27 AUGUST 1904, Page 14

SIR,—" The housing difficulty is worse in the country than

in the towns." So said a friend of mine who is a house agent at Guildford ; and told me how he had had a working man come to him with tears in his eyes, unable to find a cottage any- where. We were walking along a country lane, a mile and a half from the nearest station and two hours' journey from London; yet land with a frontage on that lane would fetch £150 an acre, and if a cottage does fall vacant it is snapped up by some rusticating gentleman. The "week-end house" is a delightful institution; but do let the man who takes a labourer's cottage for a plaything remember that he is driving away the natural occupier of that cottage, and let him build another in its place.—I am, Sir, &c., No Room TO LIVE.