Furniture of a Cottage. 81 



The one great desire of the cottager's heart — after 

 his garden — is plent}' of sheds and outhouses in 

 which to store wood, vegetables, and kimber of all 

 kinds. This trait is quite forgotten as a rule b}- 

 those who design ' improved ' cottages for gentlemen 

 anxious to see the laborers on their estates well 

 lodged ; and consequentl}' the new buildings do not 

 give so much satisfaction as might be expected. It is 

 only natural that to a man whose possessions are lim- 

 ited, things like potatoes, logs of wood, chips, odds 

 and ends should assume a value bej^ond the apprecia- 

 tion of the well-to-do. The point should be borne in 

 mind by those who are endeavoring to give the 

 laboring class better accommodation. 



A cottage attached to a farmstead, which has been 

 occupied b^' a stead}" man who has w^orked on the 

 tenancj^ for the best part of his life, and possibl}^ b}"- 

 his father before him, sometimes contains furniture 

 of a superior kind. This has been purchased piece 

 hy piece in the course of years, some representing 

 a little legacy — cottagers who have a trifle of prop- 

 erty are very proud of making wills — and some 

 perhaps the last remaining relics of former pros- 

 perit}'. It is not at all uncommon to find men like 

 this, whose forefathers no great while since held 

 fai-ms, and even owned them, but fell b}' degrees in 

 the social scale, till at last their grandchildren work 

 in the fields for wages. An old chair or cabinet 

 which once stood in the farmhouse generations ago 

 is still preserved. 



Upon the shelf may be found a few books — a 

 Bible, of course ; hardly a cottager who can read is 

 without his Bible — and among the rest an ancient 

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