CHEAP COTTAGES IN THE YEAR 1777.

AS. far as the present writer has been able to ascertain, no attempt to deal with the housing of the "labouring poor" was made in England until about the year 1775. By that date the superior comforts afforded by a classic style of domestic architecture were familiar enough to seem necessities, and had set a comparatively high standard of hygiene—had, in fact, turned the world's attention to the necessity of light and air to the well-being of mankind. The recognition must, ipso facto, have condemned most of the cottages already in existence.

A number of books containing plans for cottages seem to have been published between 1775 and 1800. Some of them merely fantastic designs, it is true, of "cottages suit- able to park scenery," with suggestions that if a landowner wished to embellish his grounds he had nothing to do but to build cottages of sufficient elegance. "In extensive scenes cottages of different styles may be introduced, from that of the Greenlander or Norwegian to the Hindoo, and there can be no reason why the proprietor, if he chooses to go to the expense, should not ornament the dwelling of an upper servant in any style he pleases, even to that of a Chinese mandarin." A desperate saying. One architect, however, the younger Wood of Bath, took the matter more seriously, and published a really practical series of plans for cottages, to which he prefixed an admirable introduction containing "many useful observations on this class of building, tending to the comfort of the Poor, and Advantage of the Builder, with calculations of expences."

Though Mr. Wood's style is, perhaps, occasionally unfor- tunate—he has an exasperating habit of referring to the prospective occupants of his habitations by such a phrase as "the humble cottager "—he seems to have approached the housing problem in a really enlightened spirit. If we may claim the indulgence of our readers, we shall venture, by quoting a part of his introduction, to allow Mr. Wood himself to relate the process by which he arrived at the notion that the housing problem existed, and the excellent principles upon which he acted in his endeavour to contribute to its solution.

"Early in the summer of the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven I was in company with some gentlemen of landed property, when the conversation turned on the ruinous state of the cottages of this kingdom ; it was observed that these habitations of that useful and necessary rank of men, the labourers, were become for the most part offensive both to decency and humanity ; that the state of them and how far they might be rendered more comfortable to the poor inhabitants was a matter worthy the attention of every man of landed property not only in the country but in large villages, in towns, and in cities. Reflecting on this conversation, recollecting that no architect had as yet thought it worth his while to offer to the public any well-constructed plan for cottages, considering the regular grada- tion between the plan of the most simple hut and that of the most superb palace, that a palace is nothing more than a cottage improved, and that the plan for the latter is the basis as it were of the plans for the former; prompted also by humanity to make my talent useful to the poorest of my fellow citizens, I resolved on turning my thoughts towards an object of such importance to the publick as plans for cottages appeared to me to be. But in order to make myself master of the subject, it was necessary for me to feel as the cottager himself ; for I have always held it as a maxim, and however quaint the thought may appear, yet it is altogether true, that no architect can form a convenient plan unless he ideally places himself in the situation of the person for whom he designs ; I say it was necessary for me to feel as the cottager himself; and for that end to visit him, to enquire after the conveniences he wanted, and into the inconveniences he laboured under.

I did so; and the further I examined the wider was the field of study that opened itself to my view. . . .

I found it necessary not to confine myself to the habitations of the labourer in husbandry only, but to consider those of the

workmen and artificers in the cloathing and other manu- facturing counties. I began to be dispirited; to doubt my abilities ; and to wish that a man of much greater eminence than

myself had undertaken so useful a work ; a work not unworthy the attention of the most experienced architect. However, I deter- mined to proceed, flattering myself that, although I should not produce a perfect work, yet at the least, I should lead the way to some greater improvement.

The greater part of the cottages that fell within my observation I found to be shattered, dirty, inconvenient, miserable hovels, scarcely affording a shelter for beasts of the forest; much less were they proper habitations for the human species ; nay, it is impossible to describe the miserable condition of the poor cottager, of which I was too often the melancholy spectator.

Of the better kind of these cottages the poor inhabitants complained, That they were wet and damp, from their being built against banks, or in low dreary spots and from the floors being sunk, as it were, one step down into them and sometimes two.

That they were cold and cheerless. . . . That they were incon- venient from want of room . . . that they were unhealthy from the lowness and closeness of the rooms, from their facing north and west and from the chambers being crouded into the roof . . . (&c.). Now to obviate these complaints, and to remove these incon- veniences, I shall lay down the Seven following principles on which all cottages should be built.

First. The cottage must be dry and healthy ; this being effected by keeping the floor sixteen inches above the natural ground by building it . . . on an open ground that has a declivity or fall from the building, by having the rooms not less than eight feet high . . . (dx.). Secondly. Warm, cheerful, and comfortable . . . the walls should be of sufficient thickness (if of stone not less than

sixteen inches, if of brick at least a brick and a half). . . . The entrance should be skreened so that the room, on opening the door, might not be exposed to the open air ; the rooms should receive the light from the east or south, for if they receive their light from the north, they will be cold and cheerless; if from the west, they will be so heated by the summer's sun as to become comfortless to the poor labourer after a hard day's work, whereas

receiving the light from the east or south they will be always warm and chearful ; so like the feelings of men in a higher sphere

are those of the poor cottager, that if his habitation be warm, cheerful, and comfortable, he will return to it with gladness, and abide in it with pleasure.

