Cottage Gardening and Cottagers. 277 



fellow-creatures, who might not do something. The humblest 

 individual might give away seeds or plants, and, wherever he 

 saw them, commend neatness and good crops, and blame 

 slovenliness. Clergymen might do much in this way. Village 

 clubs might be formed by the richer inhabitants, for giving in- 

 structions verbally and by printed tracts, and also seeds and 

 plants, and awarding premiums to their more humble neigh- 

 bours, in Lord Cawdor's manner. On large properties, where 

 all or most of the cottages belong to, or are held of one indi- 

 vidual, the premiums, &c, should be given by him, and the 

 mode described above seems to be the best hitherto devised. 

 Many country gentlemen only require to have a good thing 

 such as this proposed to them, in order to its adoption. We 

 recommend such gardeners as can do it, to hint the thing in a 

 proper manner to their masters, and especially to their mis- 

 tresses, and the young ladies of the family. A great deal is 

 yet to be done both in the horticultural and architectural im- 

 provement of cottage residences. Even the best sorts of apples, 

 to ensure a succession of that fruit to the cottager throughout 

 the year, are not generally known. We earnestly request in- 

 formation on every thing relating to the improvement of cot- 

 tagers and cottages. One movement of improvement given 

 to the lowest classes will produce an impulse through all 

 those above them ; but the reverse does not happen so quickly. 

 When speaking on this subject to country gentlemen, we have 

 frequently been told of the impossibility of overcoming the 

 habits and prejudices, and even vices, of the lower classes on 

 their estates ; but though this may not be done at once, and 

 entirely, it may be done by degrees, and in great part. The 

 very reason of these bad habits and prejudices, is the neglect 

 and bad treatment of the superior classes, for the same reason 

 that the rudeness of the populace of the metropolis, when they 

 get into public gardens, museums, &c, is because they are gene- 

 rally excluded from such places. Were they as commonly ad- 

 mitted to them as in France and Germany, they would do 

 them as little injury as in these countries ; and were all cot- 

 tagers treated like Lord Cawdor's, they would, in time, be- 

 come as industrious and amiable. It is a common case 

 with masters of all classes to think that their servants have 

 more faults than those of others ; but this, we suspect, is 

 a vice belonging to the condition of masters. Buonaparte ob- 

 served to M. Rochelle, that " children and servants are 

 just what we make them." The same thing may be said of the 

 cottagers on gentlemen's estates. — Cond. 



