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COTTAGE HABITATIONS. 75
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
-«Sg3»- To The Editoe.
well , is very prettily situated on a small river , which winds lazily ainongst green meadows or fruitful cornfields , through , gently
undulating ground , the beauty of which is enhanced by a sprinkling of fine timber trees , and woods with footpaths winding into the open
fields , affording * lovely walks in the immediate neighbourhood . It is a small market town : the population in 1831 amounted to
four thousand three hundred , and at that time the houses were chiefly built on the eastern or north-eastern side of the river ; _the
High . Street running up a rather steep hill to the market-place , a wide triangular spacein the centre of which stands an obelisk with _,
, lamps , exactly where it would delight me to see a public fountain , should the much-needed water- works ever be executed .
The High Street is wide , and twenty years ag * o it doubtless contained more good houses . A few such distinguish it yet , but the
tenements are mostly converted into shops . Across the High Street , and at the top of the hill , runs another street , or lane as it is called ,
much narrower , and with some very old cottages , often much to be preferred to their modern neighbours . "When the factories were
enlarged , and more houses wanted for the work-people , twenty years agothey were built on the south-western side of the river , and the
, earliest "were placed on a small hill , about a quarter of a mile away from the factory , which stands on the river ; but so soon as need
arose for others , the flat ground situated between the hill and the river was gradually built over . This ground , being very low , is
difficult to drain ; in fact it is not drained , and therefore is most unhealthy . -
It is called a _scjuare , and it was perhaps originally intended to be suchbut now there are rows of houses which quite destroy any such
form , . These houses vary in rent from tenpence a week to two , shillings and sixpence ; the first have two tiny rooms on one floor ,
the last have four rooms and a good sized garden , but with no drain , " not so much as for a pint of water , " as one good woman who lived
there told me ; the " ill convenience , " as she called it , was illustrated by her descrition of the vile smells which made them perforce " shut
p windows and doors when they eat their victuals ; " then she told of still worse results attending this want of drainage at the house of
a married daughter , who rented a smaller tenement hard by . The population in 1851 was six thousand nine hundred and
ninetyeight ; and now it is supposed to be nearly eight thousand , as within the last eight or nine years very many more houses have
been built in different directions , but mostly on the western and flattest side of the river . Almost all the cottages are without a
supply of water , so that it has to be fetched from a neighbouring spring or well , and sometimes so far as to make a serious addition
to the labor of a family , ix they use the _requisite quantities . The supply of this want , as well as others , depends on the local
board of health , and the evil will probably continue until our cottage tenants have sufficient spirit and intelligence to take their votes into
vox . i . v . _g 2
Cottage Habitations. 75
COTTAGE HABITATIONS . 75
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1859, page 75, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101859/page/3/
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