Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/243

 any of these that have been described, saying he could drive a horse and cart through it. And in truth he scarcely exaggerated when he said so. There were holes in the windows large enough to put both hands through; and holes in some parts of the walls large enough to put the whole body through. The roof was also full of holes. The occupant of it said the rain ran in in a hundred places; that they could not lie in their beds dry. A good many cases had been met with of families (generally those, too, in the coldest and worst dwellings) who had no blankets, even in that severe winter. And of those who had blankets, the best off had not more than two to a bed—frequently but one—while most people found three too few, and that too in houses made to keep out the cold, with doors, windows, and chimneys of very different construction from that of the majority of agricultural labourers' cottages. The family in this cottage of which I now speak had no blankets. The children (there were seven of them), some in rags and almost naked, were cowering round the embers of a fire on the hearth within the large chimney—the only sheltered spot in the cottage. One poor little thing, a boy about two years old, was playing among the embers, unconscious alike