The Farm Labourers of England and Wales. 671 
2. That the cottage accommodation has greatly improved and is im- 
proving. 
3. That the best cottages are to be found on the estates of large 
resident landlords, and the worst in the “ open villages,” or wherever 
squatters have erected dwellings on waste land. 
4. That in most districts, in consequence of the decrease of population, 
some of the worst of the old cottages are now untenanted. 
There is a great mass of evidence as to the condition of 
cottages in the reports, including descriptions of many dwellings 
more suitable for pigs than for human beings, and of others 
locally described as “ little palaces.” Indeed, so many points of 
inquiry were included under the head of cottage accommodation 
that the information gathered upon them made the section de- 
voted to this subject longer than any other in most of the reports. 
Detailed remarks upon the construction of cottages would require 
more space than can be given to this branch of my subject. It 
seems desirable, however, to point out one serious defect. In the 
best and newest of cottages it is very uncommon to find a boarded 
floor in the living room, which is almost invariably bricked or 
tiled, and, even where there is a good layer of cement under- 
neath, such floors are cold, if not damp, and conducive to the 
rheumatism which is so common among the rural woi’king class. 
Overcrowding is clearly much less common than it used to 
be, partly because it is prevented to a great extent by the 
sanitary authorities, and partly because there is less excuse for 
it. Where new and commodious cottages have been built, as 
they have been in the great majority of parishes within the last 
ten or twenty years, in spite of a decrease of population, there 
is no necessity for a large family to occupy a cottage with only 
one bedroom. Again, the old practice of taking lodgers where 
there was not sufficient sleeping accommodation for them is 
prevented if the sanitary authorities do their duty. But there 
are still in most districts far too many instances of families of 
all ages and both sexes sleeping in the same room. 
With respect to ventilation, it is commonly neglected by 
cottagers, though the usual means of obtaining it, after a fashion, 
are generally available. New cottages, of course, always have 
windows which can be opened, which is not by any means 
always the case with old ones ; but bedroom windows are usually 
kept shut at night, and, in not a few instances, are nailed or 
otherwise fastened so that they cannot be opened. Again, in 
old cottages the bedrooms are frequently devoid of fireplaces, so 
that there is no chimney ventilation, and they are not commonly 
provided in all the rooms of new cottages. Where they 
exist they are too frequently papered over. Under such cir- 
cumstances it is fortunate that doors or windows are often so 
