I have been favoured by the Earl of Roseberry with plans of the new labourers’ cottages he has built on his property in Scotland, which have been highly approved by the Highland Society, who have inserted the plans for publication in their “Transactions,” vide Appendix. I have been favoured by James Monteath, Esq., with a model of the cottages erected by his father, Sir Stewart Monteath, Bart., for his labourers at Closeburn. The plan of these cottages presents an important improvement, by which one fire-place is made to warm two apartments on the same floor, and by means of an air pipe warms the air in the two rooms above them. I was informed that it admits of a further improvement in practice, namely, of some means of closing the access of the warm air to the sleeping-rooms during summer.

The best plans I have obtained of tenements in actual occupation of the rural manufacturing population appear to be those at Turton, and those erected at Bollington. The best plans of labourers’ tenements in towns are those supplied by Mr. Hodgson, and the Committee of Physicians and Surgeons at Birmingham; the drawings and working plans of which I have appended.

In several of the plans for the rural districts there is one appendage of the cottage of which the best-informed witnesses consider they ought invariably to be divested, namely, a pigsty. The medical witnesses strongly object that it is injurious to the health, especially in rows of cottages, as it occasions accumulations of filthy refuse. Other witnesses, such as the Rev. Thomas Whately, object that the pig is not economical to the labourer, and that it furnishes a temptation to dishonesty. His evidence on that subject, and on the other more important question of large cottage allotments, will be found in the Appendix.

Mr. Loudon has favoured me with two drawings and plans of model cottages, which need no other explanation than the specification. These comprise the best examples that have come under observation during the present inquiry of tenements in occupation that are well approved on trial.

Every detail, however, of the materials with which the cottage is constructed, and the mode of its construction, deserve, and there is little doubt will obtain, most careful attention, for it is only by considering their comforts in detail that they can be improved, or the aggregate effect on the immense masses of the community can be analyzed and estimated. For example, it has been mentioned that a decided difference is perceptible in the health and condition of workmen of the same class who live in houses made of brick as compared with those living in houses made of stone.

A gentleman who has attentively observed the condition of the working classes in the north of Lancashire, and the north of Cheshire, states that the general health of the labourers in the north of Lancashire is decidedly inferior. This inferiority he ascribes to several causes, and, amongst others, to damp cottages, and—

“Wood and wattled houses, such as our forefathers built, are the driest and warmest of all; brick is inferior in both these requisites of a comfortable house; but stone, especially the unhewn stone as it is necessarily employed for cottages, is the very worst material possible for the purpose. I prefer the Irish mud cottages. The evil arises from two causes. The stone is not impervious to water, especially when the rain is accompanied by high winds; and it sucks up the moisture of the ground, and gives it out into the rooms; but principally, stone is a good conductor of heat and cold, so that the walls cooled down by the outer air are continually condensing the moisture contained in the warmer air of the cottage, just as the windows steam on a frosty morning; besides, the abstraction of heat in stone houses must be a serious inconvenience. The effect of this condensation must be, and is, to make clothes, bedding, &c., damp, whenever they are placed near the wall, and therefore extremely prejudicial to those who wear the clothes or sleep in the beds. Of course I do not attribute all the damp of our cottages in this neighbourhood to the stone; much of it is due to the wet climate, wet soil, and building so near the ground; but the stone, as a material of building, must bear a considerable share of the blame. I believe, too, it is partly the cause of the very great difference of cleanliness of the Cheshire farming people and ours of the same class.

“Indeed the Cheshire people were brought up to wooden cottages: brick was of later introduction. The greater facilities and inducements to cleanliness in a dry house would, in the course of time, form a more cleanly people, and superior healthiness would follow.”

