Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/54

 many other forms of furniture which are not merely characteristic of old Welsh houses, but which, as I ventured to say before, unconsciously carry a message from generation to generation, and which add to the associations and to the wealth and to the enjoyment of a home, making it possible, I think, not merely for the most beautiful home affections to be nourished, but making it possible from time to time to have issue from those houses men and women who can and must distinguish themselves in art and in other spheres of activity.

Of late years, owing to circumstances and conditions of life and tenure and law, the number of houses which are built by those who have to dwell in them is comparatively small, and we find as a result that, not merely are houses thrown up, so to speak, in our industrial districts suddenly and without much thought for anything except a quick return and a fair dividend, but that even in our agricultural and our peasant districts the person who has to live in the home is no longer or very seldom the builder of his own