Book II. 



MILLS, COTTAGES, VILLAGES, &c. 



623 



time is employed in useful industry. If lie is possessed of a cow, they are taught 

 early in life the necessity of taking care of cattle, and acquire some knowledge of 

 their treatment. But where there is neither a garden to cultivate, nor any cows kept, 

 they are not likely to acquire either industrious or honest habits. So strongly were 

 these ideas formerly prevalent, that, by the 43d of Elizabeth, no cottage could be built on 

 any waste without having four acres attached to it. This is in general too much. If 

 the quantity were reduced to half an acre for a garden, and if no person could gain a set- 

 tlement who was not a native, or, if a stranger, who did not fairly rent in the same parish 

 a house and land worth twenty, instead of ten pounds per annum, both the poor and the 

 public would thence derive very essential benefit." 



S846. The most advantageous system for keeping a cottage cow is that adopted in grazing districts, 

 where a cottager has a sufficient quantity of enclosed land in grass, to enable him to keep one or two cows 

 both summer and winter, grazing the one half, and mowing the other, alternately. Nothing tends more 

 materially to teach the poor honesty, than allowing them to have property. Feeling how intensely they 

 would deprecate all infringement upon it, they are less likely to make depredations upon that of others ; 

 and this will produce more honesty among them than the best delivered precepts can instil. By the culti- 

 vation of a small spot of land, a cottager not only acquires ideas of property, but is enabled to supply 

 himself with that variety of food, as fresh vegetables in summer and roots in winter, which comfort and 

 health require. If he should fortunately be able to keep bees in his garden, and if its surplus produce 

 should also enable him to rear, and still more to fatten, a hog, his situation would be much ameliorated. 

 But if, in addition to all these advantages, he can keep a cow, the industrious cottager cannot be placed in 

 a more comfortable situation. Goats have recently been recommended {British Farmer's Magazine, vol. 

 lii.) as a substitute for a cow, as being more easily kept, costing less at first, and producing milk the greater 

 part of the year. The chief difficulty of introducing them is the want of sufficient enclosures, as no 

 animal is more inimiral to shrubby vegetation of any kind. Some useful hints on the subject of cottagers, 

 and the means by which they may be enabled to keep a cow, will be found in Cobbett's Cottage Economy, 

 though his statements are in many cases highly exaggerated. 



3847. Cottages and villages necessarily result from manufactories, as well as from extensive mines, 

 quarries, or harbours. A few cottages will necessarily be scattered over every estate, to supply day 

 labourers and some description of country tradesmen. 'Villages are seldom, in modern times, created by 

 an agricultural population ; it being found so much more convenient for every farm to have a certain 

 number of cottages attached to it. 



3848. A village may be created any where, by giving extraordinary encouragement to 

 the first settlers ; bvit unless there be a local demand for tlieir labour, or they can engage 

 in some manufacture, the want of comfortable subsistence will soon throw the whole into 

 a state of decay. Fishing villages, and such as are established at coal and lime works, are 

 perhaps the most thriving and permanent in the kingdom. Some fine example of fishing 

 villages, recently established, occur on the Marquess of Stafford's estates in Sutherland. 



3849. Informing the plan of a town or village, the first thing, if there is a river or other means of com- 

 munication by water, is to fix on a proper situation for a quay or harbour ; and next, at no great distance 

 from it, on an open space as a market. Round the latter ought to be arranged the public buildings, as the 

 post-office, excise or custom-house, police-office, the principal inn and the principal shops. Near the har- 

 bour ought to be placed the warehouses and other depositaries for goods; in a retired part of the town the 

 school; and out of town on an eminence (if convenient) the church and the cemetery of garden of burial. 

 There ought to be a field or open space, as a public recreation ground for children, volunteers or troops 

 exercising, races, washing and drying clothes on certain days, &c. Public shambles ought to be formed 

 in a retired and concealed spot, so should public necessaries. Proper pipes, wells, or other sources of 

 good water, with the requisite sewers and drainage should also be provided. Buckets, to be used in case 

 of fire, ought to be kept at the market-house. 



577 



