Old-fashioned Cottages 73 



ing a long narrow strip into the centre of the place ; more 

 cottages built with the back to the road, and the front 

 door opening just the other way ; a small meadow, a well, 

 a deep lane, with banks built up of loose stone to prevent 

 them slipping — only broad enough for one waggon to pass 

 at once — and with cottages high above reached by steps ; 

 an open space where three more crooked lanes meet ; a 

 turnpike gate, and, of course, a beerhouse hard by it. 



Each of these crooked lanes has its group of cottages 

 and its own particular name ; but all the lanes and roads 

 passing through the village are known colloquially as ' the 

 street.' There is an individuality, so to say, in these 

 by-ways, and in the irregular architecture of the houses, 

 which does not exist in the straight rows, each cottage 

 exactly alike, of the modern blocks in the neighbourhood 

 of cities. And the inhabitants correspond with their 

 dwelling in this respect — most of them, especially the 

 elder folk, being ' characters ' in their way. 



Such old-fashioned cottages are practically built around 

 the chimney ; the chimney is the firm nucleus 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 import- 

 ance 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 