Mr. Parker observes, that the construction of the cottages in Buckinghamshire is frequently unwholsome:—

“The improper materials of which cottages are built, and their defective construction, are also the frequent cause of the serious indisposition of the inmates. The cottages at Waddesdon, and some of the surrounding parishes in the Vale of Aylesbury, are constructed of mud, with earth floors and thatched roofs. The vegetable substances mixed with the mud to make it bind, rapidly decompose, leaving the walls porous. The earth of the floor is full of vegetable matter, and from there being nothing to cut off its contact with the surrounding mould, it is peculiarly liable to damp. The floor is frequently charged with animal matter thrown upon it by the inmates, and this rapidly decomposes by the alternate action of heat and moisture. Thatch placed in contact with such walls speedily decays, yielding a gas of the most deleterious quality. Fever of every type and diarrhœa are endemic diseases in the parish and neighbourhood. Next to good drainage and thorough ventilation, the foundation of a cottage is the most important consideration. A foundation, to be good, must not only be sufficiently strong to bear the superstructure, and of sufficient depth to cut off all connexion with the surrounding vegetable mould and that beneath the floor, but also be constructed of materials calculated to resist moisture. The best materials for this purpose are concrete and sound bricks, partially vitrified in the kiln or clamp. If such bricks be well laid with mortar composed of sharp sand, containing no vegetable substances, and the concrete be free from earthy particles, well mixed and firmly thrown together, the admission of damp will be entirely avoided. Stone, chalk, bricks which are not thoroughly burnt, impure mortar, and wood, have all a tendency to absorb moisture, which, if once received by such materials, ascends, or ‘creeps up,’ as it is technically called by builders, and thus affects the whole building. To avoid this “creeping up,” builders are in the habit of placing a tire of slate in foundations above the surface mould, a remedy of a temporary character only, for the action of damp entirely destroys slate. Roman cement has also been used for this purpose, but the sand mixed with this material renders it in some degree porous. It has lately been suggested that a course of well-burnt bricks set in asphalte would effectually prevent this absorption of surface-water, and a favourable opinion of this plan has been expressed by two intelligent architects.”

He adds that—

“In Berkshire the floors of the cottages are laid with red tiles, called ‘flats,’ or with bricks of a remarkable porous quality, and as each of these tiles or bricks will absorb half a pint of water, so do they become the means by which vapour is generated. The cleanly housewife, who prides herself upon the neat and fresh appearance of her cottage, pours several pails of water upon the floor, and when she has completed her task with the besom, she proceeds to remove with a mop or flannel so much of the water as the bricks have not absorbed.

“After having cleansed the cottage, the fire is usually made up to prepare the evening meal, and vapour is created by the action of the heat upon the saturated floor. Thus the means adopted to purify the apartment are equally as injurious to the health of the inmates as the filth and dirt frequently too abundant in the cottages of labouring persons.

“It is usual to insert in local Acts for the regulation of towns a clause prohibiting the use of straw and similar vegetable substances for roofing; and it appears to me to be desirable that some provision should be made for the rural districts, by which the thatch of cottages, when in a decomposed state, might be required to be removed. In the parishes of Binton, Dorsington, and Long Marston, in the neighbourhood of Stratford-on-Avon, simple continued fever, described to be similar in character to the form of fever which frequently occurs in the autumn and beginning of winter throughout England, prevailed very extensively in the winter of 1839. Of 31 patients attacked by it, seven died. Dr. Thompson of Stratford-on-Avon, the physician who visited all the cases by the desire of the Board of Guardians of the Stratford-on-Avon union, observes:—‘As almost all the cottages in which there has been fever are thatched, and the thatch in many of them is in a very rotten and insufficient condition, it is not improbable that slow decomposition in the thatch, from the unusual quantities of rain which has fallen, may have been going on, and contributed to the production and continuance of fever. It has been observed by others, I believe, that it is more difficult to get rid of fever in thatched than in slated cottages.’ Dr. Thompson also remarks, that in thatched cottages it is not usual to ceil or plaster the inside of the roof; and he recommends that this should be done, and that the plaster should be lime-washed once a-year.”

