education question, opinions differed; but on the cottage question there was the most striking unanimity, a stream of testimony pouring in from every quarter denouncing the present condition of things as a terrible evil and a national disgrace.
In this article we propose to see what light these reports throw on the condition of cottage homes in the heart of England.
The farther north we go, the better the condition of the labourer. Thus, in the Midland Counties, the more they lie to the north, the less there is to be said against their cottages.
In Notts the condition of things which prevails is similar to that found in Lincolnshire, but in a modified sense.
The picturesque old cottages of Cheshire are generally in bad repair, but scarcity of any sort of cottages is a still greater evil. This works in a way quite destructive of the labourer's home. To ensure regular assistance, the farmer only cares to employ men who will lodge and board in the house. Married men therefore, eating a good portion of their wages at their master's table, have only about 5s. or 6s. a week left to give their wives to keep house with. Terribly pinched on such an allowance, and without the benefit of the presence and control of the father, the house soon breaks up.
In the south-west of Shropshire there is a district shut in among the hills, and cut off from the outer world by the Severn and the Thame, where the state of the peasantry is described as deplorably bad. But the Commissioner says:—"The point especially deserving of attention in this county is the infamous nature of the cottages. In the majority of parishes that I visited, they may be described as tumbledown and ruinous, not watertight, very deficient in bedroom accommodation, and indecent sanitary arrangements. On many estates cottages are to be found belonging to the owners of the soil which are a disgrace to any civilised community." At Bishop's Castle the Commissioner had a conversation with the vicar and others. It was stated that "it was not at all an uncommon thing for a bolster to be placed at each end of the bed, so that all the family sleep in it with their feet towards the middle." The vicar, going to baptize a child, found five or six children in bed with the mother.
