414 Notes on Gardens and Country Seals : — 



whatever he thinks will be either useful or ornamental in their 

 gai'dens. For all repairs, and for such additions as they may 

 choose to make, Mr. Iveson and his under stewards allow them 

 rough materials to any extent for nothing. The walls of these 

 cottages are of brick, or of cob, built in the manner described 

 in our Encyc. qfCott. Aixh., § 838. to § 842., and their covering 

 is almost invariably thatch. The cottage and land, with all 

 these advantages, are let at 21. a year, and every cottager comes 

 to the mansion to pay his rent twice a year, when he has what 

 is, for him, a sumptuous dinner, and abundance of ale, or, as it 

 is called in Wiltshire, strong beer. In consequence of this treat- 

 ment, they have become quite a different people. There are now 

 three schools for twenty girls each, where before there were 

 none; but in this respect improvement has not been carried 

 half far enough. We heard of no boys' schools, and we were 

 informed that very few labourers on the estate could read. The 

 cottagers, some years ago, used to live chiefly on bread and 

 water ; but now every married man keeps a pig ; all grow pota- 

 toes and other vegetables in their own gardens; and many brew 

 their own beer. Several of them have expressed to Mr. Stanley, 

 the marquess's wharfinger, their astonishment how they could live 

 at all, either in their former houses, or on their former diet. 



All the farm lands on this estate are held at will, at very low 

 rents, and without any restrictions as to cropping; but they have, 

 with scarcely any exceptions, been in the same families for 

 generations. The land is good, and, for the county, well culti- 

 vated; and the farmers, with scarcely a single exception, are 

 rich. The farm houses were formerly situated in the villages ; 

 but they have been removed and rebuilt by Mr. Iveson, in 

 situations central to the lands, and on improved plans. The 

 hedges and roads have also been altered and improved through- 

 out the whole estate ; and the hedges are managed in the North- 

 umberland manner, so admirably, that the boundaries of the 

 estate may be discovered by them. We recognised the change 

 at once in coming along the Bath road from Hungerford. In 

 the home farm, admirably managed by Mr. Unthank from the 

 county of Durham, the Berwickshire system of growing turnips 

 on raised drills is exhibited, and it has been already followed by 

 some of the tenants. Mr. Unthank has also got a Finlayson's 

 harrow, an implement calculated to save an immense deal of 

 labour in this as well as in most other parts of the country. 

 The farmyard here is good ; as is also that for poultry. The 

 pigeon-house, built in a circular form, and entirely of brick, with 

 the cells in the walls, formed by courses on edge, alternating 

 with others flat, proper openings being left, and projecting bricks 

 for the birds to perch on being introduced, is a model of beauty. 

 Mr. Unthank's house, the carpenter's house, and the poultry- 