In the course of some observations made on the construction of the cottages of the labouring classes in France, it is observed that—

“It is in vain that the workman breathes a pure air out of doors, if on his return to his home he finds an infected atmosphere. Air, which is so necessary to life and health, and which it is of the last importance to renew often, especially in small rooms, remains thick and loaded in the abode of the workman, because no currents can exist in consequence of the window being almost always placed alongside the door. The form of the chimney is another great evil in the construction of country cottages. With a shaft very short and very large, it is impossible for the room to get warm, and the heat produced is almost entirely lost. This form of the chimneys is only explicable by the ignorance of the constructors. However large a fire may be required by the diverse needs of the family, it does not involve the necessity to make the chimney shaft of a corresponding size; on the contrary, the facility with which the smoke ascends is altogether proportioned to the smallness of the latter, as may be seen in the chimneys of stoves, which are always extremely narrow.”

The Rev. C. Walkey, of Collumpton, gives instances of the want of provision for ventilation in the cottages of the labouring classes:—

“Cottages for the most part are without sufficient ventilation, particularly in the up-stairs apartment, this being almost invariably without a chimney, with a low window, commonly about two feet from the floor, and having no ceiling, therefore the thatched roof, lofty in itself, and full of cobwebs, contains the foul air; and in several instances I have been the means of restoring health apparently by blowing gunpowder in cases where fever has raged for months, the ground-floors being often damp—very seldom above the level of the land.”

The proceedings of the Highland Society for the improvement of the material condition of the labourer, especially on the subject of cottage economy, appear to be extremely well directed. They have sought to make improvements in detail, which are thus described in one of the reports of a committee appointed to inquire into the subject:—

“Medals have been offered by the society to proprietors for building cottages of a good construction; and these medals are already in demand. The subject was again brought forward by the Marquis of Tweeddale, who filled the chair at the last general meeting; and throughout the whole of Scotland it is attracting increasing attention. The style of such buildings is everywhere improving, and the measures of the society will make the country acquainted with the best models. Still, without a considerable diminution of the expense, the rapid introduction of a better system is hardly to be expected. To that point, accordingly, the directors have turned their serious attention.

“Their first object has been the improvement of the windows, which always form one of the principal items of charge, and have been generally one of the worst constructed parts of the building. In many districts of the Highlands the huts of the peasantry have nothing of the kind, nor are there tradesmen within reach from whom they can be obtained; and even in many of the more improved parts of the country the cottage windows are seldom large enough to admit a sufficiency of light; they are almost never provided with the means of ventilation; and in a few instances can they be repaired without applying to a tradesman. This is always attended with considerable expense; and, in remote situations, skilful workmen are hardly to be obtained on any terms. Accordingly, when glass is broken, recourse is had to the most unseemly substitutes. These may annoy the inmate at first, but he soon becomes habituated to them; one eyesore prepares him for another, and in a short time the same slovenliness and disorder spread over the whole establishment.

“It appeared to the directors that much of this would be avoided if the public could be made acquainted with the best description of a cottage window. The demand would necessarily lead to their being extensively manufactured, and consequently supplied at a moderate price; and, what is of still more consequence, the general adoption of such windows would lead to glass of the proper size being kept in every village, and labourers would then be enabled to repair their own windows. A premium was accordingly offered last year for the best cottage window, not so much in the expectation of bringing forward anything altogether new, as of enabling the directors to select the best of the forms now in use.

“Various specimens were sent in. Some were made of zinc; but these were rejected, on the advice of tradesmen, as being too weak to admit of repair by an unpractised hand. Wood and lead are, for the same reason, equally unsuitable. One was constructed with astragals of malleable iron, so thin as very little to impede the light, and consequently admitting of glass of a very small size; but the astragals not being provided with flanges for the glass to rest upon, the repair must necessarily be a work of some difficulty; and these also were consequently deemed unfit for the purpose. Cast-iron appears to be the material least liable to objection; but astragals of cast-metal must be of considerable thickness; and such frames, therefore, could not be adapted to a very small size of glass without materially obscuring the light. It was made by Messrs. Moses M’Culloch and Co., Gallowgate, Glasgow; and, without the wooden frame, it costs 5s. Glass for such a window may be purchased at 2¾d. per square. These windows would appear adapted for farm-houses and workshops as well as for cottages. They admit of being made of every variety of size, and, in most cases, they may thus be fitted with ease to houses already built. In many situations, it will thus deserve consideration whether it may be better to repair the glass of old frames, or to adopt windows of this construction, which may be purchased and kept up at so very moderate an expense. It is understood that Messrs. M’Cullock intend to establish agencies in all parts of the country, and light and pure air will thus be supplied to the humbler classes everywhere at a much cheaper rate than they have hitherto been obtained.”

