90 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
of solid masonry or brickwork about which the low 
walls of rubble are clustered. When such a cottage 
is burned down the chimney is nearly always the only 
thing that remains, and against the chimney it is built 
up again. Next in importance is the roof, which, 
rising from very low walls, really encloses half of the 
inhabitable space. 
The one great desire of the cottager’s heart—after 
his garden—is plenty of sheds and outhouses in which 
to store wood, vegetables, and lumber of all kinds. 
This trait is quite forgotten as a rule by those who 
design ‘improved’ cottages for gentlemen anxious to 
see the labourers on their estates well lodged; and 
consequently the new buildings do not give so much 
satisfaction as might be expected. It is only natural 
that toa man whose possessions are limited, things 
like potatoes, logs of wood, chips, odds and ends 
should assume a value beyond the appreciation of the 
well-to-do. The point should be borne in mind by 
those who are endeavouring to give the labouring 
class better accommodation. 
A cottage attached to a farmstead, which has 
been occupied by a steady man who has worked on 
the tenancy for the best part of his life, and possibly 
by his father before him, sometimes contains furniture 
of a superior kind. This has been purchased piece 
by piece in the course of years, some representing a 
a little legacy—cottagers who have a trifle of property 
are very proud of making wills—and some perhaps 