Thirdly. Convenient, by having a porch to skreen the entrance and hold the labourer's tools, by having a shed to serve as a

pantry and store-place for fuel, by having a privy . . . by having the stairs not less than three feet wide, the rise not more than eighteen inches and the tread not less than nine inches, and, lastly, by proportioning the size of the cottage to the family that is to inhabit it ; there should be one lodging room for the parents, another for the female, and a third for the male children. It is a melancholy eight to see a man and his wife, an sometimes half- a-dozen children, cronded together in the same room, nay, often in the same bed; the horror is still hightened, and the incon- veniency increases at the time when the woman is in child-bed or in case of illness or of death. . . .

Fourthly. Cottages should not be more than twelve feet wide in the clear, being the greatest width that it would be prudent to

venture the rafters of the roof with the collar pieces only, without danger of spreading the walls; and by using collar pieces there can be fifteen inches in hight of the roof thrown into the upper

chambers which will render dormer windows useless ... (&c.) The collar pieces will serve for ceiling joists, and the portion of the roof that is thrown into the room will not create those incon- veniences that attend rooms which are wholely in the roof. Fifthly. Cottages should always be built in pairs, either at a little distance the one from the other, or close adjoining, so as to appear one building, that the inhabitants may be of assistance to each other in case of sickness or any other accident.

Sixthly. As a piece of Oeconomy, cottages should be built strong and with the best of materials, and these materials well put together ; the mortar must be well tempered and mixt and the lime not spared; hollow walls bring on decay and harbour vermin ; and bad, sappy timber soon renders the cottage in a ruinous state ; although I would by no means have these cottages fine, yet I recommend regularity, which is beauty ; regularity will render them ornaments to the country, instead of their being as at present disagreeable objects.

Seventhly. A piece of ground for a garden should be allotted to every cottage, proportionable to its size ; the cottage should be built in the vicinity of a spring of water, a circumstance to be much attended to; and if there be no spring let there be a well On the foregoing seven principles I recommend .11 cottages to be built. On them I have formed the following plaza, which I divide into four classes or degrees. First cottages with one room ;

secondly cottages with two rooms ; thirdly cottages with three rooms ; and fourthly cottages with four rooms, of which each in order."

The following paragraphs are taken at random from the descriptions appended to each plan and elevation. The cottage in each case being twelve feet wide, the length only

of the rooms is given :— Class one. Number 1 is the most simple cottage of any, being nothing more than a room twelve feet square and seven feet and a half high. No. 2 is the same cottage, having one shed A instead of a porch ; another shed C for a pantry; and the conveniency D; the width of these sheds is determined by the pitch or declivity of the roof of the cottage, under which the roofs of the sheds finish, their width in this . . . plan . . . is three feet eight inches in the clear; the entrances of these sheds are level with the ground and out of them you ascend in to the cottage by steps made in the thickness of the wall. . . . These cottages with a piece of ground for a garden would serve a. single man, or a single woman, or two women, or a man and his wife, either without a family or with one or two children. * * * * * * Class three. The room B (living room) is fourteen and a half feet long and the entrance skreened by a porch Al in the corner is a place for a bed. The bedroom, C, is ten feet wide and the room D eight feet; this room is placed behind and lighted from the north in order to serve as a workshop as well as a bedroom, there being many branches, not only of the woollen, leather, cotton, and Manchester manufactories, as well as several others, in which the workmen perform their work at home and require a strong steady north light. Should this cottage be intended for a weaver the back room must be extended more to the northward.

Class the fourth. Number 2. A is an internal porch, D the dwelling-room. C the bedroom of thirteen feet six inches, B a bed- room for children or girls, in which they may be under the care of their mother, E is a bed chamber fit for an adult, F is the pantry, H the washplace to which you descend by two steps in the thickness of the wall, 0, the flew, G, a storeplace."

The elevations of these cottages, though, as Mr. Wood says, "by no means fine," are very passable, and if creepers— the last refuge of architectural incompetency—were resorted to they might even become rather pleasantly pretty. They are, at all events, unassuming and devoid of offensive ornament.

In conclusion—has the reader by now had the candour to forgive Mr. Wood the tone of his allusions to "that useful and necessary class of man the labourer "; has he realized that Mr. Wood meant no more by such a phrase than his modern prototype, who might allude to "the majestic sons of toil "?

He may have been lacking in tact, but we shall write our- selves down as finicking dilettanti if we allow mere words— injudicious at worst—to blind our judgment to the real honesty of Mr. Wood's motives and the practical excellence of his

achievement.