The directors have next turned their attention to the means of economizing fuel; and a premium for the best mode of accomplishing this will be found in the list of this year. It will be observed, that the object of the premium is not to obtain plans merely from Scottish tradesmen, but to ascertain the devices which are practised in foreign countries. In America, and several of the continental states, it is understood that stoves are generally used for this purpose, and some of these are said to be so perfect that no one who has been accustomed to them would tolerate the fire-places of the Scottish cottages. There may be a difficulty in introducing a novelty of this kind here; but if it should promise to be beneficial, it would be at least deserving of a trial; and if it should be generally adopted, this also would become the subject of an extensive manufacture, and be obtained at a cheap rate.

“It appears to the committee, that still further facilities would be afforded, both for the construction of new cottages and the improvement of those already built, were doors, shelving, and the other wooden work of the building manufactured in the same way as the windows. The committee do not at present see any means of contributing to the establishment of such works by the offer of premiums; but it occurs to them that extensive proprietors might find it worth their while to try the experiment, as an addition to the work of saw-mills. If it should succeed with them, it could not fail in the hands of tradesmen devoting their whole attention to the subject; and there would be no want of men ready to embark in such undertakings. Should an experiment of this kind be made, the committee hope that the directors will be made acquainted with the result.

“Such a supply of the leading materials would not only greatly facilitate the work of proprietors both in the erection of new cottages and the improvement of old ones, but labourers who have the prospect of being permanent tenants would likewise be induced, at their own expense, to make improvements, which they would at present find quite impracticable. As the reduction of the price of every article of dress now enables the humblest labourer to appear respectably clothed, so the reduction of the expense of so many of the essentials in the construction of a house would bring comfortable lodging equally within his reach.”

To the above-recited measures of the Highland Society, which are so well directed to the improvement of the structure of cottages in the important points of economy as well as of efficiency, they have added prizes for the best-kept cottages and the best cottage gardens, which have everywhere excited competition, and have been attended with beneficial results.

I have as yet met with no similar instance of attention given by large and influential public bodies, to the improvement of the residences of the working-classes in towns. I have, however, been favoured with one communication from Mr. Sydney Smirke, the architect, who has had experience in planning and superintending the erection of residences for the men of the coast-guard service, and who, in some suggestions for the improvement of the metropolis, has endeavoured to direct public attention to the improvement of the structure of the residences of the labouring classes. He states that—

“The course that has been adopted by great manufacturers and others in some rural districts, of erecting ranges of distinct cottages for their labourers, is plainly inapplicable to large towns. If there were no other obstacle to this arrangement, the value of land would alone be fatal to it in such places; but my belief is that, without ultimate pecuniary loss, and with the utmost direct and indirect benefit, buildings, placed under some public control, might be erected for the joint occupation of many families or individuals, and so arranged that each tenant might feel that he had the exclusive enjoyment of a home in the room or rooms which he occupied, and yet might partake, in common with his neighbours, of many important comforts and advantages now utterly unknown to him.

“I propose that there should be erected buildings, in various parts of the suburbs, consisting of perhaps 50 or 60 rooms, high, airy, dry, well ventilated, light and warm, comfortably filled up, fire-proof, abundantly supplied with water and thoroughly drained; such regulations might be laid down for the conduct of the inmates as may be necessary for the common good, without undue rigour or interference with natural and proper feelings of independence.

“Another class of structures should be raised, perhaps rather as dormitories than for permanent residence, from which families would be excluded; these should be arranged like some of the wards of Chelsea Hospital, with separate compartments appropriated to each tenant. Unlike the frail and worthless tenements that rise in great profusion around London, these buildings should be studiously planned and strongly constructed; all that the builder’s art can contribute towards the safety, health, and comfort of each individual, should here be found. In the former class of buildings, a room or rooms should be let at a low weekly rent to any decent family that should apply: in the latter, each compartment should be let by the night.

