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 amongst the rural poor. For the old house is full of sweet memories, and if you destroy it, you destroy the only joy left in life for the old—to dwell in the thought of the past. Moreover, it sometimes happens that a new house is no real advantage to the labourer, as Mr Barnes has said—

In these old houses were chimneys indeed; chimney corners in which the whole family could nestle.

Mr Barnes, with a laudable desire to maintain the ideal of "home" in Dorset cottages, has shown how, notwithstanding all their miseries, a labouring man's cottage may still remain for him the most joyful spot on earth.