16 A COTTAGE AND GARDEN 
England,* their habitations are not only 
comfortless and devoid of accommodation, 
but insufficient in number ; and that honest 
and industrious families are frequently 
driven into the workhouse,. merely for. the 
want of cottages in their parish. 
If the custom of setting apart ground lor 
Benefit of giv- them to build upon were to 
in g them sites obtain generally, and m a man- 
to build on. ner to induce and enable them 
to take the benefit of it, it would assist in 
gradually correcting this national and in- 
creasing evil, and in supplying that useful 
class of men with proper habitations.— It 
would have other very important effects. 
It would diminish the calls for parochial 
relief; it would encourage and improve 
the good habits of the poor ; it would at- 
tach them to their parishes, and give them 
an increased interest and share in the pro- 
perty and prosperity of their country. 1 he 
land required for each cottage and garden, 
« There are some parts of England, particularly in 
the northern counties, where the habitations °f the poor, 
are very comfortable ; and other parts, in which the 
public spirit and benevolence of individuals have done, 
and are doing, much to improve them m their own 
neighbourhood. Picturesque cottages might be so dis- 
posed around a park, as to ornament and enliven the 
scenery with much more effect, than those misplaced 
Gothic castles, and time pigmy models of Grecian tom- 
.pks, that perverted taste is so busy with : but it » the 
unfortunate principle of ornamental buildup in England, 
that they should be uninhabited and uninhabitable. 