“The exterior of these locanda, or public lodging-houses, should have a cheerful, inviting appearance, not entirely without architectural character, although free, of course, from the mere ornament and frippery of architecture.

“In throwing out these suggestions for such consideration as they may deserve, it seems superfluous at present to trouble you with explanatory plans and other details; it may be enough for me to assure you that buildings can be erected, affording all the accommodations above described, and offering to their inmates the luxury of a decent, cleanly, and healthy abode, at a cost less than is usually required by them for the purchase of the squalid resting-places they now resort to, and yet enough to repay a fair interest on the original expense of the new building.

“It may be said that in providing these commodious dwellings for their needy inmates, we shall be furnishing them with that which they do not desire; that habitual and long acquaintance with privation has taught them to regard and to endure, without any lively distaste, much of that misery from which others, more delicately educated, would shrink with disgust; but I consider this objection quite unfounded. A tainted atmosphere cannot be less injurious because by long habit it is breathed without nausea. If these deplorable habits have really acquired so much force, it should be our part to make corresponding efforts to teach the victims of them to become more sensible of their misery, not indeed by inculcating lessons of discontent, but by affording to them facilities for providing themselves with healthier and happier abodes.

“It is the true saying of an eloquent writer, that ‘les esclaves perdent tout dans leur esclavage, jusqu’au désir d’en sortir;’ yet surely no benevolent person would think himself idly or unprofitably employed in loosing from bondage those whom long endurance has caused to forget the blessings of freedom. I am, however, unwilling to believe, even now, that the classes of whom I am speaking are insensible to the comforts of cleanliness, or unable to appreciate the benefit to be derived from improved habitations.

“I confess I cannot discover any objection to the adoption of such a plan for ameliorating the dwellings of the poorest classes of our fellow creatures that would not be counter-balanced by many direct and indirect advantages.”

I beg leave to submit this communication and the plans with which Mr. Smirke has favoured me, that it may be made known and considered. Much importance will be attached to the testimony received from him as well as from other professional men, that it is possible to afford to the labouring classes the luxury of “a decent, cleanly, and healthy abode at a cost less than is usually required from them for the squalid resting-places they now resort to, and yet enough to repay a fair interest on the original expense of the new building.”

I see no reason to doubt the applicability of Mr. Smirke’s plan to such places as those where ranges of buildings are now required as lodgings for workmen, and, without questioning the applicability of the proposition last cited, to all classes of residences. It is proper to mention, that in the course of this inquiry frequent instances have arisen of much social disorder arising from the too close contiguity of residences, or from the want of some control over the inmates. In the instances noticed of lodging-houses, or of one building, inhabited by different families, living as in the apartments of the same dwelling, the conclusion afforded by experience seems to be, that a power and discipline almost as strong as that of a man-of-war, is requisite to preserve order in such communities; and that until a degree of education of the lower classes is attained, which is hopeless for the present, generation at least, it is desirable to avoid any arrangement which brings families into close contact with each other. A large proportion of the cases of assault and brawls which occupy the attention of the petty sessions and sessions in towns, arise from contentions amongst the inhabitants of courts and alleys, which are clearly ascribable to too close contiguity; and these effects have frequently given rise to the suggestion that if a city were rebuilt, the preservation of peace would be much easier if such places were entirely removed and the inhabitants separated. A common pump has gone far to furnish practice to a petty attorney. All the females wanted to use it at the same time, and perpetual quarrels and frequent assaults arose to get the first supplies. Several attempts have been made by benevolent landlords to get their labourers to make use of common bakehouses, common wash-houses, to join for one common brewing, and have offered them the use of utensils; but they never could be got to agree upon it, and I have met with no instance in which such plans have succeeded. Unless the walls of contiguous cottages are very thick, detached cottages have social comforts and moral advantages superior to those houses built in rows; and persons even of the middle class pay a higher rent for detached tenements for the sake of the comparative freedom which they allow from disturbance by their neighbours. The information I received in Scotland respecting the assemblages of single men, farm-servants, in houses called boothies, showed that the effect was also extremely unfavourable to their moral habits.