Page:The English Peasant.djvu/137

 description of those in the village of Fordington, as given in the Government report of 1867, and I saw enough as I passed through the village last autumn to enable me to testify against the place.

The villages in Dorset have a very grave, sombre appearance, and the cottages are built in rows, and mostly formed of stone or "cob," with no front gardens; and if it were not for the cosy-looking thatched roofs and the two dormer windows peeping out underneath them, these Dorset villages would look as stern and as bleak as those in the north country. But the thatch covers the whole village,—at least, all those portions that are contiguous, like some beneficent natural growth, spreading its protecting arms over everything. No form, however unexpected, or ugly, or unusual, is left out of its embrace; it undulates gently over them all, and brings cottages big and little, outhouses, barns, pigsties, all into one harmonious whole, and may be regarded as emblematic of the unity of the society dwelling beneath it.

"Cob" is mud covered with a thin coating of plaster. Cottages built of this material are very snug and warm in winter, and cool in summer. The old cottages are mainly built of it, and are often very large and roomy. I went into one, in an old tumbledown row, in Stowborough. The cottage itself was perhaps twenty feet wide. Its sole inhabitant was a good dame, the old schoolmistress of the village. The floor was sanded and furnished with tall chairs and an ancient escritoire, which had come from Corfe, some thought from the castle. On the old hearth were a couple of fire-dogs. In another part of the house was a stack of 3000 peats, her winter's supply. Every poor cottager about this part burns peat, so that there is a turfy smell pervading the air. They can get 1000 peats for about three shillings, but to those who have to employ others to do the cutting, carting, and unloading, it costs ten times the money. The good old dame's school had been one of the ordinary stamp, but she had conducted it for forty years; and when she gave up, the parents and scholars had presented her with a large illustrated Bible, as a testimony of their gratitude and respect. The greatest trouble she had was that her landlord wanted to pull down the old house, the home of her fathers, and build a new one. And this touches a chord which is very com-