the Condition of Country Labourers, 21 



had once established the conviction on their minds, that nothing 

 done for them would be considered in the light of charity. 

 I was determined to put them upon their own resources, and 

 that what was found wanting should be supplied, but repaid 

 by degrees, and in a manner to be as little burdensome as 

 possible. The plan took, after a short pause, during which 

 the attention bestowed upon it was intense and unremitting 

 on the part of many who had the opportunity of observing 

 what was going on ; and I have now the pleasure of seeing a 

 village of well-built, comfortable, and commodious houses, 

 picturesquely rising in grouped and single dwellings, between 

 groves and smaller masses of trees, containing eight or nine 

 hundred inhabitants, where seven years ago were nothing but 

 thickets, brakes, and wood. It must not, however, be sup- 

 posed that these buildings, many of which are large and 

 costly, have either all, or the major part, been erected by the 

 description of persons I have named as the first adventurers. 

 As these formed a little colony, the baker, the smith, the 

 tailor, the shopkeeper of various trades wished to embark in 

 the undertaking ; and deeming it advisable that as many con- 

 veniences and advantages as possible should be combined on 

 the spot, a tolerable inn has been erected, and a good market- 

 house built with an excellent room over it, which latter I 

 appropriate to the uses of public worship on the Sunday, and 

 to those of a school on other days. The chapel is occupied 

 in succession by three, and sometimes by four, congregations 

 of different sects of religion on the same day, without inter- 

 ference with each other; my directions being, to refuse the 

 use of it to none, but those who fail in bringing satisfactory 

 testimonials of the good moral character of their officiating 

 minister, or who quarrel with others of different persuasions ; 

 and for more than two years, since the chapel was opened, 

 has no instance occurred, to my knowledge, of these requisitions 

 not being satisfactorily complied with. There is, however, an- 

 other chapel, on a larger scale, about to be erected out of the 

 funds of the congregation intending to assemble therein. One 

 of the excellent and highly useful iron railways, or tram roads, 

 of this country, connecting the interior with the great shipping 

 port of the Bristol Channel, and forming one of several of 

 the existing conveyances to market of the iron and coals of 

 its neighbourhood, had previously been laid through the site 

 of the present village, and since a public carriage running- 

 parallel thereto has been completed. I have now begun to 

 make a road at right angles thereto, intended to extend from 

 a new iron bridge at present erecting over the river Sirkc 



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