Catalogue of Works on Gardening, fyc. 64-1 



prietors in the country having such Reports made on the labourers' cottages 

 and the school-houses, on their estates ! The practice would soon after be- 

 come general, and the good that would ultimately result to the cottager and 

 his children, and the accession of beauty, and appearance of comfort, to rural 

 scenery, would be immense. 



" To be a possessor of landed property, we consider the greatest worldly 

 privilege which any man can enjoy. No other kind of property is calculated 

 to -afford to. the possessor so much rational enjoyment, whether in the occu- 

 pation required for its cultivation and improvement, or in the recreation which 

 it procures in its embellishment. In many, if not in most cases, landed pro- 

 perty enables its owner to contribute, in a more immediate and direct manner 

 than many other kinds of property, to the happiness of his fellow-creatures, by 

 improving the dwellings of those who reside on it ; and it enables him to 

 procure the applause of the public, by combining improvement with embel- 

 lishment in such a manner as to render his estate an ornament to the country 

 in which it is situated. There are few or no landed estates which do not 

 include a number of habitations, more or less scattered over the land, occupied 

 by the humblest and most helpless class of society, common country labourers. 

 These dwellings, as we have seen (§ 2233.), are in many places miserable 

 within, and in few are they respectable without. Now our earnest desire is, 

 to direct the attention of landed proprietors to this subject. On some estates 

 the cottages may be, already sufficiently comfortable ; but in much the greater 

 number we know that this is far from being the case : and what is lamentable, 

 but nevertheless proved to be true beyond all doubt, is, that on those estates 

 in which agriculture is arrived at the highest degree of perfection, for example, 

 in the North of England and the South of Scotland (see Dr. Gilly and Mr. 

 Donaldson in § 2233.), the cottages of the farmers' labourers are far worse 

 than they are any where else. We would entreat landed proprietors to ex- 

 amine the cottages of their labourers themselves, or institute enquiry into 

 their condition by competent persons. We would suggest that increasing the 

 comforts of the labourer's home is the most effectual means that can be taken, 

 not only for rendering him a better member of societ)', but a better labourer; 

 and there is, also, no doubt that he will be more likely to bring up his family 

 in moral and industrious habits. (See the description of an improved cottage 

 and its occupants in p. 1136.) It used to be alleged by some that increasing 

 the comforts of cottagers only increased their numbers, and ultimately added 

 to the mass of misery among this class ; but this opinion has more recently 

 been found to be erroneous, for thinking parents, who possess a strong sense 

 of comfort and future enjoyment, will not risk the diminution of the sources 

 of happiness by burthening themselves with large families. As a proof of 

 the effective working of this principle, we refer to those parts of Germany 

 where the labouring population are highly educated ; as, for example, Austria, 

 Bavaria, Wurtemburg, and Prussia. 



" The power of improving the health and adding to the comforts of a 

 number of individuals, who in a great degree look up to and are dependent 

 on us, must surely be a source of happiness to every rightly constituted mind. 

 The increased attachment of the benefited party that will thus be produced 

 ought equally to be a source of gratification ; independently altogether of the 

 increased value to the property, by more durable habitations, stronger and 

 steadier workmen, and by families less likely to become paupers, vagrants, or 

 pilferers. 



" The improvement of labourers' cottages recommends itself to the landed 

 proprietor in another point of view, viz. the ornament which such cottages 

 will confer on his estate. What can have a more miserable appearance than 

 a wretched cottage out of repair, and without a garden ? No one blames the 

 cottager for this state of things ; but the idea of a thoughtless or inhuman 

 landlord, or of an unfeeling mercenary agent, immediately occurs. What, on 

 the contrary, gives a greater idea of comfort, and of an enlightened benevolent 

 landlord, than to see every cottage on his estate rearing its high steep roof 



3d Ser.— 1842. XII. t t 



