376 Description of a Cottier's Cabin. 



firmed than by stating that on the examination 

 of one of these wretched abodes, which was 

 no worse than its neighbours, we found its floor 

 one foot below the surface of the road, from 

 which it is entered by a door only three feet 

 high ; the inside, from the bare ground to the 

 top of the roof four feet ; the length of the 

 side walls nine 5 the width six. This area, 

 wholly destitute of all earthly comforts, gave 

 shelter to two rational beings, and was their 

 only house, though scarcely fit for the den of a 

 wild beast. The plenty which surrounded this 

 deplorable hut, and the sumptuous display of 

 other men's habitations within its view, did but 

 aggravate the melancholy feelings inspired by 

 this scene of human misery ; on every side of 

 which the most luxuriant crops were ripening 

 for general use, yet denied to these individuals, 

 whose labors, perhaps, had contributed to their 

 production. Let the pleasures derived from 

 passing through an interesting country be what 

 they may let the bounties of Providence be 

 ever so abundantly spread before the eye-*-yet, 

 if these fail to promote the general welfare of 

 our fellow-creatures, the charms of Nature, 

 or decorations of art, however entitled to adtni* 

 ration, become clouded, or entirely obscured. 



stopped to breakfast at Adair, fourteen 



