London to John O' Groat's. 229 



man of the present day. Thus, after all, the low- 

 jointed, low-floored, small- windowed, ill- ventilated cot- 

 tages now occupied by the agricultural laborers of 

 England were proportionately as good as the houses 

 built at the same period for the farmers of the coun- 

 try, many of which are occupied by farmers now, and 

 the like of which never could be erected again on this 

 island. Indeed, one wonders at finding so many of 

 these old farm houses still inhabited by well-to-do 

 people, who could well afford to live in better buildings. 

 This, then, is a hopeful sign, and both pledge and 

 proof of progress that the very cottages of laboring 

 men in England that once figured so poetically in 

 the histories and pictures of rural life, are now being 

 turned inside out to the scrutiny of a more en- 

 lightened and benevolent age, revealing conditions 

 that stir up the whole community to painful sensi- 

 bility and to vigorous efforts to improve them. These 

 cottages were just as low, damp, small and dirty 

 thirty years ago as they are now, and the families 

 " penned " in them at night were doubtless as large, 

 and perhaps more ignorant than those which inhabit 

 them at the present time. It is not the real difference 

 between the actual conditions of the two periods, but 

 the difference in the dispositions and perceptions of 

 the public mind, that has produced these humane 



