re
to receive the value of their tenements from the lord of the manor, and
were to remain permanent tenants for life on payment of a small
percentage, interest upon the purchase-money, as quit-rent. On their
deaths the cottages were to become the property of the lord of the
manor. One man received L40 for his cottage, the other L20, which sums
forty years ago represented relatively a far higher value than now, and
demonstrate conclusively that the labourer, if he is a steady,
hard-working man, can build a cottage. Another cottage I know of, built
by a farm labourer, is really a very creditable building--good walls,
floors, staircase, sashes, doors; it stands high, and appears very
comfortable, and even pleasant, in summer, for they are a thrifty
family, and can even display flower-pots in the window. Other cottages
have been built or largely added to in my memory by labourers. On these
occasions they readily obtain help from the farmers. One lends his team
and waggons to draw the stones; another supplies wood for nothing; but
of late I must admit there has been some reluctance to assist in this
way (unless for repairs) because it was so often found that the
buildings thus erected were not fit habitations. The Boards of Guardians
often find a difficulty from the limited ownership of some of the
labourers, who apply for relief, of their cottages. Perhaps they have
not paid quit-rent for a year or two; but still they cannot sell, and
yet it seems unjust to the ratepayers to assist a man who has a tenement
which he at least calls his own, and from which he cannot be ejected, I
know a labourer at this moment living in a cottage originally built by
his father, and added to by himself by the assistance of the
neighbouring farmers. This man has been greatly assisted by one farmer
in particular, who advanced him money by which he purchased a horse and
cart, and was enabled to do a quantity of hauling, flint-carting for the
waywardens, and occasionally to earn money by assisting to carry a
farmer's harvest. He rents a large piece of arable land, and ought to be
comparatively well off.

"The Son of a Wiltshire Labourer" complains that the farmers or
proprietors do not make sufficient efforts to supply the cottages with
water. The lord of the manor and the tenant of the largest farms in this
immediate neighbourhood have but just sunk a well for their cottages;
previously they had got their supply from a pump in an adjacent
farmyar