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80 COTTAGE HABITATIONS.
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.
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-«Sg3»- To The Editoe.
"We Lave several rows of cottages that have no thorough ventilationeither from having * no doors and windows at the back or
, from being" built back to back with other houses under the same roof ; here and there , where this is the case with several houses in
a row , fevers , and such complaints as are related to fevers , are sure to be engendered , with , alas ! the certainty of their continual
recurrence . The people seldom -wake up to their peril until some one in their own familfalls a victim to diseaseeven if they do then .
aggravated Scrofula and in their consump development y tion , in all by this their want varieties of , fresh , are air p and articularl proper y
ventilation . The womanin whose house there is no back dooris obliged to
, , do all her washing the " in sight , either of which _oiitside can onl her front be understood door , or in to the its common roomannoyance y
, full extent by a tidy thrifty cottage wife . All the houses here are roofed with slate or tileand the upper rooms in consequence are
very hot in summer and , proportionally cold in winter . In this respectas well as in the much smaller size of the sleeping rooms ,
, they cannot compare in comfort with the thatched roof and drooping * eaves of our grandfathers .
It would be a great boon to our cottagers if their rooms could be built a foot or two hiheror the ceiling removed upwards .
Doubtless many wearied laborers g , would sleep soundly with even less accommodation than they now have , yet we know the evil effects of
sleeping in crowded or overheated rooms " can scarcely Ibe overrated . to I have come visited down poor into women the kitchen recentl long y confined before , it and was found prudent them to obli do ged so ,
to escape the almost intolerable heat of the upstairs room , which precluded any possibility of returning strength . A poor girl last
week , who was suffering from scrofula , was ordered by the doctor to be removed to the infirmary of the union workhouse , _Tbecaxise the
high room and better ventilation there would give her a "better chance of recovery than the low hot chamber of her home .
The work-people of France and Italy , thoug h ' not able to compare with those of England in the neat approaches to their homes , suffer
in them far less inconvenience from heat . They mostly reside in separate flats of large strongly-built houses , generally of great height ,
because the rooms in every flat are much higher than those in our cottages . The public stair is often most objectionable to every English
sense , but , fairly within their private doors , we found much in the ent of their work and their rooms io admire . Great aptitude
at arrangem contrivance for the daily conveniences of cooking , etc ., and also better taste in any attempt there might be at ornamentation . In several
we noticed the domestic shrine placed In the best situation , and decorated with all the affectionate attention which they dedicate to the
Virgin Mary ; but though to us the pictures seemed more imaginative than biblical , they were a thousand times better , speaking "
as they do to these people of their faith , than too many of the hideous
80 Cottage Habitations.
80 COTTAGE HABITATIONS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1859, page 80, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101859/page/8/
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