584 Recollections of a Gardening Tour. 



"When will it be felt that there is no security for property like the 

 affection of those whose labour is our wealth? 



" Oftentimes when I see ornamental lodges, and pretty dairies, 

 like fairy bowers, in a cool and sequestered corner of the park; 

 and gardener's houses, decorated without and full of accommo- 

 dation within ; and dog-kennels, which may be called canine 

 palaces ; and stables, like sacred temples, so totally free from 

 every pollution, that you would suppose it profanation to suffer a 

 particle of filth to remain one moment on the pavement ; often 

 when I see these things do I indulge the ardent hope, that the 

 time will come, when the peasantry on a property will have as 

 much taste and forethought expended on them, and that snug 

 cots and happy-looking inmates will be considered the chief orna- 

 ments of an estate." {The Peasantry of the Border, Sfc, p. 37.) 



To show that the cottages on some part of the Duke of Buc- 

 cleugh's estates require his interference, or did so in 1831, we 

 refer the reader to a passage in our eighth Volume ; but, as this 

 volume is now out of print, we shall quote it in a note.* 



* " We are persuaded that many absentee landlords are ignorant of the sort 

 of cottages which already exist, and still continue to be erected, on their estates. 

 It is difficult for us to persuade ourselves that the wives, who are perhaps 

 mothers, of these men of wealth are aware of the large families that are born 

 and live together in one square room, open to the roof, with no division but 

 that formed by wooden bedsteads, and with no floor but the earth. We can- 

 not believe, for example, that the Duchess of Buccleugh, whom we know to 

 be highly cultivated, and who has the reputation of being kind-hearted and 

 charitable, ever entered any one of the fourteen cottages lately erected on one 

 of her husband's estates, not far from his magnificent palace of Drumlanrig, 

 in Dumfriesshire. On crossing the country from Jardine Hall to Closeburn, 

 Aug. 9. 1831, we passed the farm of Cumroo. The farm-house and farmery 

 are ample and most substantial-looking buildings. The dwelling-house is 

 more than usually large, with two rooms in its width ; a part of its exterior 

 wall is covered with large well-trained fruit trees ; and there is an excellent 

 kitchen-garden, well stocked, and apparently in good order, in which a pro- 

 fessed gardener (judging from his blue apron) was at work ; so that the whole, 

 had it not been for the farmyard behind, might very easily have been taken 

 for a mansion residence. Passing this house, and advancing about a furlong, 

 we came to a row of fourteen cottages occupied by yearly servants of the 

 farmer and occupant of the large house, who, we were told, came from the best 

 cultivated district in Scotland, East Lothian. Observing that to every door 

 in the row of cottages there was but one Avindow, we entered one of them, 

 and found a woman sitting at a table, writing a letter (which seemed in a very 

 good hand for a person in her rank of life), while she rocked the cradle with 

 her foot. The room, which comprised the whole cottage, was about 14 ft. 

 square, without a ceiling, and open to the roof ; the floor was of earth, and 

 the walls were left rough, just as the stones were put together in building, but 

 whitewashed ; there was a fire-place, but only one fixed window of four small 

 panes. In this room there were two box beds, placed end to end, and behind 

 them a space of about 2 ft. in width for fuel and lumber. The furniture and 

 utensils, though scanty, were clean and neat ; more especially when contrasted 

 with the floor, which, underneath the beds, was of earth, quite loose ; though, 

 near the fire, were laid some flat stones, which the woman said her husband 

 had picked up and put down himself. The cottage window, as already ob- 



