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space, and a partial partition in the middle. In both cottages, the disiwsition of the principal articles of furniture is shown. In the smaller cottage, a is the porch ; b, the living-room, eight feet by fourteen feet ; c, the dresser ; d d, two box-beds (one of which opens into h, and the other into e) ; e, a small bed-room or passage, four feet by fourteen feet ; f, a chest of drawers ; and g, a cupboard, or press. In the cottage with two fire- places, h is the porch ; i, the living-room, fourteen feet by nine feet and a half; k, the dresser ; 1, a box-bed opening into the kitchen ; m, a chest of drawers ; ii, a box-bed, opening into the ben, or parlour ; and o, a press. The ben, or parlour, p, is, like the kitchen, fourteen feet by nine feet and a half. It will be observed that these dimensions are from wall to wall; so that the areas of the floors are very much diminished by the box- beds, the chests of drawers, and the dressers. The elevation is of the rudest kind, the roof is covered with thatch or grey slate, with shapeless chimney-tops formed of straw, sticks, and mud, and window-openings about two feet and a half high, and eighteen inches wide, with a frame containing four small panes of glass hinged at one side. 1336. The follotvhig Description of these Cottages has been sent us by Mr. Gorrie : ^ " The accompanying sketch, fig. 1203, shows two houses for ploughmen having wives and children, in the style most prevalent here. The largest is twenty-two feet by four- teen feet within the walls, and seven feet high. The dotted lines show the site of the box-beds, press, and the bride's chest of drawers ; the latter being always a part of her dowry, and made of mahogany. The porcli, you will see, is within-doors, and its walls are made of straw or clay, about four inches thick, covering wood supports (clay nog- ging). The outer walls of the cottage are built of rubble-stone, without any hewn- work. The chimney-flues are formed of the same material as the porch partitions, faced with wood. There is a hearth-stone, three feet by two feet and a half. The floor is laid -with clay, and is quite smooth ; seldom with wood or flags. The walls are not, I am sorry to say, often plastered within ; but they are sometimes whitewashed. The rooms have seldom plaster ceilings, but they are uniformly formed of small wood laid on joists, and covered with turf. On tliis primitive loft, fuel, such as split wood, is laid, being conveyed to it through a hatchway above the porch : it is also a receptacle for lumber. The roof is thatched with reeds or wheat straw ; or, if near any slate quarries, where that article is cheap, and reeds and straw scarce and high-priced, slates are used; tiles are very seldom to be met with. The ridges are covered with turf, and the chimney- tops are of the same materials as the porch partition below ; that is, straw ropes, clay, and wood. The largest cottage may be reckoned a specimen of many cottagers' houses built about forty years since : recently they are more tastefully erected. In all cases they have a hut and a ben, although two fireplaces in ploughmen's houses are not common. Such a cottage as the smallest of these, rents (for labourers) at 35s. a year, and this is con- sidered as part of the wages of a married ploughman. This, with ten falls of garden ground, twenty falls of field potato-ground, (a fall is 36 square yards,) a cow kept, six bolls and a half of oatmeal, and £%, is about a ploughman's yearly wages. A foreman who sows, and builds ricks, has about £^ more." 1337. " Bothies (boothies," or little booths), INIr. Gorrie continues, " are of long stand- ing as dwellings for ploughmen ; anil they arc very simple erections. The beds are generally on the same floor as the cooking-rooms ; a very bad arrangement, as it affords temptation for men, when fatigued with labour, to recline on them, without much attention to cleanliness or comfort. The size of the bothy, or lodge, is regulated by the number of the men for whom it is designed, reckoning two for each bed ; tlic only other fur
