ 9 



want of an enlightened view of their own interests. " Could the rich 



Waistell remarks, " but consider 

 themselves interested in the ap. 

 pearance of their tenants and 

 labourers, and hold the improve- 

 ment of the cottage and cottage 

 garden, and its inhabitants, as an 

 essential part of the improvement 

 of their grounds ; they would thus 

 make their seats appear the growth 

 of plenty diffused, and not the 

 solitary instance of wealth in the 

 midst of wretchedness, at once its 

 neighbour and its reproach," 

 {WaisteWs Designs, &c. p. 9.) 



2880. A double ploughman's 

 cottage and cow-house {fig. 427.) 

 may be thus arranged. Both may 

 contain a kitchen (a) with an oven, 

 and there may be a smdU parlour 

 or store-room (6), a dairy and 

 pantry (c), with two bedrooms 

 over. Detached may be a pigsty 

 {d), water-closet {e), place for fuel 

 (/), and cow-house {g), with 

 gardens adjoining, dung-heap, 

 porch, step-up, &c. as in the other 

 i, place. 



