New-Old Cottages It is in some measure due to the
ideals of the C.P.R.E. that the old English cottage—I know one dating from the fourteenth century—has been twice blessed by recent legisla- tion. Just at first when the Housing (Rural Workers) Acts were passed, English (though not Scottish} owners were rather slow to take advantage of the very generous facilities for reconditioning. The opportunity is now, I think, generally appreciated. In Devon, for example, 121 cottages have been lately reconditioned in four villages, and the County 'Council and Ministry of Health have just sanctioned the expenditure of over £120,000. More than a thousand cottages will be saved and made comfortable as well as kept pie- turesque. The Councils themselves begin to realize that the expenditure (as usually happens in development) is not so -great as it seems, for they recover much in increase of rateable value. Even with the increased rent granted under the scheme the average rent of the rural houses is not more than 3s. 8d. a week. Devon is blessed. What meagre hovels are rented in some counties for. 6s. and 7s. a week 1 And how many of the better cottages cannot be let under 10x.1
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