Domestic Notices : — England. 6?3 



ago, when one of the occupiers was accidentally killed ; and, as a proba- 

 bility existed that his widow would not be able to manage the land after 

 his decease, many applied for the presumed vacant piece. To promote 

 habits of industry and emulation among the poor, the Rev. B. Bouchier, 

 who interests himself very much in their welfare, offered premiums in the 

 spring of the present year to the gardening poor, for the best productions 

 of different kinds of corn, vegetables, &c. These prizes have been awarded, 

 in a very honourable and impartial manner, to those persons who were 

 industrious enough to compete for them. 



During the last winter, when wheat bore a high price, and wages to the 

 poor were low, the advantages of this system fully developed themselves, 

 as every poor man who held a piece of land had his garners stored with 

 potatoes, perhaps a little wheat or barley, and in some instances he had 

 also a pig preparing for the knife. The advantages of such a state of things 

 are too obvious to require comment ; and the fact that the poor rates are 

 already sensibly diminished is, I think, sufficient to recommend it to every 

 class of society. 



As the system, where adopted, has answered the most sanguine expect- 

 ations of the promoters, nothing more need be said by me to induce land- 

 owners and others to adopt measures so easily attained for bettering the 

 condition of so useful a part of society as the industrious labouring poor, 

 who are so essential to the subsistence, as well as the defence, of the state. 

 Allotting pieces of land to the poor is commendable also in a political point 

 of view ; as, when the poor man is an occupier of the soil, he becomes identi- 

 fied with it, and has a stake in the well-doing of the state. I am, indeed, 

 convinced that the prevalence of this system would in a great measure pre- 

 vent that spirit of insubordination which was so lamentably general during 

 the latter part of the last year. I may add, as a proof of my assertion, that 

 during that period of unhappy disturbance, though rioting and insubordi- 

 nation came very near indeed to our village, our labouring poor, almost to 

 a man, came forward to do their duty in repelling violence, and in watching 

 and protecting the property of their employers. So anxious were they 

 indeed to show their zeal in preserving peace and order in the parish, that 

 the magistrates who attended at length desisted from swearing in more 

 special constables, not from want of individuals, but because a sufficiently 

 large body had been enrolled. 



I trust the time is not far distant when landowners and others will join 

 and do all in their power to better the condition of the labouring poor, and 

 when in every parish throughout England cottage gardening may be adopted, 

 and by every means encouraged. Yours, &c. — Thomas Francis. Old JVr. 

 Lamport, Northantptonshire, Sept. 10. 1831* 



Allotiiwnts of Land to the Poor.—^ We feel pleasure in stating, as a proof 

 of the advantages of this system, that the head prize given by the Sheffield 

 Horticultural Society for the best cultivated cottage garden was awarded 

 to a man who has an allotment of land from the directors of the Bedford 

 House of Industry; and that two of the prizes for vegetables were also 

 given to two other men having allotments of the same land. {Sheffield Iris, 

 Aug. 9. 1831.) 



Bristol promises to stand conspicuously forward in point of Public Gardens. — 

 The magnificent design of Mr. Masey, published in Part II. of our Illustra- 

 tions ofLandscape'Gardeningi seems, according to the Bristol newspapers, 

 to have been very favourably received by the corporation, and it is thought 

 highly probable (see the Bristol Mirror for June 11.) that a part of it at 

 least will be carried into effect. Mr. Miller, as will be elsewhere seen 

 (Prov. Soc, p. 631.), the liberal and intelligent nurseryman, has suggested 

 a plan for turning his nursery into a public botanic garden, to comprise an 

 illustration both of the Linnean and Jussieuean systems, including an 

 arboretum. — Cond. 



Vol. VII. — No. 35. x x 



