22 



Brouyhton Gifford. 



present Bishop of Salisbury has visited the parish more than once, 

 and confirmed here, Feb. 25th 1858. The event has been duly and 

 circumstantially chronicled in the Parish Register for the informa- 

 tion of posterity. 



Houses. 



There are 165 houses in all, of which 16 are vacant. No new 

 houses have been built of late years (except the Rectory), nor are the 

 old ones always repaired. They are often allowed to fall down, or are 

 pulled down. The inhabited house duty amounts to £3 8s. The 

 number of houses chargeable with it (being rated at £20) is 4. 

 The number of cottages coming under the operation of the small 

 tenements act (rated at, or under £6) is 140, and the whole rate- 

 able value of this description of property is £411 9s. 6d. The 

 payment on a shilling rate is £10 12s. rated at a reduction of 25 

 or 50 per cent. So that the average charge on each cottage is a 

 fraction more than Is. 6d. The labouring population are very 

 indifferently lodged. The cottages are abundant, but the dwelling 

 rooms are few and small (the weavers devote the best lighted and 

 largest apartments to their shops), the sleeping accommodation is 

 not such as to admit of the decent separation of ages and sexes. 

 Wells are infrequent (notwithstanding the excellent water within 

 a few feet of the surface), nor are the offices convenient or proper. 

 The drainage is defective. This state of things is no more than 

 might be expected in a parish, where the landed proprietors, being 

 non-resident, want that interest in the people, which would natu- 

 rally arise from personal communication. The poor here are not 

 neighbours to the rich. In this respect we are no worse off than a 

 large proportion of out of the way parishes, but we have disadvan- 

 tages of our own. With hardly an exception, the cottages (originally 

 for the most part encroachments on the commons) belong either 

 to the poor occupiers themselves ; or to proprietors, who are hardly 

 removed from the labouring class ; or to the farms, with which 

 they are let. The owners or the managers want either the means 

 or the will (generally both) to promote domestic comfort. Though 

 there are so many cottages and some vacant, yet rents are not low ; 



